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COMMUNICATIONS AND REPORTS

When appropriate, Publishers Storage and Shipping Corp. assigns one qualified employee with special responsibilities for coordination of all services to each publisher client. Publishers Storage and Shipping Corp. is able to coordinate the electronic receipt of orders from publishers. Since few publishers work with the same software or forms it should be stressed that effective electronic communication requires some customization for each publisher desiring such service. State of the art shipping manifest systems are used that enable Publishers Storage and Shipping Corp. to send a wide variety of reports and provide electronic communication of shipping information back to the publishers.

PSSC’s reflections on order forms

Since the service PSSC performs is a very physical one we are very focused on functional and easy to understand order forms.

Functional order forms need various components.

Multi-part forms -ideally a two part form. If only a single sheet is sent for a form extra copies have to be made. Extra copies made by PSSC cost extra to publisher and also slow up processing order for shipping. Multiple forms are used for quality control and accountability purposes. If "shipping confirmation copy" the extra copy is eliminated, some other sort of system must be put in place to compensate for its elimination, ideally electronic transmission of orders and files.

The above items only address the components that PSSC needs for clear communication. In addition to the items above a good order form must also incorporate information that the publisher and recipient needs. Billing address, PO#’s, discounts, terms, etc.

Electronic Transmission of Orders To PSSC

Thorough communication should take place between software developer and PSSC so that an effective link can be made that is advantageous to both parties. If some of PSSC’s needs can be taken into account, PSSC can supply better service to its client publishers which is naturally to the publishers advantage. Issues as simple as types of printers to be used and mode of data transport ( dial into modem, email etc.) to importation of order information directly into PSSC’s inventory control system need to be discussed and worked out.

The benefits of transmitting orders for printing at our warehouse are obvious. Faster turn around, no longer spending money on postage, no lost packages of orders (only lost files that can be easily re-created) etc.

Beyond that we would like to try to import certain information from your orders into our inventory control system (which is also linked to our shipping system). That is what the file import layout is all about. The file transfer doesn't really take care of the printing of your orders remotely. It is just to get information into our system.

Ideally we would receive 2 files for each batch of orders. One would be a file (print file) to print orders at the warehouse (see order form info sheet) The second would be an ASCII import file for the same orders that we could enter into our system. This would have to be created by the system at the publishers end. It is most important that the orders we receive are synchronized with the file import process.

If we can bring order information into our system we can monitor the status of orders in our hands much better. Automatically entering order information into our system will give us the ability to track an order from when it comes into our system. We can set up a monitoring system to alert us about orders that haven't cleared the system so we can cut off problems before they impact your customers. Also entry errors will be reduced and our shipping speed will be increased. We are trying to come up with ways to become more efficient while not increasing our costs to our customers. Also the import of information into our system will help us satisfy UPS with their full address demands (for daily electronic transfer to them). The address information also prints on every tracking label created for UPS, RPS and FedEx, thus the creation of extra labels (beyond the one or two designed into the order form) is done automatically for no extra charges.

We would also like to be able to send back to publishers shipping information (charges, tracking numbers, dates shipped, etc.) automatically on a daily basis by means of an electronic file. Hopefully this info can be then automatically matched in your data base with your invoices. We can format this information if you let us know how you want it. All of this information is linked to an invoice number.  All invoice/order numbers must be unique and not re-used in the future.

This process should not be viewed as an all or nothing process. A number of publishers are presently transmitting orders to PSSC for remote printing, yet haven’t implemented the import file routine. Others print their orders at their office and create the import file and mail the orders and email the import file to us. Some publishers receive all their shipping confirmations electronically from PSSC and automatically match them with their data base to close invoices.

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