NetDespatch provides carrier integration savings for WMS provider Optima

NetDespatch, the SaaS parcel data management platform for postal and parcel carriers, has formed a partnership with warehouse management solutions provider, Optima, which provides the firm with automatic and seamless access to multiple carriers - a process which was previously managed in-house, delivering savings of up to 25 percent in software development.

Headquartered in Stafford, UK, Optima Warehouse Solutions provides high quality but affordable warehouse management solutions to a range of customers, primarily in the warehousing and logistics sector, across the UK and Europe. These warehouses operate at a fast pace, picking out pre-ordered items and despatching them to consumers, and Optima therefore required a system that would enable the warehouse to process orders and despatch the items to the right carrier as quickly and cost efficiently as possible.

"Prior to using the NetDespatch platform, we had to create a bespoke link from our software to each individual carrier," explained Optima managing director, Chris Roberts. "To create this set up and test the process was time consuming but now, using NetDespatch, with very little effort, we have written a single interface to its platform and we are immediately integrated with a number of leading carriers."

"I believe this carrier integration benefit alone has saved us around 25% in terms of development hours which has enabled us to spend that time on our core business of developing powerful software packages that will make our customers' warehouses more efficient!"

Optima is using NetDespatch's unique "click-to-print" solution, a shipping API which returns the parcel barcode number and a URL, that can then be used by the Optima software to produce a PDF of the label, on demand. Using this API means that Optima now has an automated link between NetDespatch and the appropriate warehouse for a particular order, so when an order is placed, the warehouse containing the items can print out the label directly.

"The servers connecting to our carriers were previously running on a separate network to the servers running our cloud-based software," explained Roberts. "But now any of our warehouses anywhere in the world can download and print the correct label, so they are always correctly routed and, crucially, are always carrier compliant too."