Dear Albert,
SCS is a 3rd Party Logistics provider of warehousing and
distribution services. Early on when we first started our
business I was looking for a magic piece of software that could
provide the glue between our business and our clients.
The search is over and this ended up being B2Blink.
B2Blink is a difficult product to describe, I refer to it as our
automation, file transmission and mapping tool.
SCS decided early on that we were not going to transact with any
clients unless we were able to do so electronically.
Historically in my own personal experience this was and without
B2Blink is still a fairly costly exercise.
B2Blink enabled/enables SCS to deploy integrated solutions with
clients quickly and inexpensively. It is an important part of
our competitive advantage and has enabled SCS to be arguably one
of the fastest growing 3PL providers in the country.
Here’s the kind of things B2Blink does for us and the benefits
as I see them.
Feature – Benefit
Sends and receives files through your proprietary transmission
method i.e. TCFT Reliable transmission over and above the
inherent part transmission issues common with FTP, it really
works, files don’t go missing, I know, we send and receive
thousands every week and this is a significantly cheaper option
than a dedicated data circuit.
- Filters files by file name and applies rules
- Processes order files from our web site
This automates the process of filing for thousands of files, we
create copies/archives for security and rename files for easy
identification. Much of the scripting in the .ini file we are
able to do ourselves which help us save money.
Strips attachments off e-mails – saves manual handling through
automation, again saves time and errors (I have only ever found
one other programme capable of doing this that’s commercially
available and it has comparative shortfalls in terms of reliability)
Reformats text files though script engine – easy enough for me
to understand and convert raw text files in CSV to nicely
formatted and readable files without asking expensive IT gurus
to do it in some highly technical language at exorbitant hourly
rates that only multinationals can afford without wincing in
pain.
Automates the process of printing PDF files we receive such as
invoices – saves time and eliminates having to think about the
process which reduces errors and the possibility for errors.
Run external scripts for:
- Mapping files to and from ‘our format’
- Mapping text files to attractive XL formatted invoices
Parsing files to identify variables with which to apply rules
(e.g. orders from X customer with (e.g.) ‘WEB’ as part of the
order number follow this process and send to this person not
that person etc. Enables us to integrate with anybody who can
output an electronic file, (read their information and convert
it what our system can read) enables to develop exciting
solutions cost effectively and quickly.
Albert you can see from this what a powerful tool B2Blink has
become for our business, I’m partially reluctant to do this
‘referral’ because B2Blink is a large part of our value add
proposition and competitive advantage.
I absolutely recommend it.
Yours sincerely,
Brad Lindsay
Managing Director
Supply Chain Solutions
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