How to send shipping tracking information to customer through Sage Alerts and Workflow

Dec 23 2015

Many Sage ERP customers have implemented shipping integrations with logistic companies, such as Purolator, Canpar, UPS and FedEx. The integration normally supports tracking information of parcels to be saved in the Sage ERP system from those logistic partners’ systems. It offers a great advantage as customers are enabled to track their parcels. In this blog, I will discuss how to enable customers to get the tracking information from Sage ERP systems.

Electronic data interchange (EDI) is a perfect solution for sending Advanced Shipping Notice (ASN) to the customers. EDI is an electronic communication method that provides standards for exchanging data via any electronic means. In ASN content, the tracking information is carried to customers. But it is limited for only EDI customers. For non-EDI customers, some existing functions for ERP systems may be useful for this request, such as paperless office and mail merge in Sage 100 ERP, document transmission in Sage 500 ERP. Those ERP internal functions also have some limitations in sending the tracking information for shipments. We are proposing a simple solution for all Sage ERP systems by using Sage Alerts and Workflow.

Sage Alerts and Workflow is a powerful add-on system which automates the generation and delivery of the relevant forms, documents, and reports to customers and suppliers, and even managers. It is the most effective business activity monitoring solution on the market today. The request for sending tracking information for shipments can be easily setup using Sage Alerts and Workflow.

Let’s look at an example of creating a Sage Alert to send the shipping tracking information to customers automatically.

Step 1 – analyze and prepare the tracking information from shipping data

For different Sage ERP systems, the shipment data structures are different, and the tracking information may be stored in different areas for different ERP customers depending on the integration. Our solution is to analyze the shipment data and the tracking info on your ERP system, and then create a view (SQL server) to get all required information for the shipping notice. The following view (SQL server) which was created in Sage 500 ERP is for your reference. For Sage 300 ERP and X3 are similar.

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The result would be below for your reference.

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The key information for the customer to see is customer PO number, production/Item, order quantity, shipped quantity, customer name, customer email address, tracking information, and others depending on the special requirement.

Step 2 – monitor the unique key for the shipment

Sage Alerts and Workflow tracks the information which has been sent so that the customer does not receive duplicate emails with the same tracking information. In order to track it, it requires a unique key for the shipment. In this case, we used the [ShipLineKey] as the unique key for the shipment.

Step 3 – create a query in Sage Alerts and Workflow

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Linking to the view

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Selecting the unique key and fields

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Viewing the SQL query

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Previewing the results

Step 4 – create an event in Sage Alerts and Workflow

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Linking to the query

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Email template design

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Adding subscribers

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Email break by S/O and the customer email selection

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Scheduling for emailing

Step 5 – monitor and receive the emails with tracking information

Sage Alerts and Workflow has a monitor function to check when the tracking email has been sent out.

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The email template is below for your reference.

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You can also have more information attached to the email such as a html page, PDF file, or Excel / Word documents. It can be enhanced by adding graphic components such as images for each item if the ERP system has stored them somewhere else.

Sage Alerts and Workflow can greatly help shipping and sales team members in sending the shipping tracking information to their customers. It’s also a generic tool which can be utilized to send any kind of information – such as forms, reports, tracking info, or alerts – extracted from your ERP system to your users, customers, suppliers and management. It is an add-on application for any Sage solution such as ERP, CRM, HRMS, and Fixed Assets.

If you want to learn more please don’t hesitate to contact our team at 1-866-320-8922. We’d love to help!

 

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