Software to Profitably Manage Fulfillment

Printers long ago discovered that managing their customer's inventory of printed materials is an attractive business. As one thing leads to another, this sideline can turn into a serious enterprise—but it is significantly different from the printing business.

Just as a print shop needs appropriate systems to keep it running like clockwork, turning a third-party fulfillment business (3PF) into a profit center requires a system that will manage the fulfillment process efficiently, easily and effectively. There are six good pre-packaged applications that meet those requirements.

The “standard bearer” for the last 25 years has been a system called Pro-Mail from Software Marketing Associates www.sma-promail.com. The browser-based system, typically costing somewhere between $30,000 and $50,000, has hundreds of users among printing/fulfillment companies managing fulfillment projects for their clients in such industries as financial services, pharmaceutical, high-tech, manufacturing, travel and retail.

Pro-Mail is a full-featured order management system wrapped inside a third-party fulfillment management system that supports client business rules, reporting and billing functions. It also includes project management and reporting functions.

PrintStream from Streamline Solutions www.printstream.com has more than 180 users, 16 of them printer/fulfillers. The full suite of solutions covers all aspects of print management and fulfillment, including purchasing and scheduling, with the fulfillment components covering kits, item price lists, territory management, back order management, recipient types and processing rules—all in user-definable templates. Typical cost: approximately $60,000.

Another product is InterlinkONE www.interlinkone.com. Priced similarly to the first two, it handles fulfillment functions for companies involved in financial services, health care, high technology, manufacturing and 3PF of product and literature in print and digital formats—with multi-lingual and multi-warehouse functionality.

In addition, InterlinkONE also handles marketing campaign management/workflow, lead lifecycle management, sales automation and website integration.

DirectEDJE from Direct Re-sources www.directedje.com is a hosted solution (maintained by Direct Response) installed at five third-party logistics shops, including its own. Costing from $15,000 to $25,000 for a one-time set-up fee—and monthly fees ranging from $500 to $900, depending on number of accounts—the system handles bill of materials for kits, digital document storage, print on demand, web-to-print, back orders and low stock notices. Although there is no print production management, this work-in-progress is worthy of consideration for companies entering the third-party logistics business.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, for companies with a sophisticated fulfillment business and complex warehouse requirements, it's difficult to beat Cadence from Cadre Technologies www.cadretech.com.

Costing from $50,000 to the low six figures, with modules that include transportation management and simplified gain sharing, Cadence is a warehouse-centric solution that includes labor tracking, productivity reporting, inventory forecasting, A/B/C analysis and even payroll and benefits management (with regulatory and time-management components).