Third-Party Logistics
Global Logistics Leaders Select Softeon
Les Sokoloff
President
Federation Logistics
Wayne Henry
Senior Vice President,
Finance and Technology
Dietz & Watson
Softeon's solution suite delivers significant operational improvements consistently. Softeon 3PL customers regularly achieve major reductions in operating costs and corresponding improvements in customer service and throughput. Unlike the inconsistent results too often experienced with other SCE solutions, our total focus on meeting the functional, operational and technical requirements of 3PLs enables us to deliver the expected results for every customer.
Softeon's solution addresses modern logistics service provider's needs effectively and efficiently. From the service offerings traditionally used in public warehousing and freight forwarding, 3PLs today have rapidly realized the need to adapt and change their business, providing advanced client services in areas like:
Click here to watch a testimonial - End-to-end supply chain visibility (through web-based access or portals)
- Monitoring inventory turns of client SKU's in order to effectively control costs and improve operational margins
- Improving customer service, using advanced tools, for real-time monitoring of order status
- Advanced capabilities for contract manufacturing and kitting environments - real-time pulls from ERP systems which trigger the right pick strategy for components required for assembly, support for Vendor Management Inventory (VMI), etc.
Softeon's 3PL solution addresses some of the most complex challenges 3PLs face today: offering to existing clients or showcasing to prospects, the ability to handle complex EDI and e-commerce transactions from clients (e.g., Rosetta Net), need for a Logistics Services Billing engine with advanced capabilities, management of SKU proliferation, need for better tools to manage their warehousing, Kitting and Value Added Service requirements, and the most important of all, is the ability to quickly setup the software system in the fastest and most efficient possible manner, when on-boarding a new client.
Softeon's solutions consistently deliver, with deep industry-specific functionality and advanced web-native technology that reduces implementation time and costs, maximizes flexibility, and has unique capabilities that increase ROI. Our solutions, such as the 3PL billing engine, are unique to that industry. Other advantages brought to the table are scalability (to account for the expansion of 3PL warehouses), creation of new cross docking hubs, consolidation of warehouses, and the addition of new clients. Scalability is achieved at optimum cost, owing to our distributed network architecture, which is based on open hardware, operating system and database standards. 3PLs can take a centralized approach to managing multiple clients/multiple locations, and yet perform distributed solution deployments.
As our 3PL customers will tell you, no one delivers results like Softeon.
Key Features:
Advanced Warehouse ManagementThe WMS solution provides advanced product management capabilities using in-line slotting and simulation tools, as well as powerful rules-based putaway, replenishment and cycle-count functionality, which are client specific. Powerful batch management, lot number, serial number tracking capabilities result in complete 'track and trace' capability across the supply chain.
Distribution Management The solution's support for advanced wave planning and order fulfillment, the ability to plan customer specific allocation strategies to match supply with demand, support for multiple picking strategies, cross docking and trans-loading capabilities, powerful lot number/serial number tracking, shelf-life/manufacture datebased control and order fulfillment criteria, definable work flows for handling temperature controlled products etc., brings the best of functionality to the 3PL in handling multiple customer segments, such as consumer products, food and beverage, apparel and footwear, electronics and publishing.
Value Added Services The ability to plan customer specific Kitting/Assemble to Order projects and schedule work plans, manage end to end work order life cycle, manage value added services (VAS) and support for customer specific BOMs and integration of VAS to the billing engine, brings the most powerful functionality to 3PLs in these areas.
3PL Billing Engine Powerful and flexible client billing capabilities enable 3PLs to meet client or market opportunities for flexible billing options, and to easily calculate and invoice each client based on a wide range of parameters and billing rules.
Ease of Integration Softeon supports the major industry standard integration protocols, including a certified interface to SAP. It handles EDI, ASN's and in-bound and out-bound e-commerce transactions. Softeon's product integration leverages industry specific templates; for example, Softeon includes an Electronics industry specific template, which uses Rosetta Net Partner Interface Process (PIP) framework. This template-based WMS rollout approach simplifies integration to external client systems and large ERP landscapes.
Universal Platform One of the biggest advantages of the Softeon solution suite is the open and flexible product architecture - based on Service Oriented Architecture framework, distributed component design, web-based with zero footprint client access. This allows 3PLs to take a centralized approach to managing multiple clients/multiple locations and yet perform distributed solution deployments, as the individual locations need only a browser to manage all their transactions and day-to-day operations.