Shipping Automation?

[Robbie@FireFold]

Hello,

I am currently a BVCommerce customer looking to switch over to Able.

We have things such as Dazzle and world ship integration which help us a ton on labor. Basically in world ship you just enter a order number, the software injects all information into worldship, you press ship, tracking goes back to BV and emails the customer. Super fast stuff.

Does able have any apps or third party software which allows this?

[Robbie@FireFold]

Anybody?

This is a featue that would 'kill' the deal for us going to able. We save bundles of labor with these programs.

[Will]

I haven't heard of any 3rd party software that does this with AC7 yet. Able is building a desktop "Data Port" tool that looks like it will spit out a csv or xml file you can pull into WorldShip and then upload tracking numbers back into AC7, but from what I've seen of the betas, it's a pretty manual process, not like some of the other tools out there.

[jmestep]

Unless you have firewall or other problems, you should be able to set up an ODBC connection in Worldship to pull the data from Able and map the fields you need. I'm not familiar with Dazzle.

[DonAshby]

Hi all,

We use Endicia 's program called Dazzle for Mail and Shipworks for UPS and Dazzle together.

It works really well if you can feed in the data but even if you dont, it provides good tracking and emails to reduce phone calls asking "did my order ship?" But manually putting in orders is time consuming.

For a medium range full featured product like AC, we believe that you must have shipping integration - this is the biggest time sink of all - especially if you are packing your own orders.

If anyone knows of 3rd party integration for this, we would like to hear about it too. I think that integration should be very easy for AC to do.

Don

[Robbie@FireFold]

Hi all,

We use Endicia 's program called Dazzle for Mail and Shipworks for UPS and Dazzle together.

It works really well if you can feed in the data but even if you dont, it provides good tracking and emails to reduce phone calls asking "did my order ship?" But manually putting in orders is time consuming.

For a medium range full featured product like AC, we believe that you must have shipping integration - this is the biggest time sink of all - especially if you are packing your own orders.

If anyone knows of 3rd party integration for this, we would like to hear about it too. I think that integration should be very easy for AC to do.

Don

This works flawlesslyth Able? This is very similar to our setup.

I did not see AbleCommerce listed on their website for support nor any mention on their forums.

[DonAshby]

Hi Robbie,

No, these programs do not work with AC 7. They could be made to work but do not yet as far as we know.

I am not aware of any other shipping programs nor CRM programs that work with AC 7 but was just suggesting it as a tool in response. We use Endicia and Shipworks manually with AC and actually type in the addresses one by one. It is a lot of work but still less work than handwriting the addresses and we have tracking and emails that we can see.

We would like to see some tool integrated as this is really more important than most features but have not heard what their plans are for this.

Don

[Robbie@FireFold]

Ah. Yeah I've had a huge issue with finding these features in software or even as an add on.

We process over 300 orders per day - with just one staff member. If we did it manually we would need an entire team!

[DonAshby]

I think it would be easy for someone to integrate this... Endicias Dazzle program has been great for us. We use Shipworks and Shipworks can take files in if in the correct format... and it only costs $15-$50 per month. Maybe someone will take this on ? I think this is a real gap in the product.

Don

[calvis]

Call Jose at (562) 927-0301

He has a program called Shopping Cart Assistant which can take data from any shopping cart and transfer it to any application that you want.

http://www.writeitonce.com/shoppingcarts/sca2002.htm

He had done great work for us in the past. I just got off the phone with him and he has done Dazzle transfers before.


-Charles

[Robbie@FireFold]

Call Jose at (562) 927-0301

He has a program called Shopping Cart Assistant which can take data from any shopping cart and transfer it to any application that you want.

http://www.writeitonce.com/shoppingcarts/sca2002.htm

He had done great work for us in the past. I just got off the phone with him and he has done Dazzle transfers before.


-Charles

Calling now. Exactly what I was looking for!

Thanks!

[Robbie@FireFold]

Bump to the top. I had no luck with the above recommendation. It took me multiple attempts to get a demo only to find out it was unable to work with Able 7.

[afm]

Robbie,

I'm working on a new version of Shipper that will work with AC7. It has a ton of new features compared to the version you have for BV. Most importantly, it can print labels directly instead of using WorldShip/GalaxyShip/etc. If you want to include postage on your USPS labels, you will still need an Endicia account, but you will not need GalaxyShip.

This is the first time I have mentioned it in public and I am still actively developing, but I should have a beta you can play with in a few days or next week. Let me know if you are interested.

Andy Miller
Structured Solutions

[Robbie@FireFold]

Robbie,

I'm working on a new version of Shipper that will work with AC7. It has a ton of new features compared to the version you have for BV. Most importantly, it can print labels directly instead of using WorldShip/GalaxyShip/etc. If you want to include postage on your USPS labels, you will still need an Endicia account, but you will not need GalaxyShip.

This is the first time I have mentioned it in public and I am still actively developing, but I should have a beta you can play with in a few days or next week. Let me know if you are interested.

Andy Miller
Structured Solutions

Would love to play with it and help you with any issues. I have a fake store up and running ready for some mods.

[Robbie@FireFold]

Any other suggestions out there? This is the one goal I have yet to solve with Able.

[jmestep]

If you are really desperate, I had written an .asp page that generate a .csv file for download with order information, partly for a key import into UPS WorldShip. We used it to generate files for import into our CRM database in MS Access and from there we did everything else. I have one client using it for import into UPS only, but there is no upload of tracking info and sending of emails from Able.
It could be adapted for AC7, but I wouldn't recommend it as a permanent solution.

[Robbie@FireFold]

I have 3 'maybe' answers in my basket right now.

WriteItOnce - Only Able 5 now, but can be tweaked to Able 7
Stone Edge - This was recommended to me by a developer. I have not played with it, but there is a demo out. http://www.stoneedge.com/
Andy Miller - Coming up with his own solution/product - viewtopic.php?p=31138#p31138

I really hope these can get us there. We process over 250 orders a day. Half UPS and half USPS. The time saved in shipping with automated programs is hands down a key to running a successful/profitable warehouse.

I will keep you guys updated as my experiences with these three grow.

[jmestep]

Make sure StoneEdge is out for AC7.

[Robbie@FireFold]

Make sure StoneEdge is out for AC7.

Here's what they have for 7:

http://www.stoneedge.net/forum/topic.as ... commerce+7

Still waiting on the beta.

[calvis]

Hi Robbie,

I really admire your tenacity.

Considering that Able 7.x is not final yet I think you are going to be hard pressed to find an out-of-the-box solution for your needs. Hopefully you will continue your trail blazing, and get those developers motivated, so that we can jump on board when the Able 7.x shipping and accounting modules/add ins start to mature. I was in a similar situation when Able 5.2 and 5.5 came out and I had Jose @ Writeitonce Software write some custom software that has been working great for us ever since. Grant it was a lot of hard work, but it needed to be done.

On the other hand I am excited to see new developers jump on board in developing add-ins and modules for the Able 7.0 platform. Since we are cruising very good on 5.5 I am going just hang loose and watch what happens in regards to the 3rd party add ins and modules. Trail blazing can be very rewarding, but at this point I desire to be an impartial observer, but Robbie I am an rooting for you.

[Robbie@FireFold]

Another bump.. another week.

I have a few hits/responses on this, but nothing in stone(or even quoted out).

[afm]

Hello Robbie (and anyone else that is interested). I just posted the first beta of Shipper 3.0. You can find out more and download the beta from here,

http://structured-solutions.net/Shipper3Beta1

Shipper 3.0 is a desktop application for high velocity shipment processing.

[Robbie@FireFold]

Thanks Andy!

I can't wait to get into the office and get this going.

A light at the end of the tunnel...

[calvis]

Andy,

I am trying to download the beta, but it is taking me to a search page.

http://structured-solutions.net/search.aspx?Keyword=zip

[afm]

Oops! Typo in the link URL. Please try again.