A MYOB Advanced and 2Ship Case Study with Altamonte
Altamonte is a Victorian based distributor of a large range of consumer and hardware products via retailers like Bunnings. The organisation is an independent, private, family-based business that has grown rapidly over its 15-year lifetime successfully adding more and more products to its range. Recently Altamonte has also started to introduce some speciality B2C products to their range via products such as Lockley Locks.
Our association with Altamonte has been a long term one where we have had the responsibility of providing national domestic freight services for most of this time. We’ve had the privilege of watching as the business has grown dramatically and developed its capabilities and services continually during this period.
Our Role with the MYOB Advanced and 2Ship Integration
Altamonte have been a long-term user of MYOB and several years back they naturally upgraded their ERP to MYOB Advanced, a cloud-based software portal, to assist with their program of continuous improvement and sophistication. For our part, as a committed partner, we have encouraged Altamonte to join us in our journey to develop distribution systems that are best practice and leverage the benefits that flow from 21st century software tools to help manage their outbound freight. Given that inbound and outbound freight expenditure is one of the largest cost components in their business, using the right tools to manage this key component is vital to the business’s success and growth.
With our assistance, Altamonte have embarked on another critical chapter of their ongoing continuous improvement process by supporting our desire to adopt our new Freight Management Software portal 2Ship and importantly commit to the process of integrating MYOB Advanced and 2Ship to lift their distribution productivity and customer experience to a new level.
Because both systems are cloud-based software, we have been able to connect the two systems via API, and by using web hook technology the transfer of data between the two systems is almost immediate, and therefore practically in real time.
How the MYOB Advanced and 2Ship Integration works
As an overview, the structure of the integration is that open shipments inside MYOB’s shipment table are automatically pushed through to the 2Ship order queue. One of the great features of 2Ship is its ability to bring though the contents of the order as well as the shipping information so that Altamonte’s order contents are shown inside 2Ship, and they can see exactly what items have been shipped and their quantity and even which pallet the items are packed on. This also means that Altamonte can send an Advance Shipping Notice (ASN) via email with their branding and listing all of the orders contents that have been shipped including the tracking link, so that the recipient can track the shipment’s progress.
2Ship’s Item2Box
Altamonte have another opportunity to save time and automate their process by taking advantage of the Item2Box algorithms within 2Ship to optimise the packing of their items into standard carton sizes. Because they import the contents of the order, and 2Ship knows the size and weight of all their order contents, it automatically tells them which of the standard boxes to use to optimise the number and sizes of the packed cartons.
By clicking on the “Get Packages” button in the 2Ship contents section, the packed box weights and dimensions are automatically populated into the consignment note. This allows Altamonte operators to scan the order barcode and automatically print the carrier labels after having picked the least cost carrier. They can also calculate how cartons will be packed on pallets for larger orders.
Live Carrier Rates
Because we have connected 2Ship to all the major carriers via API, the rates offered by our nominated carriers are live and even include surcharges such as DGs, Fuel levy, manual handling or oversize fees, thereby comparing carrier options with a very high level of accuracy. After choosing the least cost carrier option, or the fastest option, (as required), the shipment is ready to finalise.
Sending Data back to MYOB after Shipping
Now the operator prints the shipping labels, and the order is considered as shipped and 2Ship immediately sends shipment data back to MYOB Advanced. Data such as carrier name and service, consignment number, confirmed status, tracking URL and the shipment cost.
By doing this Altamonte now has a highly accurate shipping cost estimate, and a tracking URL that allows them to track the shipment right from within MYOB Advanced. Altamonte now have the data they need for their customer service staff to easily and quickly confirm that the shipment has been shipped and where the shipment is according to the carrier. This now provides Altamonte with a very significant upgrade to the service they can provide their customers.
Conclusion
By integrating MYOB Advanced and 2Ship with a real time API based connection, Altamonte have greatly improved their shipping process over the manual based system that was in place prior. By streamlining the shipping process through clever automation, Altamonte have boosted productivity i.e., increased order throughput with less time and resources, as well as dramatically reducing errors.
Operational Accountant, Josh Bird says: “One of the greatest benefits of this deployment is that it has allowed Altamonte to have all its shipping data in one integrated system thereby allowing us to respond to our customers’ needs quickly and accurately with minimal effort”.
If you would like our assistance with a similar integration project, please contact us and we’d be happy to consult on your needs.