Europa Worldwide Logistics has chosen AccellosOne Enterprise 3PL software to manage its contract with an internet wine retailer.
The retailer was leaving the traditional wine distribution method in favour of a web-based model. This was to be done by offering a wide selection of wines at costs below conventional retail; and deliver orders next-day and sometimes even within hours of the time an order was received.
Europa examined a number of logistics software alternatives. “Of those we considered, the Accellos system satisfied 90 per cent of our stated requirements. It allowed us to tailor our production processes and provide an extremely high level of efficiency through computer control,” said Europa CEO Russell Keep.
The software integrates the management activities of a multi-client warehousing operation, incorporating concurrent multi-client workflow processes, customer on-demand self-service, labour planning and automation, and revenue management.
The system allows the company to charge the client by the number of individual picks – whether wine or auxiliary content. Productivity has risen: in all of 2010, Europa shipped 274,000 orders for the wine client, and in December 2011 alone, the company handled 107,000 orders.
Keep projected that December 2012 shipments would surpass those of 2011, with total shipments exceeding 634,000 orders for the year. The Accellos software made it possible for one person to administer the wine account despite volumes having grown over five times since its inception. Additionally, Europa has been able to maintain its operating costs throughout these significant increases.
“The Accellos software allows us to tailor our production processes with complete control,” Keep said. “A single order can be anywhere from 6 – to 15 bottles of wine, in addition to the other materials – up to 20 individual picks in one box – and we now handle up to 3,000 orders per day.
We do all of this within the Accellos system, versus having to employ additional computing resources.”
