New FedEx Capabilities Highlight Latest Update for CPS Shipping Software

The latest update for the CPS Shipping Software marks the first major update for CPS to support new technology from a carrier. This update lets CPS support FedEx Web Services package processing. This update increases package processing speed and opens new services and service options for CPS users.

Speed has always been a priority for processing all packages, including FedEx shipments, in the CPS shipping software. While incorporating this new FedEx technology into CPS, the programming group made a fast shipping system even faster with this update – a feat that took considerable ingenuity. Speed is not all that’s been added. This update includes a variety of new features and capabilities that enhance FedEx shipping, including: FedEx SmartPost® service now available and supported as a CPS Premium Module option; the special setup to print FedEx Express labels is no longer required - the Windows print system with appropriate Windows printer driver can be used to print FedEx Express, Ground, Home Delivery and SmartPost labels; the Signature release option for international shipments is more conveniently consolidated into Signature Confirmation options; the Hold At Location service for Canada is added; support for the FedEx Priority Alert service is added; Payment of Duty/Tax by Receiver for international shipping now validates the FedEx account number, if entered; and multi-piece FedEx Standard Ground shipping to Canada is supported. That’s a lot to add!

The FedEx SmartPost service is a FedEx/USPS “hybrid” service targeting low weight residential delivery. By supporting SmartPost and other “hybrid” delivery services, CPS continues to present shippers with the best, most cost effective shipping options for all of their packages. The number of companies looking for the best and least expensive alternative ways to ship lighter packages, especially to residential addresses, is growing and CPS puts its users in the driver's seat.

With increased shipping speed, expanded services, enhanced international shipping options and numerous other improvements, we think you will be more than pleased with what CPS now offers in providing the latest shipping technology in a multi-carrier shipping system.

For more information about CPS, visit www.HarveySoft.com

Low Cost Custom Auto Part Shipping

Classic cars are a huge passion to many Americans. Have you ever wanted something your car didn't come with or to make your special car look a certain way? The search for custom parts and even replacement parts just got easier with the internet. Now many of those parts vendors have pretty cool websites like CHEVYMALL (http://www.chevymall.com/) or West Coast Corvettes (http://www.westcoastcorvette.com/) where you can find almost any part that your heart desires. Now getting those parts that the customers purchase to them easy and fast is where our CPS Shipping Software comes in.

This is a competitive market and margins are thin. Any advantage you can get by reducing shipping costs to you and your customers helps increase those profits. It could also mean the gain of a sale by your shipping costs being cheaper than your fellow competition. This is where multi-carrier shipping software pays off - by comparing carrier rates for every package quickly and easily. The Computerized Parcel System (CPS) will rate shop between major carriers - FedEx, UPS, USPS and even the hybrid services.

That is not all the CPS Shipping Software does. One important thing that online vendors need is branding. CPS has an email notification system that helps small websites build its brand into loyal, long-time parts customers which is essential for your company. Another key point is that CPS speeds up the processing of orders cutting down the amount of time it takes per shipping package turning the company into like a well tuned car.

This is just one example of how multi-carrier shipping software can help with an online parts vendor's business. Shift your business into high gear and checkout http://www.HarveySoft.com/ today.

Cars photographed were provided by Classic Cars of Florida (http://www.ccofl.com/).

Profiles of Multi-Carrier Shipping System Users: Small Online Retailer

In many ways, the small online store has taken the place of the family-owned small corner store. Some of the best shopping websites are actually based around a store that used to operate strictly locally. A crafter may sell handmade items from a brick and mortar storefront and the addition of a website makes those products available around the world. Others websites evolved from online auctioning that got big enough to go independent from the auction website. Online stores are often owned and operated within a family, while others become family-like with a tight-knit operation and everyone pitching in to achieve the business’ goals.

Of course, the definition of “small” lends itself to many definitions. There can be anywhere from one to a couple of dozen employees. Sometimes that store produces the items it sells and sometimes it operates as a middleman between the manufacturer and the consumer. Often, these stores choose a specific theme and niche to focus on their market. The key factor that these stores have in common is that they are advertising online, selling online, and delivering products to their customers directly. Every service available in large online megastores is also expected of this small retailer, including a shipping system that ships their packages quickly with package visibility for their customers.

In the shipping department specifically, small online retailers typically ship up to a hundred packages a day. This retailer needs to be able to ship anywhere in the world, since each order is valuable and happy customers who receive their order in a timely manner are essential to build the brand and spread the word about the website. After orders are received and payment collected, getting those orders out the door is the highest priority. This is one reason why multi-carrier shipping software is so essential for this small retailer – the shipping department needs to know the best way to send a package in the time frame needed. A good multi-carrier shipping system obtains that information instantly and accurately. In addition, the right shipping software will connect to shopping cart and order management systems to make sure data is entered only once.

The web is a great equalizer, allowing an attractive, efficient, informative website for a small retailer to look and work as well as the largest online sellers. Modern shopping cart software makes this marketing possible and that online storefront is accessible to anyone with a computer. After great marketing gets the order, the final step is the right multi-carrier shipping system to allow those same small retailers to get competitive shipping rates to around the world. With connectivity to their order data, fast parcel processing, and features to increase customer satisfaction, Harvey Software’s CPS shipping software is a great shipping option for the small online retailer.

Series Introduction: Shipping System Profiles

A batch of orders arrives, and employees work quickly to get those packages out the door. Other tasks are moved to the back burner until these orders are shipped. Those customers will be happy customers when they receive their packages on time and (hopefully!) this process is repeated regularly. When you ship enough, it’s easy to see that the only items changing on each package are the name, address, and weight. Multi-carrier shipping software helps organize this repetitive process plus offer the BEST rate for each package that goes out. This allows carrier competition to work for shippers.

There are three goals of all business software:

1. Increase Productivity
2. Reduce Costs
3. Simplify Organizational Processes

All three of these goals are achieved in the shipping department by using multi carrier shipping software. Increased productivity comes from reducing the workload required for each package. Reduced costs come from rate shopping between parcel carriers for every package. Simplified organizational processes are realized when you connect the shipping system with other business applications, making data portable and easily available to all functions of the organization.

Using dedicated shipping software will achieve these goals for all types and sizes of companies. For a small online vendor or local crafter, every employee wears multiple hats. You want the shipping process to be quick for each package so that you can spend your time on other work. For a large online vendor, you want to be able to utilize barcode order entry and ship each package with one or two keystrokes or mouse clicks. For a food vendor, you want to be able to choose from multiple express services at a glance to get the products from “fresh” to table as quickly as possible. For a fulfillment company, you want to be able to ship using multiple customer account numbers with multiple carriers and lower the charge per package to the minimal amount necessary. All of these specific needs relate directly to the three main goals above. Every feature of a shipping system should reach back to those goals and make work easier for the company using the system.

All of the above company profiles have differing volumes and shipping needs, but believe it or not, all can benefit by using the right shipping system. Harvey Software’s CPS shipping software is the versatile solution that covers all of the bases. CPS features are customizable to allow a shipper to create the order entry process they need, increasing the productivity of every employee involved in shipping. Rate optimization features and up to date carrier communication allows carrier competition to keep shipping costs as low as possible. Customer data can be read from and completed information written to any ODBC compliant accounting or order management system, allowing customer service to have visibility into shipping services used, tracking numbers, and shipping costs.

Over the next ten weeks, we’re going to profile different types of businesses that can take advantage of a multi-carrier shipping system. As we highlight each of those shipping profiles, you will learn why a multi-carrier shipping system can improve the shipping process in almost any type or size of business. Look for specific ways that shipping software like Harvey Software’s CPS can accomplish those three goals that every business desires. To see more information now, visit our website at www.HarveySoft.com or call us at 1-800-231-0296.

Who Works for Who? Is Your Shipping System Working for You, or Are You Working For Your Shipping System?

In the movie Cast Away, the opening sequence times a package from Seattle, WA. to St. Petersburg, Russia. Tom Hanks’ character Chuck travels to Russia to analyze the package in which he placed a stopwatch before sending it to himself. He shows the FedEx employees in Russia the timer. Thirty-two hours from Seattle to St. Petersburg – 9000 miles. Forty-one hours from the warehouse to the destination – 4 miles. He certainly found the source of the problem. And then he begins working every job in the facility in order to improve efficiency. Though the audience never sees the results of his efforts, it’s easy to assume that things got better soon after Chuck’s visit.

How many shipping systems out there are “good enough?” How many employees are doing what’s basically a workaround solution but needs improving? Make sure that your shipping software is not a bottleneck to your shipping process. If it takes more than a minute to go from reference number to label printing, there are likely ways to improve upon that process. Make sure that data entry and write-backs are happening automatically. Make sure that your employees are aware of procedures for international packages, packages that need insurance, and packages that require return labels. And definitely make sure that you are getting the best rates possible from the carriers, for every package you send.

I spoke with one of our current customers who recently switched over to using our CPS multi-carrier shipping software, and I was surprised to hear that he was doing his own rate shopping between carriers before he began using our software. He did have shipping software hooked up to his order management system to pull data from, but that shipping system only showed rates for one carrier. He is smart enough to know that the carriers were already competing with one another, and he would systematically check another carrier’s website for their rates, for each package he sent. His determination to save money for his business is admirable. At the same time, he was spending an incredible amount of time looking up rates by hand, a process that can be completely automated. We were able to set him up with a shipping system to compare FedEx, UPS, and USPS rates simultaneously, and he was even able to set up custom business rules that allowed the system to select the lowest rate automatically for the services he prefers.

Harvey Software’s CPS shipping software can do all that’s spoken about above and more. With the flexibility of this multi-carrier shipping software, the application possibilities are endless. Contact us today at 1-800-231-0296 or visit www.HarveySoft.com for more information.

Multi-Carrier Shipping Software Stays Current with Carrier Changes in the New Year

Happy New Year from all of us at Harvey Software! We would like to congratulate all on a successful holiday shopping season. Online sales from November 1st through December 18th were over $35 billion, the equivalent of every American spending more than $100 online. This represents 15% growth from 2010 figures, compared to 4% or less among brick and mortar stores. This year’s growth outpaced last year’s growth by a full percentage point and online shopping continues to be the highest growth sector in the retail economy.

Now that the New Year has begun, it’s important to know the changes passed along by the carriers. If you are a CPS shipping software customer, you have likely updated your software already and see the 2012 shipping rates for each shipment. If the rates look slightly higher, it’s because they are. Both FedEx and UPS raised rates for most services, with the average increase hovering around 5-6%. This, however, comes with a January DECREASE in the fuel surcharge. Although predicting oil prices is a speculator’s business, recent unrest in the Middle East has caused oil prices to creep up past $100 per barrel again. Since this is 5-10% higher than it was in mid-December, you can expect to see the fuel surcharge rise in the coming months.

Major changes are coming to the United States Postal Service regarding international shipments. New federal laws are tentatively scheduled to take effect on January 22nd, 2012 requiring electronic submission of customs documents PRIOR to shipping Express Mail and Priority Mail International (EMI and PMI). Right now it appears this will impact international shippers who print their own international customs documents. We are currently working with the Post Office on this issue since it directly affects shippers who use CPS shipping software for international mail manifesting. We will provide updated information about this as we work with the Post Office on this issue. For companies using international USPS services but do not use a manifest, CPS allows the use of an Internet postage service such as Endicia, which will correctly handle international shipping documents. A major advantage of CPS vs. carrier shipping systems is the versatility that allows CPS users to change shipping methods without an overhaul of an entire shipping system.

We continue to stay in contact with the USPS regarding changes to their services. They have many potential changes in the upcoming year. Watch for new updates that will be announced through this blog as well as through our other communication channels.

With so many carrier changes, CPS shipping software customers continue to be able to select competing carrier services for each and every package. We look forward to providing our customers with our software services and unparalleled customer support. For more information, please visit www.HarveySoft.com.

Harvey Software's Multi-Carrier Shipping System Receives Its 2012 National Carrier Updates

The CPS National Carrier Updates are now available for download. These updates are essential for CPS to function properly, and will install automatically when the Daily Entry program is started next week. On or after Monday, January 2nd, 2012, the update will become critical, and users will be prompted to complete it. There is no charge for the update, and downtime is minimal, so we expect that our customers will be back to shipping just minutes after starting this update. The complete update notes can be viewed in the CPS On-Line Support directory inside the CPS for Windows folder—just find the entry for December 27th, 2011. Below we have selected a few of the updated features to display in our blog.

CPS Feature Updates

This update contains several new features that customers will be happy to see. The automatic backup path must now go to a drive other than the C: drive of the shipping computer, insuring our customers a backup separated from the location of the main program. Also, customers will be able to write-back the carrier and service used for the package using the ODBC External Link. Customers will also be able to do package archives into a .zip format in order to save hard drive space for package records. CPS for Mail Order Manager users doing batch processing can now put the M.O.M. company name into the field chosen by the CPS user. Also, if the Address Verification Module standardizes an address longer than the address field length, CPS will display a dialog box with the standardized address so the shipper can override the changes if needed.

Carrier Updates

The FedEx, SpeeDee, and UPS rates, fuel surcharges, and accessorial charges have been updated to 2012 rates. These changes install automatically when the update is installed, and users who complete the update will have all of the updated published rates.

We now support UPS Return Services, including Returns Flexible Access and Returns Exchange. We also added support for FedEx Ground “Hold At Location” services. SpeeDee customers have new options for their shipping label formats including a signature option. There are a few updates within CPS to the DYMO Endicia interface, which can be viewed within the CPS On-Line Support directory. Please note that Endicia updates its DAZzle software independently of Harvey Software, and users of both services will need to check with Endicia regarding those updates.

Perhaps the biggest change will come to those shippers using USPS Mail Manifesting for international shipments. New federal customs and export control regulations and policies require customs information to be submitted electronically to the U.S. Customs and Border Protection prior to the shipments leaving the country. This change becomes effective January 22nd, 2012, and it impacts shippers who present hard-copy permit imprint mail manifests created in CPS and/or using USPS-produced privately printed customs forms for Express Mail International (EMI) and Priority Mail International (PMI).

This change does NOT affect any shipper using DYMO Endicia Internet postage or any other form of USPS service supported in CPS or provided by any other CPS supported carriers. In fact, we recommend switching to an Internet postage service such as Endicia in order to transition from hard-copy mail manifesting. For more information regarding this transition for mail manifest users, please contact us at sales@harveysoftware.com or at 1-800-231-0296

Fuel Surcharges

Effective January 2, 2012 the UPS fuel surcharge for Domestic Air and International will decrease from 14.00% to 12.50%. The fuel surcharge for Ground will decrease from 8.50% to 8.00%. These surcharges will remain in effect through February 5, 2012.

New Years Week Holiday Hours

Harvey Software realizes that many of you have just completed a very busy time of year and you would like a breather but there is just one last task you need to complete - the National Update for 2012.

We will be closed Monday, January 2, 2012 for the holiday. On Monday, January 2, 2012 we will continue to insure our servers will be active 24/7, and our On-Line Support Internet based support will remain available. We will return to our normal hours on Tuesday, January 3, 2012.

Important Notice: Starting Tuesday, December 27, 2011 through Friday, December 30, 2011 support will be for national update issues only. All other issues will be by appointment as time allows. This policy will continue on Tuesday, January 3, 2012 through Friday, January 13, 2012.

The staff of Harvey Software would like to thank you for your continued business and we wish you a very happy and prosperous New Year!