Honing the Customer Experience with Descartes ShipRush™

As the premier national distributor of home automation systems, Home Controls depends on speedy, reliable shipping to create an exceptional, frictionless customer experience. Integrated with Oracle NetSuite and carrier platforms, Descartes ShipRush streamlined Home Controls’ order fulfillment, from order creation through to parcel shipping and delivery, to increase efficiency, curtail costs, and build customer loyalty.

Challenge: Driving Warehouse Efficiency to Boost Customer Service

With an expansive online catalogue featuring products from over 110 manufacturers, Home Controls ships high volumes of home automation and security products domestically and internationally from its San Diego warehouse to an extensive network of dealers and integrators as well as to consumers. The wholesale distributor required a sophisticated shipping solution that could link its enterprise resource planning (ERP) system with outside applications. With a strong focus on a fast, reliable last mile experience for customers, the award-winning company sought to increase operational efficiency,
improve shipment accuracy, and drive down transportation costs.

Solution: Streamlining Shipping for Customer Satisfaction

Given the volume and complexity of its shipping requirements with such a large product catalog, Home Controls installed the web-based Descartes ShipRush platform to streamline its warehouse and shipping processes. Seamlessly integrated with the company’s NetSuite ERP, Descartes ShipRush automatically imports orders, compares carrier rates, prints shipping labels, and tracks shipments through final delivery—all from an intuitive, centralized dashboard.

“Our shipping volumes are significant,” explains Ken Kerr, Owner of Home Controls, “and it’s an absolute necessity that we have a reliable, fast shipping module to interface to NetSuite. Within a few months, the combined solution was operational and functioning to support our business workflows effectively.”

With the ability to automatically compare carrier rates, side-by-side, in real-time, the solution also helps the company to boost productivity and ensure the best shipping rates. “Previously, we manually opened every single carrier window to analyze costs and shipping deadlines. Now, with everything in one place, we save time and money while meeting the delivery preferences of our customers,” explains Maggie Carruthers, Customer Service and Operations Manager at Home Controls.

Operational excellence in the warehouse is also important to Home Controls. Carruthers expands, “With the Descartes solution, there’s no lag time between order placement and fulfillment, no discrepancies. It’s a huge benefit for ensuring accurate and well-balanced inventory in our warehouse. Plus, it’s simple to change order information for customers directly in Descartes ShipRush—and any changes are reflected immediately in NetSuite.”

Increased Shipping Efficiency Descartes ShipRush helps Home Controls expedite the shipping process by fully integrating with NetSuite and carriers for automatic order importing, label printing, rate shopping, and tracking through the last mile.

With NetSuite and carrier integration, Descartes ShipRush ensures accurate and efficient shipping. Customer orders can be easily amended, and Home Controls can respond swiftly to customer issues with easy access to up-to-date order information.

Manually comparing carrier costs was a time-consuming effort that hampered warehouse productivity and inflated shipping costs. With Descartes, Home Controls can rate-shop carriers side-by-side in real-time to ensure the best rate for each shipment.

From rate comparisons to label printing, by automating previously time-consuming, administrative-intensive shipping tasks for such a large and diverse product base, the Home Controls team is gaining higher value productive time in the warehouse.