Automation
Topic Presenter
Barney Stone, Barney Stone Software
Steve Cisick, Technology Copilot, LLC
CommCon 2015
Q: How can you compete and still be
profitable?
A: You have to be more efficient!
How?
Use automation to reduce personnel costs.
Automation
CommCon 2015
Find your chokepoints: boring, repetitive
and error-prone tasks.
Find ways to automate them:
• Built-in Stone Edge processes
• 3rd party offerings
• Custom code
Automation
CommCon 2015
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Why Automate?
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Barriers to Automation
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Automation Examples
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Do You Have Examples of Your
Own?
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Questions
Today’s Agenda
CommCon 2015
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Do things faster and cheaper
Achieve predictable results in your
business
Reduce reliance on people for these tasks
Reduce errors due to manual operations
Re-purpose employees to higher value
activities
Improve employee job satisfaction
Improve customer satisfaction, grow sales
Why Automate?
CommCon 2015
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Fear (Unknown / or gone horribly wrong
in the past)
Recklessness
Too comfortable with manual operations
Assume it can’t be done or cost
prohibitive.
Fuzzy processes
Overly complicated processes
Data accessibility issues
Lack of vision
Barriers to Automation
CommCon 2015
Problem
 Manual processes always used, but Order Manager
has free built in automation
Solution
 Approval rules to automatically approve imported
orders that can be fulfilled immediately.
 Auto drop shipping at order import
 Multi Order View to batch process orders
 Batch fill backorders.
 Automated PO Creation
 Batch label printing for approved orders.
 Integrated packing slips to eliminate collation of
packing slips/labels
Built in Automation
CommCon 2015
Problem
 Current SEOM is lacking straight forward way to
automate some routine activities.
Solution
 Auto Importer can automate the following:
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Order import
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Process tracking numbers
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Batch printing
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Batch send quantity on hand
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Product importing
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Drop ship tracking number processing
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Backorder filling
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And more
Auto Importer
CommCon 2015
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Quantity on hand more current on sales channels.
Order changes requested by customer can already be
in Stone Edge.
Packing slips ready to process immediately.
Tracking emails get into the hands of the customer
sooner.
No need to wait for long imports to finish to start
processing orders.
No need to manually import orders at odd hours to
prevent massive morning import.
Other mundane tasks can be done off hours instead
of needing to tie up system during day.
Can be customized to maximize its benefit.
Auto Importer Benefits
CommCon 2015
Problem
 No easy way to get drop ship tracking numbers into Stone Edge
 Customers don’t get their tracking numbers in a timely matter (if at all)
 Drop ship purchase orders in Stone Edge stay open and are never marked as
shipped.
Solution
 Imports drop ship tracking numbers into Stone Edge directly from supplier
tracking emails.
◦ Tracking numbers imported
◦ Purchase orders are closed
◦ Order marked as shipped
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For 3rd party shipping, import tracking numbers directly from UPS
◦ Autoload program automatically downloads Quantum view data.
◦ Automation platform can pick this up and auto process the tracking.
Drop Ship Tracking Automation
CommCon 2015
Problem
 Stone Edge doesn’t currently have a way to
facilitate real time cycle counting.
Solution
 Real time quantity updates.
 Organizes what gets counted and the
timeframe it needs to be counted.
 Use with or without scanner.
 Single or multi-user capable.
 Organizes list to be counted by sales velocity
or location.
Cycle Count Utility
CommCon 2015
Problem
 Stone Edge doesn’t easily integrate with 3rd party logistics providers for
order fulfillment.
Solution
 Different methods used depending on the situation.
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3PL runs Stone Edge
◦ 3PL runs Stone Edge over remote desktop and performs all shipping functions
using Stone Edge.
◦ This works well only if the 3PL is open to it.
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Text file exchange
◦ Exchange text files (order fulfillment, tracking, and quantity on hand)
◦ Easy but doesn’t offer real time benefits for error detection, etc.
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API integration
◦ Most complex way of integrating
◦ Near real time, typically the way 3PLs would rather integrate.
Order Fulfillment Automation
CommCon 2015
Problem
 No way to import or export standard
purchase orders from / to a text file.
Solution
 PO Import tool which takes information from
text file and imports them as purchase orders
 PO Export which enables text file export of
purchase orders as a new ‘send method’
PO Import / PO Export
CommCon 2015
Problem
 Stone Edge currently doesn’t support multiple warehouses for the
same SKU.
Solution
 Treat warehouses like drop ship suppliers from main Stone Edge
 Auto pick the warehouse to send the item from based on custom
business rules.
 Main warehouse (who imports orders) sends drop ship requests
via text file over drop box.
 Secondary warehouse pick up orders file and import and process
orders.
 Secondary warehouses send tracking back to main warehouse
who send out tracking emails.
 Secondary warehouse send quantity on hand information back to
main warehouse who can display / act on the quantity
information.
Multi-Warehouse Automation
CommCon 2015
Problem
 Stone Edge doesn’t support drop ship supplier
quantity on hand import / export to shopping cart.
Solution
 Take supplier feeds, automate import of quantities
into Stone Edge.
◦ Email
◦ Web Service
◦ Text files
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Feeds QOH to shopping cart either inside or outside of
Stone Edge.
Drop Ship Supplier QOH
Automation
CommCon 2015
Problem
 The shared stack sucks
Solution
 Proactively monitor stack
 Set alert levels
 Alerts sent until stack levels shrink below
alert level
Stack Monitor
CommCon 2015
Problem
 There isn’t an easy way for Stone Edge to
synchronize content across multiple sales
channels.
Solution
 Created methods to synchronize content from
Stone Edge.
◦ Google
◦ MyBuys
Content Synchronization
CommCon 2015
Do You Have Examples Of Your
Own?
CommCon 2015
Q&A
CommCon 2015