NetDespatch Soars Towards Christmas Internet Shopping Peak
buy Christmas gifts online or through catalogues. In November alone, the delivery of over 8 million parcels will be managed online by the NetDespatch Velocity web-based platform, and with the scanning of parcels throughout the delivery process, the company’s secure web servers are processing an average of 100,000 transactions an hour.
Distribution, delivery and mailroom management companies are increasingly utilising on-demand software from NetDespatch to manage complex web technology, integration with customers, partners and suppliers, as well as seamlessly integrated real-time signature capture from GPRS-enabled hand held terminals.
TNT Post has utilised NetDespatch’s Velocity platform to create an end-to-end, wholly web- based solution to control its innovative packet and parcel home delivery services. The company is able to provide unparalled customer and supplier integration, with enterprise-wide visibility of data from customer despatch right through to courier delivery. TNT Post is also able to utilise the platform to offer a leading-edge customer returns solution.
Other carriers such as APC Overnight and Amtrak are increasingly providing home delivery services through the Velocity platform. This allows customers to book and track on line, whether an occasional shipper paying by credit card or a major customer requiring integration with their sales order processing or warehouse system. The NetDespatch systems integration, advanced bar code labelling and address checking services ensure that home delivery shopping order details are only entered once, are held securely on a central server, are automatically booked with the chosen parcel carrier, and are correctly labelled ready for collection from any location.
“The early indications are that retailers are seeing yet another big increase in online sales as Christmas approaches. It is always the busiest time for NetDespatch but this year we are likely to handle more than treble our previous transaction peak,” says Becky Clark, CEO of NetDespatch. “Even so,” she continues “our servers show only a slight increase in load as they have been architected to handle many times the volume we currently process.”
Earlier this year, due to exponential growth over the previous twelve months, and with turnover to May 2007 exceeding GBP1 million for the first time, the Marlow-based company moved to larger premises in order to house its increased staff. From a fledgling EMI .com business which survived the Internet boom and bust, NetDespatch, which is still privately owned, is an unusual success story, and is now one of the UK’s fastest growing technology companies.
“After three years of dedicated research and development, and five years working with our customers and end-users in the UK, we have seen them gain unique business agility and advantage. We have proven that we have a world-leading business solution and have recently expanded our senior management team to include further top technology and industry professionals, as well as retaining British Telecom to host and manage both our servers and mobile data solutions. 2008 will see us expanding from our UK base into both European and North American markets. With profit now growing rapidly we are able to invest in global software products, including advanced statistical reporting tools and sophisticated file management software, which will add further value to our fast developing portfolio of on demand web services,” comments Becky Clark.
