Palletforce make major IT investment

Palletforce has invested 1 million in its IT infrastructure as part of its commitment to providing a quality service. The Alliance system developed by Palletforce, the UK palletised distribution network, has now been rolled out to all of its members. It took only a year for IT staff at the member-owned network's hub in Burton-upon-Trent to develop and deploy the system from the ground up.

Alliance offers full visibility of customers' freight from collection to delivery, including online POD information, and comprehensive invoicing functionality to provide Palletforce members with a complete IT solution. "The development and implementation of the Alliance system across our entire network has been a great success," said IT Director Dean Hughes. "It was delivered both on time and on budget and is now a very active system being used by all our member depots. Alliance is completely owned by Palletforce so we now have the flexibility to modify and adapt the system to suit our unique needs and the requirements of our members and customers."
 
Since the first phase of installation last June the system has attracted 900 regular users and offers 99.99 per cent availability which equates to around one hour of down time a year. In addition to the new system Palletforce is providing classroom and innovative online training to ensure that users are kept up to date with the rapid rate of enhancements being developed. Dean added: "Our members have all really embraced this system and worked with us to ensure a smooth installation. This active support from members means that many of the recent developments are based on ideas from our members."
 
Michael Conroy, Chief Executive of Palletforce, said: "Alliance is a purpose built system which has been designed to facilitate the future growth of our network while supporting members to continue providing efficient, quality service."