Why your business might need DataBot
The inventory system is the heart of modern cloud-based businesses
The solution is to centralise your inventory and orders into a single online inventory management system.
With the growth of online market places, cloud based businesses can extend their reach to customers beyond just their website, through many online channels, such as The Iconic and Myer Marketplace.
If not done properly though, this can present a problem. If stock levels are not consistent across your online sales channels, there is a risk that sales will be lost as a result of premature out-of-stock notices, or alternatively, customers will be left disappointed when you sell items that you don't have in stock, leading to delays, cancelled orders, and poor reviews. Things can get out of control.
The solution is to centralise your inventory and orders into a single online inventory management system, and to ensure that the inventory system is the master of all the stock inventory and order information.
Orders from each of your sales channels get sent to your inventory system, and your inventory system ensures that each sales channels has the correct stock items and levels. Your online accounting system then has one place to gather all your sales data. Great!
Various cloud based Inventory Management Systems (IMSs) have emerged in this space, with DEAR, Tradegecko, and Unleashed being popular choices. Which one suits your business will depend on a number of factors. These factors include the complexity of your products, for example, variants and assembly requirements, whether not you will have an integrated POS system, shipping requirements, pricing, and so on.
Regardless of the cloud-based IMS that you choose or use, there is a common limitation with each, in that they do not have strong, if any, support for 3PL warehouse integration. There is a reason for this. There are a large number of 3PLs, and there is no common interfacing standard to them. Whilst common standards to exist (EDI), they can be too expensive, and most 3PL warehouse management systems (WMSs) do not have this capability.
Instead, the 3PL WMSs tend to have simple file import/export based interfaces.
This is where DataBot fits in. DataBot connects your inventory system to your 3PL. Our platform has connectors for DEAR, TradeGecko and Unleashed inventory systems, as well as connectors for an ever growing number of 3PLs. Our platform also makes it relatively simple to add additional 3PL connectors, which we will build for new clients on an as-needs basis.
This is where DataBot fits in. DataBot connects your inventory system to your 3PL.
DataBot has a suite of pre-built automation tasks, that we call Bots. These Bots use the IMS and 3PL integration connectors to automate your business workflows.
See below for more detail.
Introducing some Data Bots
Each Bot helps you automate a particular task. Working together,
they ensure that your files get where they need to go, timely and
reliably.
Send Sales Orders
Monitors your inventory system for new sales orders, creates the required WMS files and uploads to the warehouse
Monitor for Accepted Files
Verifies that the file was accepted by the warehouse, and alerts if there were any issues
Sync Shipped Sales Orders
Monitors the warehouse WMS for goods shipped files, processes the files, and syncs the carrier and tracking numbers with your inventory system.
Send Purchase Orders
Monitors your inventory system for new sales orders, creates the required WMS files and uploads to the warehouse
Sync Goods Received
Monitors the warehouse WMS for goods received files, processes the files, and syncs inventory data with your inventory system.
Send Stock Transfers
Monitors your inventory system for any in transit Stock Transfers, creates the required WMS files and uploads to the warehouse
Is Bot configuration hard?
Bot configuration is specialised. But don't worry,
we'll do that for you..
Example Bot Rules: Send Sales Order
| Rule Applies At | Field | Rule | Value | Enabled | Applies From | Applies To | Action on Failure |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sales order | status | must be | finalized | Active | Always | Always | Skip this record |
| Sales order | shippability_status | must include (any of) | shippable, partially_shippable | Active | Always | Always | Skip this record |
| Sales fulfillment | status | must be | packed | Active | Always | Always | Skip this record |
| Location | label | must be | My Warehouse | Active | Always | Always | Skip this record |
| Product variant | sku | must not be | EMPTY | Active | Always | Always | Fail this record |
So, how does it work ?
We'll configure a solution based on your requirements and the capabilities of your warehouse solution.