How picking the right WMS brought 3PL success for ALC
A Logistics Company (ALC) is one of the leading warehousing companies in Georgia.
Founded in 1996, ALC moved into the warehousing industry in 2006. They then became pioneers in third-party logistics (3PL) in early 2015.
Georgia is an emerging market for the 3PL sector. Knowing this, ALC sought the guidance of PUM, a Dutch volunteer SME development organization, to make this expansion a success. The plan was to make an innovative and reliable 3PL service.
The ALC team understood that picking the right Warehouse Management System (WMS) was crucial. The right solution would help create a scalable, modern service, so the search was on.
How to pick the best WMS partner.
With a decade in the warehousing industry, ALS had a clear vision for their new WMS.
Modern logistics companies need modern technologies. A WMS can help an organization to improve flexibility and responsiveness, track our deadlines, decrease errors in picking and shipping goods, manage our data and improve customer service, provide them with needed information at any given time.
– Besik Akhaladze, CEO, A Logistics Company
But whilst they were seeking a feature-rich environment, ease of use was high on their wish list. Good user experience is central to the day-to-day experience of any software.
Understanding e-commerce would also be important, integration and functionality for this sector was needed.
ALC was in the early stages of developing its 3PL service when looking for a WMS. This made a partner who offered a full training and support package of key importance.
Finally, flexibility from a WMS partner would be key to success. The competitive edge for logistics companies comes in part through innovation. Any WMS needed to be able to respond, grow and develop to keep up with the changing needs of ALC in the years to come.
A WMS for now and the future.
PUM made the first introduction between ALC and Davanti. This brought our Software as a Service (SaaS) WMS platform, CORAX, into the mix.
With such a long list of requirements, the evaluation process of all options needed to be detailed and thorough. This rigorous process made us especially proud when ALC chose Davanti as their WMS partner.
CORAX WMS is user-friendly which is reflected in the user interface. The integration of CORAX with other systems is simple and, operationally, work hours reports and data in general, are very easy to collect.
CORAX makes processes smoother with its ability to integrate the needs of our clients’ customers and their orders directly to our warehouses. This means that an online sale from a web shop automatically starts the planning and picking processes in our warehouse. ALC’s customers can have insight into their own stock levels, their own orders, and the shipments. Lowering the amount of work that needs to be done by ALC’s support desk. So, it’s obvious that Corax has its advantages not only in the B2B part of the operations, but also in the B2C sector as well.
With ALC developing automated warehouse facilities, the ability for CORAX to manage both traditional and automated environments was also important.
Beyond our platform, ALC saw the benefit in partnering with Davanti due to our focus on service and global position in the market. Working with an international business gave ALC the option to leverage our experience to gain exposure beyond Georgia, insight, and advice to fully optimize their business.
Impact from the start.
It’s important to make every effort to cut business disruption when migrating to a new WMS. But, having identified the benefits CORAX would bring, ALC were keen to get it working for them!
In the end, the deployment of CORAX took a month, including a week of on-site integration and training. This was very much thanks to the focus and motivation which the ALC team brought to the process.
From launch, the benefits of the platform were clear for ALC:
“We can say that by far CORAX is one of the best systems we have worked with in our warehouses. We recommend CORAX due to the increased efficiency, product safety guarantee and control over stocks in the warehouse it delivers.”
A long-term partnership for growth.
The future success and value of any WMS lies in a solid partnership.
ALC and Davanti work together to ensure that CORAX continues to scale and develop with ALC. The aim is always to see that the WMS supports the growth and needs of ALC before they know they have them.
For the future ALC is making better use of existing functions and working on new ones with us.
“CORAX has helped us to optimize our services, upscale our value delivery and in the future, we are looking forward to using more functions already in the system which we don’t use right now. We believe that in the future we can work to explore other opportunities together and further develop our partnership.”
Our thanks to Besik Akhaladze, CEO of ALC, for taking the time to discuss their experience with us. For more information on ALC, visit their website.
