Promotional Handling Ltd. was formed in 1999 and is based in the town of Welshpool near the border between England and Wales where around 50 people are employed at its large warehousing facility.

In 2015 the company was a nominee at the IPM’s ‘COGS Awards’ for its Indesit/Hotpoint/Ariel promotion. Business activities include third party logistics and fulfilment, specialised packaging, sales promotions and marketing support.

The business handles up to 20,000 product lines sourced from the UK and China and the range of products include optical goods, medicines, health and beauty products, solar panels, tea and baby food, to name just a few. Promotional Handling has been using OrderWise since 2011 and here Managing Director Alan Lewis explains how the business is using OrderWise to manage its operations.

The Requirement

Prior to implementing OrderWise the company was using a bespoke software system, but as the business grew it became apparent that the system could not cope with increasing demand. Alan recalls:

“Our previous system had limited functionality and meant that processes were time consuming. A major drawback was the inability to easily share data with our customers, which for a 3PL [third party logistics] company is crucial for effective and efficient working.”

With this being the case, Promotional Handling began looking for a suitable system that offered the functionality and features the business needed. This proved not to be a drawn out process as one of Promotional Handling’s own customers recommended OrderWise to them.

As a diverse business, Promotional Handling required a system with a wide range of functionality and features and Alan lists the key elements as being “Comprehensive stock control, purchasing and forecasting, time saving features for order processing, barcode scanning for pick accuracy and clear reporting.”

Furthermore, being a company with a large warehouse operation, Promotional Handling needed a system to streamline its warehouse operations and also provide the structure for walk routes to be as efficient as possible.

In addition, as an MHRA licensed company, traceability features to maintain compliance with industry regulations in terms of batch and expiry dates was another key requirement.

The OrderWise Solution

To assist customers with the implementation of their new software system, OrderWise has a team of Implementation Specialists and Software Trainers on hand every step of the way. Alan recalls that:

“The training really helped, the system is easy to use & implementation was not a painful process.”

Having implemented OrderWise to manage its business operations, Promotional Handling were seeing streamlined processes and reduced manual interaction. As a large warehouse operation with such a wide range of products requiring picking and despatching, functionality to manage this effectively was vital. Alan tells us that:

“We’re really pleased with the barcode scanners due to the efficiency and accuracy they provide, and courier integration with Metapack eliminates our labelling worries and the rekeying of information.”

In terms of complying with industry regulations Alan comments that “We’ve got tight control and visibility of stock and full traceability and control of expiry dated products, which as an MHRA licensed business is crucial.”

“As a company handling third party logistics we greatly benefit from data sharing with our customers and the ability to effortlessly show them any stock movements.”

The Future

With a growing business and development plans to cater for, the scalability and modular nature of OrderWise means that Promotional Handling has a system in place that can be tailored to the demands of the business over time. Alan tells us that:

“We hope to increase our medical distribution and 3PL operations and rest easy knowing that OrderWise provides us with the traceability features, data sharing capability and scalability we need going forward.”

“The ongoing support is good and responsive, and the ability for development of the software to be customer-led is great. Just as OrderWise was recommended to us, in the future we will have no hesitation in recommending OrderWise to our business customers.”

OrderWise looks forward to further supporting Promotional Handling as they develop and grow their business, and we’d like to thank Alan Lewis for taking the time to talk to us.

More information on Promotional Handling Ltd. can be found at: www.promotionalhandling.co.uk

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