Entries by Dale Swanson

We continue to build on the great customer feedback we receive on SQBX, our package tracking software system. Our latest release adds a bunch of new features requested by our customers. You see, we're able to introduce new features into SQBX mostly free of charge. We add these features based on our customer's package tracking best business practices. If you can find a more feature rich receiving and delivery application buy it. If you can find a package tracking system that is more liberal with its licensing buy it. You'll find that our package tracking system will handle just about any situation you have in your receiving, chain of custody, and proof of delivery operations. 

We've recently added mobile printing to our SQBX package tracking system. Label printing is usually required when the information on the  FedEx, UPS, or other carrier's shipping label does not provide enough information to provide an internal delivery of the package. For example, may large companies have internal delivery routes designed so that several staff members can take a selection of packages through a route they walk to deliver and pickup packages, i.e. they deliver only to certain floors or buildings. So the internal delivery location (office, cubicle, etc) and route needs to be printed on a system provided routing label.

If your package tracking system offers a desktop label for this process that's ok. However, the most efficient process is to print a label directly at the point of receipt. If your using your handheld computer like our Motorola MC55 handhelds, that means you'll need a mobile printer. We recommend Zebra ZPL enable label printers such as the RW220+.

When purchasing a package tracking software system most people are concerned with creating a chain of custody for inbound packages only, however handling outbound packages should also be documented with the same chain of custody. 

Larger organizations often have internal mail routes set up.  The receiving staff receive packages, process them, and sort them over mail routes. One or more operators then walk their routes to deliver packages. In many cases staff may have outgoing packages they want the operator to pick up. This creates risk for the operator since now the onus is on him to ensure the carrier gets the package. If the carrier loses the package or worse, never shows receipt of the package, the first place to look is the operator that picked the package up.  

The best business practice is to scan packages as they're picked up. For example these two statuses could be set by the operator:

1. Package picked up by operator.
2. Package transferred to carrier (carrier signs for package).

Check out our products page for SQBX or sqbxcloud.com for information  on our package tracking software.

Since millions of barcodes are scanned using our SQBX package tracking software, I'm often asked what information is in a FedEx or UPS 2D barcode. It's the hope of the receiving team that input can be reduced while logging in packages. there's good news and bad news.

The FedEx 2D barcode does contain some information useful in logging packages into your package tracking system. Let's take a look at a FedEx 2D scan for a package that came to our office:

[)>010285013840315408295321730201FDE1866871322431/126LBN407 WEST

OSBORN ROADPHOENIXAZ 0610ZED00211ZUBIQUIA INC12Z1602442477116Z13Z0000

14ZSUITE 10015Z5592520Z0.000.00K07511802 00093456780034226Zce2300

As you may be able to note above the FedEx barcode indeed has some useful information it. Notably the recipient, tracking number, service and weight are on this package. Your package tracking software should be able to decipher this information. Note however that information you use internally, for example email address, phone number, internal locations, or route codes obviously will not be on this scan. So scanning this barcode will most likely still require data entry. 

How about a UPS bullseye scan?

[)>01968501300008400031Z27132437UPSN3X3F9107N7SS95DDSO''KN,*6EZ8+S

BHTZ86.R9*I8OH0YM#S

As you can see above, this scan offers little information for your inbound package tracking system. The tracking number and service can be determined but there is no recipient information in this barcode....sorry

There seems to be two schools of thoughts when it comes to receiving goods into and organization against purchase orders. On one hand, warehouse personnel want their receiving software to be fast and efficient by allowing them to quickly agree to the items received. For example, perhaps the quantity received field is pre-populated with the amount expected based on open purchase order quantities. If a quantity received actually matches the operator simply acknowledges the items perhaps by as a little as a mouse click. In some cases warehouse personnel  even want a single button that states that all items on the open PO were received so that they don't have to physically acknowledge each line item. Of course this is dangerous since less attentive operators may simply acknowledge purchase order receipts without spending time matching item counts.

The other school of thought is to not pre-populate item quantities and to have the operator physically enter the quantities received against each purchase order line item. There are no shortcuts to receiving goods in such as a single button to receive all goods in. This is the most financially accurate method, but does slow the receiving process down.

It's challenging for software developers to find a happy medium between these two methods.What are your thoughts?  

 

• Pallet loaded on truck
• Pallet En Route
• Pallet At Destination
• Pallet Delivered

We often hear that warehouse managers are cautious to alert employees of packages received for them. Most package tracking software systems are capable of sending an email to the employee on receipt. However warehouse managers are not always happy with this because employees tend to want to know the status of the package right away. In some instances as soon as they receive an email they're calling down to the receiving dock to find out when delivery will be made. This may be disruptive since the receiving staff have not finished receiving all packages into their system. As a result some warehouse managers choose not to alert the employee at all.

Your package tracking software should be customizable enough to provide information about the package to the recipient then schedule emails to go out after the all packages have been received. An advanced messaging system not only schedules emails, but can also create different types of emails based on the employees job type. For example executives may get a different email message than staff do. Perhaps certain employees can pick their package up while others are delivered.

Another way that you can provide information to employees about their packages is to provide a portal that gives visibility over the receiving and delivery process. Employees can then check the status of their packages at will. The portal should be capable of filtering visibility for just the employee. If allowed perhaps the employee can also view packages for his department as well.

Check out SQBX if you'd like to see the all these options in action!

Here's a handy gadget you can use with your Motorola MC55 or MC65 series computer. The MSR5500-100R snap on magnetic stripe reader let's your MC55 or MC65 scan ID cards, loyalty cards, and even credit cards. We tested this device and it works a treat in a proof of delivery environment. If you're delivering packages to employees or college students and your organization issues ID cards, this might be a great way for your recipient to acknowledge receipt of their package.

Motorola has had a long and storied success rate with rugged mobile handheld computers. We've deployed MC70, MC75, and MC55s with ease in our package tracking software. In fact the latest iteration of the MC55, the MC55A0 has been fantastic albeit the Windows Mobile 6.5 interface seems to be more directed to the consumer market than the industrial market. This is a nice segway into the newest ultra-compact offering from Motorola: the ES400.

The ES400 is about the size of a cell phone but still boasts the same sort of rugged casing you've come to know in it's bigger brothers. The drop specification is MIL-STD 810G tested at 4 ft. The ES400 also exceeds IP42 sealing. It has a snappy 600 MHz ARM processor with Windows Mobile 6.5 loaded. The ES400 can be used in wireless mode or cellular mode with SQBX. The 3.2 megapixel camera does a nice job of capturing images in SQBX, our package tracking software. The camera is also used to scan 1D and 2D barcodes. This however poses a problem since bar code scanning is much slower than a laser scanner. For high volume receiving operations this is probably a deal breaker.

We would recommend this device for operations that use a computer workstation to receive packages and only use the handheld to deliver or for low volume receiving operations receiving less than 25 packages per day.

I suppose any discussion about cloud computing should first start with a definition of cloud computing. Think of cloud computing as a a bunch of servers residing in one or more data centers accessible via The Internet. It's called a cloud because it expands and contracts on demand. Cloud computing reduces and contains IT budgets because little capital investment is required. Furthermore, IT management is greatly reduced so that your in house IT folks can focus on more strategic issues. System maintenance and upgrades are mostly performed without notice.

Company financial data such as accounting applications or applications that store healthcare information may not be such a good idea on a public cloud. But using the power of the cloud for applications such as process tracking, shipping, and even inventory management is being highly adopted by both commercial businesses and the federal government. Security standards for process tracking, purchase order processing and receiving non purchase order shipments are usually far lower than those mentioned above since no personal data is captured. In fact the federal government entity NIST typically rates applications such as a low security risk.

If security still concerns you have your vendor describe the security controls implemented for data in transit and at rest. A good vendor should be able to show you how data is secured in both instances. Simply providing secure data transport over SSL isn't enough.

It's a the dirty little secret that UPS and FedEx don't want you to know about.....or is it? Did you know that you can achieve next day delivery by using UPS or FedEx Ground? Yup that's right! In many cases a ground package will get to its destination in one day GUARANTEED. In fact by using the ground delivery map you'll notice that ground packages can get to their destination for the most part between 1 and 5 days. This is very useful knowledge whan comparing next day air, second day air, and three day shipments to ground shipping. By doing so you can save several dollars on overnight and second day air packages.

Typically warehouses are in the know about this. But you shouldn't leave this to the warehouse to make the decision. These rules should be built into your busines systems. For example, our solutions automatically rate shop and provide a list of carrier services that will meet a specified delivery date.

Perhaps the biggest offender of overspending on shipping is the office worker unfamilar with delivery comparison. Giving office workers the capability to prepare shipments from their desktop is a license to spend money. So if you're going to do this, ensure that business rules are enforced through your business systems. Most carrier provided systems don't offer this level of control. Ensure your range of shippers from office staff to warehouse operators use systems with business controls built in.

Get you ground delivery maps here:

http://www.fedex.com/grd/maps/ShowMapEntry.do

http://www.ups.com/maps

The SQBX package tracking system is an enterprise mail and package tracking and delivery management system that supports both workstation and mobile computer receiving capabilities. In other words you can receive inbound mail and shipments using multiple computer workstations or use our mobile handheld computers like the Motorola MC55. Depending on your situation workstations, mobile computers, or a combination of both may fit your needs.

Situation: You Simply Want A Count Of The Packages Dropped By The Carrier

Both our mobile computers and the web-based workstation software have the capability of a quick scan of inbound packages to get a count of the packages unloaded by the carrier. All that's required is a quick scan of the carrier barcode on each package to give you a count of the total packages received. This allows you to verify the number of packages the carrier is having you sign for. Later when time avails itself you can rescan each package and enter the details required for your internal operation.

Situation: Computer Access To Your Receiving Dock Is Not Available

No problem, use our mobile computers to receive packages into your organization. You can enter the same details on the mobile computer that you can with the desktop computer. In fact, multiple mobile computers can receive on the dock. Each user can than take his packages directly out for delivery.

Situation: Your Company Has Detailed Data Requirements To Track Inbound Packages

In this case it may work better for you to enter receipts into the workstation. Obviously a computer workstation has a much larger monitor and usually a full size keyboard for entering data. Entering large amounts of package receipt data into a mobile device slightly larger than a cell phone may get tedious.

Situation: You Require Internal Routing Information To Be Attached To The Package

Typically this requires using the computer workstation with an attached label printer. However, this will soon be available on our mobile computers as well.

Speed vs Mobility

A computer workstation has a lot more horsepower than the processor on a mobile computer and therefore is a lot faster when receiving packages and conducting research on your receipts and deliveries. However, sometimes the mobility of the handheld computer is so convenient that using it for receiving outweighs the speed of the desktop. This is certainly the case during the delivery process. It's unlikely you're going to be satisfied lugging your desktop computer around your mail route to capture the recipients signature.

SQBX Mobile, whether used on the Motorola MC55 or on your Windows Mobile cell phone, is built the world's fasted compact database technology. Our mobile application can support the largest data capacity in the industry. It's also very fast. So feel confidant that whether you chose the computer workstation or the mobile software, you'll receive and deliver packages and mail expeditiously.

Today a customer called after his company owned PC went to computer heaven. His IT department installed a new hard drive and applied their corporate image. "But what about my SQBX receiving system?", the customer enquired. Now that's the beauty of a web-based system. All he needed to do was simply navigate to SQBX.com and start receiving again just like he did before the big crash. Even more importantly, all of his data was safe and secure on our managed servers. Even better, this customer could have switched to any PC in his organization so that his inbound receiving process was not delayed while his computer was repaired.

That's what software as a service is all about. A fully managed service that provides your application, your technical support, and your data backed up daily and readily available from our secure data center in a flash from any computer with proper credentials. All of our applications are provided this way:

• SQBX - web based package tracking and delivery management featuring the fastest search algorithms and the highest mobile computer data storage available in the industry
• SQBXvt - web based visitor tracking with automated data retrieval from US driver's licenses
• SQBX Asset - complete enterprise asset tracking
• ZenVentory - web based inventory and warehouse management feat

SQBX is a web based receiving, visitor tacking, and asset tracking system that you access through your web browser. It is completely hosted and managed by us. There are several reasons why this is cost effective for our customers. 

1. You don't have to buy any servers. To compare SQBX to other receiving systems you have to remember that our receiving software can serve one workstation or thousands of workstations. If you wanted to do this with our competitors you're going to need you own servers to serve the application to your company's workstations. You'll have to pay for the hardware and the operating system.
2. If you need your own servers you'll need internal I.T. support to manage and back up your system. Even if you're only getting one workstation you're going to have to manage data backups. With SQBX we back up your data incrementally everyday. We do full backups on the weekends. All backups are taken off site for safety.
3. Someone has to physically install the software on each workstation. The cheapest way is for you to do it. Our competitors however will charge you. This could become quite expensive if you're a large enterprise. SQBX is ready to go. If you choose SQBX for you package tracking, visitor tracking, or asset management needs your account can be ready to go in as little as one hour.
4. Your software may become antiquated. If you purchase your software you may never get updates unless you pay for them. SQBX is always up to date with the latest enhancements and newest technology.
5. You may have to wait to get service from your software provider. With SQBX however, support is a mouse click away. Our customers rave how quickly their questions are answered. We're fanatical about supporting our customers.

When you way all of these things up selecting a hosted solution for receiving software is a good choice. Overall you'll save money, get faster support, and always have the most up to date software.