Interlogic is far from your typical warehouse logistics technology provider. With a commitment to their customers that is deeply embedded within their DNA, they have developed MultiPick WMS, their flagship Warehouse Management System (WMS). A uniquely powerful end-to-end product, MultiPick has propelled Interlogic's rapid growth within the domestic New Zealand and overseas markets.
Regardless, no roadmap is ever completely free from obstacles. Even though Interlogic has successfully partnered with several prominent customers (European Motors, TriStar and EcoStore et al), one obstacle has stubbornly remained — integration.
The complexities of 3PL warehouse integration
In the intricate realm of third-party logistics (3PL), the numerous integrations required often present substantial challenges. An issue Interlogic’s General Manager, Justin Robbins, is all too familiar with, "Everyone's got their own system and even within systems, people handle things differently. The transport of files between systems, the manipulation of data coming in and out, staging, and translating are critical aspects that present hurdles."
MultiPick manages the full end-to-end warehousing process, intersecting with multiple systems along the way. In many cases, these systems will have their own unique processes and architecture. As a WMS provider, Interlogic’s customers expect to send and receive data in a format (e.g., EDI, API, JSON, etc.) they can easily understand.
Therefore, it’s up to MultiPick to integrate and align the data from all of these sources and effortlessly deliver the relevant informational inputs and outputs to a diverse spread of customers (and their correspondingly diverse systems).
Justin adds, "If integration is not working seamlessly, it's quite significant. Our customers encounter double keying of data, a drop in efficiency, and extra cost in overtime hours.”
Believing that integrations were a key driver in their customer’s success, Interlogic looked for a solution that would drastically reduce the time and cost typically associated with integration development.
This is where Crossfire stepped in.
Outsourcing integration to the experts
Crossfire’s pre-existing integrations with many of the systems that MultiPick typically interfaces with, presented a ready-made solution to meet these challenges. The outcome was swift and substantial; reduced project costs, quicker turnaround times and, ultimately, a more cost-effective solution for their customers.
"Crossfire has enabled us to cut the time for delivering integrations by between 40 and 60 percent, and likewise reduce the cost to the end-user by roughly the same margin," Justin asserts.
Crossfire performs a wide range of integration use cases for Interlogic, including order fulfilment, product creation, stock adjustments, web store integration and communication back to customers to name a few. Crossfire’s ability to translate any message type and cater for unique business rules means that Interlogic’s 3PL customers can confidently offer a fully integrated solution to their customers. This is a crucial competitive advantage in the 3PL space.
Today, with Crossfire handling the complexity of integrations, Interlogic can focus on continuing the MultiPick journey. As Justin puts it, "From an end-user perspective as well as from a WMS perspective, you're getting a seamless experience. We're sticking to our knitting on both sides and Crossfire is taking care of the difficult bits in the middle. That again means less heads on a project which means quicker turnaround times and less cost to the end customer.”
In summary, the partnership between Interlogic and Crossfire bridges the 3PL integration gap, allowing both parties to leverage their expertise, streamline processes and deliver on their commitment to happy customers.
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