Autumn 2008

Prism's hosted management system goes much further that those of most fulfilment companies, extending to marketing, profit analysis, even EPOS support

You could argue that 'fulfilment' has two basic facets to it – physical handling of the goods in question, and information technology to manage the process.

The question, if you're outsourcing your fulfilment, is whether you should expect the fulfilment company itself to come up with software solutions for you, or whether it should just use off-the shelf IT packages, and rely partly on information you supply yourself.

In the past, a lot of fulfilment houses were happy to call on standard third-party order processing and warehouse management products. More recently some have developed their own in-house IT systems. Few, however, have taken this approach to quite the extent of Prism DM.

 

How many fulfilment houses, for instance, are readily able to supply you with information on the value of individual customers over time, or their response rates? How many can analyse product margins and return rates, stock-outs and back orders, or demand patterns by channel? Prism offers this kind of information not just on an ad hoc basis, but all the time.

It probably all stems from the fact that managing director Mike Thom has a background in marketing (he has had a long involvement with the Direct Marketing Association), and sees fulfilment as part of a continuum that extends from procurement and selling through to managing the stock and getting orders out of the door. He calls Prism's business 'direct marketing support', and as far as he's concerned, that means a comprehensive range of IT capabilities.

None of which detracts from the fact that the company is a substantial and well-established fulfilment house. It operates from a modern 40,000 sq ft warehouse and office complex on the outskirts of Farnborough, where it moved five years ago from a previous base in Blackwater.

Here it has extensive high-bay racking and provision for picking, packing, order assembly, kitting and returns handling. It also has a 80-seat contact centre, handling all forms of customer contact and covering all channels, and an in-house IT team. It deals with a wide range of consumer goods, and its customers include well-established names such as The Cotswold Company, Yves Rocher, Koodos, Agent Provocateur and Calendars Direct.

The company's software system is hosted by the company and web-based, allowing customers to access it via standard web browsers. A key component is Prism WMS, a warehouse management system using the latest wireless picking and put-away techniques, integrated with PDAs.

This can receive orders from a variety of channels; customers can connect to it via a VPN (virtual private network) line, through which they get full stock visibility. They can also track product movements via Prism Net, the company's online reporting suite.

Drop shipping

Recognising a growing trend towards 'drop shipping', or fulfilling home shopping orders directly from the manufacturer's or supplier's premises, Prism has a solution for this – Prism Connect. In this case, unlike the main product suite, it is a self-standing application written in Visual Basic, and sits on the supplier's computer platform, though it still uses the internet to pass information to Prism. Mike Thom says that to date there have been about 250 implementations.

'It means retailers can keep track of all transactions and maintain an updated view of stock availability, wherever the product is actually located,' he says.

Tracking is extended outward to the delivery process via links to the various carriers used for final delivery.

The scope and maturity of the system is reflected in the fact that there is even an EPOS module to deal with retail store sales. 'Every implementation is slightly different,' Thom says, 'and we do our best to accommodate all the likely needs of our customer base.'

That base, he says, is likely to consist first and foremost of small and medium-sized enterprises (a broad base in itself), though he adds that it would also suit larger organisations.

Web development

Prism even has a web store development capability. This may not necessarily extend to actual customer interface design, which Thom acknowledges may be a function best left to the retailer or its design team, but Prism can provide the underlying web store functionality, including full content management. Agent Provocateur and Cotswold are both a good examples of customers who have taken advantage of this resource.

'We can even host web sites,' Thom says, 'though these days retailers are increasingly happy to arrange hosting themselves. We really enjoy working with clients through every aspect of fulfilment, from the start to the end point.'

Recently the company has been going through the process of obtaining PCI (Payment Card Industry) compliance certification for handling credit card transactions, having established a relationship with Datacash, the payment handling specialist.

In view of Prism's extensive IT capability, we wondered if the company wanted to expand into offering its services on an IT-only basis (as opposed to providing physical fulfilment as well). Thom points out that the company already does in fact supply software only to some customers.

'In fact if you were to ask me where I see our future growth opportunities, I see us expanding in the software as a service market, rather than building up our physical infrastructure. We have a sophisticated, multi-function suite that should appeal to a wide range of users, even if they don't need support with outsourced fulfilment.'

He adds: 'For all the complexity of this market, software has got to be easy to use. We believe we pass that test as well.'

That has to be a good argument for giving Prism a look. It could provide everything you need on the IT front – with the bonus of having a comprehensive fulfilment capability as and when you want it. Then again, if fulfilment is your first requirement, that's Prism's core strength. Which should make it a winner whichever way you look at it.