BPA Platform improves sales order management and logistics for manufacturer and retailer of waterproof endurance accessories
Codeless Platforms today revealed that Sealskinz, a manufacturer and retailer of waterproof endurance accessories, has improved its sales order management and logistics by deploying BPA Platform to integrate Shopify, SYSPRO and a 3PL company. Sealskinz has subsequently automated 90% of its order management processes and automated the extraction of VAT data on bonded goods for IRS returns.
Sealskinz receives a lot of its orders from different European countries through its website built on Shopify. Sealskinz also uses SYSPRO for its business operations, and therefore its online orders need to be downloaded into the ERP system. Although Sealskinz had a middleware solution in place, it couldn’t handle the processing required to adhere to new custom rules. Having discovered BPA Platform, Sealskinz quickly realised the integration project between its Shopify website and SYSPRO. It also now meant that BPA Platform was fully embedded into its IT ecosystem.
“The circumstances that initiated the first project was Brexit and the sudden requirement to pay the relevant VAT to the Internal Revenue Office (IRS). We sell a fair amount of our products into Europe through our website. However, like many other businesses in our position, we suddenly needed to separate out VAT for specific European countries to be able to submit IRS returns. We therefore needed a way of splitting up the orders so that we could analyse the VAT and submit all the returns,” explained Tim Petts, IT Manager, Sealskinz.
“The integration between Shopify and SYSPRO was very successful and BPA Platform subsequently became our main middleware. That system has now been running for almost four years and it’s running very well. It made us realise the full potential of BPA Platform and how much you can do with it. When we did the first scope, we decided that we needed to automate as much as possible. We actually achieved more than what we originally thought we could.”
The next project that Sealskinz needed to focus on was when it opened a bonded warehouse at its headquarters to address the VAT implications created by Brexit. A bonded warehouse is a secure space in which goods liable to import duty and VAT are stored. Customs duty and VAT payments on these items are then deferred until the goods are sold or removed from the bonded warehouse.
“We opened up a bonded warehouse at our headquarters in King’s Lynn as we wanted to bond all our stock that we buy in from China. So we utilised BPA Platform and our IT partner again to achieve that. We set up the two APIs between SYSPRO and BPA Platform to a system called Descartes – a logistics technology platform. That was quite lengthy project. It took probably eighteen months to put together from start to finish with HMRC, registrations, licences, warehouse inspections etc., but that went very well as well,” explained Tim Petts.
Sealskinz has experienced significant changes and growth in the past eighteen months, which led to the company employing a 3PL company to distribute its products.
“We were predominantly a socks, gloves and hat business. However, now we make T-shirts, hoodies, swim shorts, etc. As a result, we moved our dot.com business from our warehouse in King’s Lynn, to a third-party logistics (3PL) company in Milton Keynes. We now send all of our dispatch data down to the 3PL and they distribute it for us”, explained Tim Petts.
“There’s a lot of task development in the BPA Platform console, using Codeless Platforms’ SYSPRO connector tool and web connector tool to pass strings and data from A to B. It is sending stock to the 3PL as well as receiving GRNs and ASINs back in. That system is used heavily. It’s sitting there every minute, passing data over to the website, grabbing data etc. It’s really impressive what has been written and configured for us.”
Now that Sealskinz has employed a 3PL as its main distributor, much of the day-to-day processing of orders has become automated, thus reducing internal resources and speeding up the process.
“Humans aren’t really involved anymore. All someone does is load an order onto the system to send stock down to the 3PL, and the rest is channelled from the website. No one touches anything. An order comes down from the website into SYSPRO, passes through the system, and then goes through BPA Platform to their system. When the order is dispatched, all of the data is returned and automatically posted into SYSPRO by BPA Platform and the SYSPRO connector. We’ve probably automated in the region of 80-90% of the system, from order entry through to the customer getting it,” said Tim Petts.
“It’s a fantastic platform. I highly recommend it. There are so many options with BPA Platform – the variety of connectors and what it can do. I suppose middleware is middleware – they all connect different platforms together – but it’s the user friendliness of the GUI in BPA Platform that makes it stand out. It is quite easy to write and see the code, as well as drag and drop things around. I can also look in it and troubleshoot things myself, as well as work on the steps and tasks. Some of it is quite self-explanatory,” enthused Tim Petts.
About Sealskinz
Sealskinz has over thirty years’ experience in developing and manufacturing endurance accessories. The Norfolk-based brand initially sold waterproof and breathable hats, gloves and socks, but has now expanded to create a full range of clothing. The company has worked in partnership with some of the world’s greatest athletes, including mountaineers, explorers, cyclists, skiers, runners, sailors, as well as the British military, to ensure its products deliver the very best in comfort and performance that protect users from rain, snow, sand and mud. Learn more at: www.sealskinz.com
About Codeless Platforms
Codeless Platforms provides a powerful low-code platform that empowers global businesses to take full control of their data and accelerate business growth. Customers use our cutting-edge BPA Platform to create a fully integrated, streamlined ecosystem, automate business processes and synchronise their data. Since 1999, we have developed our flexible and scalable platform to help businesses easily respond to the rapidly changing business demands of today as well as prepare them for the future. With over 450 global partners, more than 7000 customers use Codeless Platforms’ software solutions. Learn more at: www.codelessplatforms.com
