White & Bishop: Simplifying the despatching process
White & Bishop are a long standing independent company which has been trading since the 1930’s. Originally supplying work wear to the agricultural industry, it moved into the outdoor clothing market in the 1960’s. Operating through two bricks and mortar stores and their own website, they also supply to both the World Challenge and Duke of Edinburgh awards schemes.
The Challenge
White & Bishop were experiencing the pitfalls of using a manual despatch process. Using a parcel carrier as well as Royal Mail, they were working with a method that was labour intensive and completely manual. Orders were received via White & Bishop’s web front end and address details were then typed into the carrier despatch management system. When despatching with Royal Mail, the process was slightly different. Goods were manually weighed and the delivery details were then hand written on both the address labels and in the despatch book with service stickers applied based on the weight. The parcels were then taken to the Post Office and paid for with cash. Not only did this process impose time constraints and have an impact on resources, it was necessary for White & Bishop to keep large amounts of cash on site in order to pay the Royal Mail postage costs.
The Solution
MetaPack were introduced to White & Bishop through Citrus-Lime, who are retail specialists providing integrated epos and ecommerce systems. The MetaPack Despatch Management System is used as a ‘black box’ which sits behind the main interface of the Citrus-Lime OMS (Order Management System) and information is passed seamlessly between both systems with the use of an API (Application Program Interface). Citrus-Lime makes a call into MetaPack to find out the correct delivery options which are then presented to the user to choose, printing all the necessary labels and documentation. There is no longer any need for manual intervention, which has saved the despatch team a lot of time and alleviated pressure on resources. As the Royal Mail deliveries are now processed through an OBA (Online Business Account) there is no longer a need to visit the Post Office or keep large amounts of cash on site. The elegancy of this type of integration enables White & Bishop to operate through one interface for both order and despatch management. This allows them to manage their carrier base without the costly hardware and operational changes associated with carrier base manipulation and by using a carrier and Royal Mail, they are able to fulfil their customer’s service expectations and ship internationally with MetaPack printing all the necessary customs documentation. The flexibility and simplicity of MetaPack has enabled White and Bishop to simplify the visibility of their order management process along the entire length of the cycle.
"We’re really pleased with our decision to implement MetaPack. It has saved us a lot of time and has enabled us to positively enhance the service we provide our customers. We’ve been able to streamline our whole order to despatch process and are now experiencing the benefits. We’re very happy with the service we receive from the MetaPack team and we think the product is superb."
Sean Murray, Operations Manager
