And now, integration: you’re probably already aware that PickUp DropOff points (PUDOs), provided through Parcel Holders’ growing network – now over 300 retail outlets and counting – are ensuring that field engineers get the components they need direct from source. And now, we’ve got an API to open up a whole new world of possibilities.
Great! But what on Earth is an API and what difference would this integration make to the way your business is run?’
A whole new world of integration possibilities
First, let’s explain that API stands for Application Programme Interface. It’s a set of functions and procedures that enables the creation of Apps, which in turn can be used to access the features or data of an operating system, application or other service.
Thanks to our API, and the eggheads at Vendman, for instance, customers can now use their management software platform to create a delivery on the Parcel Holders system. Now, that’s what we call ‘integration’!
Ed Fraser, MD explains: ‘Our mission is to help our clients get things done as quickly and efficiently as possible. We take this belief far beyond getting components into engineers’ hands by the next day! It influences every decision we make and that’s where our API comes in…
We thought: ‘What if you didn’t have to log in to Parcel Holders at all?’
‘During the design process, we made sure our user interface would be quick and efficient to use and feel ‘familiar’ – our iPhone style icons are no coincidence’, Ed said. ‘Nonetheless, we thought: ‘What if you didn’t have to log in to Parcel Holders at all? What if our system already knew what you wanted to order, who you wanted to order it from, which engineer needed it and where they wanted to pick it up from?’ Even to us, that sounded rather wishful thinking, and a bit ‘out there in Star Trek’ land!”
Sci-fi, so good: Parcel Holders took the idea to an industry leading ERP (Enterprise Resource Planner) provider and asked ‘what do you think?’ (ERPs are arguably the most sophisticated software solutions on the market and invariably form the IT ‘backbone’ behind many modern businesses…) That ERP just happened to be Vendman – by a distance, vending’s leading supplier of management software.
On our stand at Vendex North, we can – at the risk of seeing your eyes glaze over – give you chapter and verse on the technicalities of what we’ve achieved and how everything works, but what it means in practice is that clients will only ever have to login to Parcel Holders once to give the ERP permission to connect and then, the API does the rest.
Miss out the middle man
In other words, it misses out the middle man: you don’t have to log into the Parcel Holders system to use the service.
And what’s more, using the API eliminates the risk of human error from manual data input and the time required to create deliveries is reduced. (Say ‘adios’ to all that data inputting duplication) Better yet, all parties are automatically kept ‘in the loop’ and new consignments can be booked on servers at the speed of light!
Perfect!
Perfect? We think so. It’s a development that’s destined to become an important landmark in the changing architecture of field-based services delivery in the UK.
And that’s not all we’ve got to talk about at Vendex…
We set up Parcel Holders in 2013 specifically to serve field service engineers who needed parts delivered quickly’ Ed said. ‘However, we realised that if we had suppliers sending parts direct to our network, we could cut out a whole leg of the supply chain. Plus, through our Pick ‘N’ Collect service, suppliers with a solitary warehouse could compete on equal footing with the biggest bricks and mortar distribution network.’
Hence the birth of Parcel Suppliers and now, the launch of a brand-new, dedicated Parcel Suppliers web site, which will be officially launched – most appropriately, we feel – at ‘The Theatre of Dreams’.
So, do come and see us at Vendex North. On the subject of Integration, there’s rather a lot to discuss…
