Application Fulfillment Workflow
Warehouse Management Made Easy
XML and web services enable a Flash-based website to talk directly with a Unidata powered warehouse management system to process fulfillment on millions of requests each year.
Business Situation
Archway Marketing Services was contracted to fulfill orders for applications for a large non-profit foundation’s education grant program in association with a national retailer. Business systems at Archway made it preferable to manage this fulfillment by creating a custom database in their Unidata system, receiving files from an externally hosted website and sending shipment notification emails and providing back-end fulfillment reporting from within the MultiValue environment.
Technical Situation
The foundation has a website where students and teachers can register to receive free materials to participate in the education program. Archway warehouses and ships all the materials to students and teachers who sign up on the website to receive them. The entire fulfillment process needed to be managed automatically with out any assistance from the limited staff at the non-profit foundation.
Solution
Website Integration
Sierra Bravo worked with the retailer and its software vendors to code, test and implement an XML-based order import process. When an order is placed on the newly created program website, their system transmits the order to Archway by sending a formatted XML document via HTTP Post to an SSL secured web address. Basic HTTP authentication ensures secure transmission. Each XML document transmitted contains all of the information necessary for Archway to fulfill the order.
Order Processing
When an order is received, the system verifies that all of the necessary information has been provided and then produces a simple XML document describing either the success or failure of the import operation. If the request was successful and an order was created, a “Success” status will be returned along with the Archway order number. If the order cannot be imported, the system returns a “Fail” status and optionally a list of reasons the order was rejected. Response messages are returned to the retailer’s application via a simple XML document.
When the order reaches the warehouse management system it is handled with existing business processes. It begins in a batch hold process that is released daily. Sierra Bravo added special USPS modifications to the system to automatically generate shipping labels for each order.
Reporting
Sierra Bravo provides reporting in the form of an executive summary that includes number of teachers enrolled, number of students enrolled (estimated by teacher), number of individual students enrolled, and the total number of individuals enrolled. Web stats and simple demographics are also recorded and available in report format.
Executive Summary
The Executive Summary tab of the excel spreadsheet contains four vertical columns:- Total number of teachers enrolled
- Total number of students enrolled
- Total number of individuals in program
- Total number of kids enrolled in program
The horizontal rows in the document break out every week in the date range, showing totals for the week and a cumulative total of all weeks in the date range.
State Information
The “State Information” tab of the excel spreadsheet contains a sorted list of states in the first vertical column. On the horizontal row, the tab contains a total estimated number of kids enrolled in the program for each week in the selected range along with a total estimated cumulative number for the entire period.
Teacher Information
The “Teacher Information” tab of the excel spreadsheet contains a sorted list of Organization Groups in the first vertical column, the total number of teachers in the program for each week in the reporting period, a cumulative total for the entire reporting period, and the percentage of the total in the last column.
Benefits
By exposing the order entry system in the collateral warehouse management system via a web service, we allow the end user’s request for material to be filled without any interaction with the staff at the non-profit. All orders placed on the website are entered into a web order queue in the warehouse management system and processed automatically in batch mode daily. Orders move from the website directly to the picking and packing staff in the warehouse with virtually no human interaction. This keeps fulfillment costs low and delivery time fast.
Products and Services Used:
- Apache Tomcat Application Server
- Apache Struts MVC Framework
- XML Web Services
- Bravo Connector
- PICK XML API’s
Services provided by other groups or companies:
The retailer employed a large design firm to create the Flash-based website that captures end users’ shipping information. Sierra Bravo worked with the design firm to develop the specifications for the web service and the Order XML format.