Deploying Peachtree integration shipping for Fedex

Fedex offered a solution they came up with which used the ODBC driver supplied by Peachtree to connect to the database.  My client has two locations where this would need to be implemented.  One here in California which has been using Peachtree for over 10 years and one in Virginia which has been using Peachtree for only 2 years.  The California office discovered as they upgraded Peachtree every two years that the system was getting slower and slower.  They also discovered on one of the upgrades that they could no longer reasonably use the F3 find function in Peachtree.  Any query takes between 15 and 20 minutes to start showing data.  We assumed this was because of the large amount of data we have, but I just discovered that this same function also performs poorly in the Virginia office. 

The integration that Fedex offered was extremely slow.  It took about 15 to 20 seconds to pull up one ship to address for a shipment.  This seemed acceptable since it would take a lot more time to enter the address and then put the shipment info back into Peachtree, however; we discovered that all of the workstations connecting to Peachtree would freeze for that 15 to 20 seconds which was not acceptable.  This same issue appeared in both the CA office and in the VA office regardless of the amount of data.

The first solution indicated was Shipgear but Fedex recommended another solution Shiprush which they can "give tech dollars to buy."  I will not be able to discuss the Shipgear installation unless we run into problems with Shiprush.  If you look at the Fedex web site, you can see that V-Technologies has not be shoved off the plate by Shiprush.  I will document the Shiprush installation

2/22/2010

We were not able to use Shiprush.  I’ll explain the issue later.  We discovered that the Fedex “tech dollars” could be used to purchase Shipgear.  V-technologies is listed on the contract which opened the door for us to investigate using the original suggestion.  

At first glance, it appears that Shipgear  is primarily designed for UPS.  For example: if you go to the tech support page where you can submit a ticket, they only request the UPS meter number.  I suppose if you are using Fedex, that you put in the Fedex number and hope there is enough of a difference between the system numbering that they can't get  you confused with a UPS customer.  When calling tech support, they also ask for your UPS meter number.  But I found the software to be an excellent integration tool between Peachtree and Fedex FSM.

The workstation where Shipgear is to be installed requires Fedex FSM to be installed also without FXI (which is a integration package provided by Fedex).  The workstation does not require Peachtree to be installed (this works great if the Shipper normally doesn’t do anything in Peachtree).  However, the workstation does need to have access to the Peachtree data files.

To process a shipment after all of the software is installed, the shipper simply clears the Fedex screen and a Shipgear input field pops up over the FSM software for the shipper to enter the Sales Order number.  Shipgear can also be configured to pull the address info from the customer record or from the invoice.  Once the Sales order number is entered, Shipgear searches Peachtree for the address info and adds it to FSM’s ship screen.  From there, the shipper fills out and prints labels just like they normally would before Shipgear was installed.  Once the ship or print label button is pressed, Shipgear enteres the freight amount back into the Sales Order and updates the tracking info in either the notes for the invoice or the internal notes.  The FSM screen is cleared and the Shipgear Sales Order entry field is again displayed. 

A major benefit to keeping the FSM system is that all of the data from any previous installation can be carried over to the new system.  Our system has several package sizes setup so all the shipper has to do is select the package type and the dimensions are already entered.   We were able to backup the data from the old installation and restore it to the new FSM system and almost be 100% ready to ship.  I did need to get Fedex to dial in as there were some Admin functions that still needed to adjusted that did not come over in the restore.  And once you leave the FSM system, you cannot get any support from Fedex.

Issues with Shiprush:

The biggest problem we had with Shiprush is it's lack of ability to process multiple packages on a single order.  Every package needed to be entered separately. Between entries, Shiprush would wipe out the address, so pulling the address from Peachtree seemed to be defeated if you have multiple packages that need to be shipped.  This company ships several packages with every order, so this became a problem.  In Fedex, you can specify the dimensions and weight and click a button and type in the number of package that have the same info.  Then FSM produces a label for each box. 

A second issue was Shiprush uses web based tracking numbers.  These cannot be tracked using the regular tracking channels on the Fedex web site.  In order to track these orders, you need to install insight from Fedex, and then you do not have the ability to track by Sales Order number.  

Shiprush also has no facility to add other tracking information to the Fedex label / shipment.  It only puts in the Sales Order number.  It’s pretty common knowledge that the customer doesn’t need our Sales Order number.  They need their PO number.  The PO number, once entered was also wiped out in multiple package shipments.

Issues with Shipgear:

Shipgear runs several programs on the primary PC.  Among them are a web server, the program itself and the database server.  These programs demand a huge amount of memory.  Installing them with FSM consumes up to 800Meg of RAM which caused us some issues when testing the addresses.  When the data entry field pops up, if you click the button, it gives you options to pull a list of Sales Orders for a Customer or for a period.  These did not work.  When I called Shipgear for my “one” free tech support, they couldn’t figure it out and  I lost my one free tech support call.  The software was still usable because look ups on the Sales Order number did work though the tech support guy complained that our PC was slow and it should take as long as it did to pull up an address.

The system has been installed and running for over a week now and we are trying to iron out the freight cost formulas.  One of the benefits of using this integration software was to capture the freight costs.  We use FSM to increase our cost of shipping by 10% and Shipgear is to add a handling fee based on where it’s shipped and the overall sales order total.  We have not be able to verify that the freight is calculated correctly, but I think that’s attributed to the manual processes that were in place before.

There are not enough fields from Peachtree that would make ease of freight calculation easier.  For one, our Web orders already have freight and I don’t want to over write it.  One is if there is an amount in the freight already, I want to handle it differently.  I cannot access that field from Shipgear.

Benefits of Shipgear:

Shipgear has not caused any interference with any other workstation during shipping process. 

Orders can be tracked through normal Fedex channels.   

No cut and pasting required to get data from Shipgear into Peachtree.

The web server running on the main PC allows users in the office to connect via their web browser to check on the status of shipping.  However, I do not know if the delivery confirmation can be checked on that web server.