Specialist Sports Improves Order Management and Picking Process with BPA Platform

Codeless Platforms today revealed that Specialist Sports, a sports distribution, product creation, and brand marketing agency for adidas, Prince, Osaka, TON, Payntr, Athlecia, and Endurance, has increased the speed and accuracy of its order management and picking process, having replaced its old ERP system with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and installing BPA Platform as its main integration and automation solution.

Prior to the implementation of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and Codeless Platforms’ BPA Platform, the majority of processes, such as order management and picking, were performed manually. However, Specialist Sports quickly realised that it could now easily integrate all its other business systems, including its B2B Magento website and AutoStore – an automated warehouse storage system.

“The great thing about BPA Platform is that having integrated it with Dynamics Business Central it then opens up opportunities to integrate other areas of our business. For example, our original B2B website was bespoke, but we’re just transitioning over to a Magento-based platform. We’re using BPA Platform to integrate that with Business Central to give us live stock information and all of our attributes,” explained Richard Mantell, CEO, Specialist Sports.

“Before we implemented our B2B website, we used to take a lot of orders via phone calls, so that revolutionised how we were able to take orders. Similarly, the picking process was also very manual. We used to print out the pick sheets, send them down to the warehouse, and the staff would wander around the warehouse picking the orders.”

“We’ve since implemented a system called AutoStore which has eight robots running with 20,000 boxes in the grid. Orders that we take on our B2B website flow into the ERP. The ERP then pushes those orders into AutoStore when we release the pick. The robots then present the boxes to the operations team at the ports. They take the product out, click next, the robot sweeps away, and then the next box is presented. That’s been great in terms of BPA Platform.”

“We’ve also used BPA Platform for automating stock feeds, to generate stock information for our retailers. We’re finding that our more advanced retailers are now able to take a feed, which they can integrate into their systems, so that they can see exactly how much we’ve got in stock. We have set up BPA Platform to generate an email with a CSV file so that when they’re doing their buying they know we’ve definitely got the stock available. Rather than having to visit our website they can simply check the stock feed. That’s been a good project and really helpful.”

“Furthermore, we’re starting to use BPA Platform to integrate Dynamics Business Central with all the marketplaces, such as Amazon and eBay. We upload product descriptions, stock etc, and then the orders flow back into our ERP system.”

Installing a strong ERP system, integrating its B2B website, and automating its picking and packing, has enabled Specialist Sports to scale and grow without compromising on the important bit – its customers.

“Automation has definitely improved our business. The first improvement has been space saving, because we can get a lot more product in our warehouse now that we have installed the robotic management system. From an operational and efficiency point of view that’s made a huge difference, especially by eliminating the significant cost of renting another warehouse. From a picking point of view, the speed that we can get through picks has increased, as well as the accuracy. It’s made a huge difference and certainly helped a lot,” said Richard Mantell.

“I believe the secret to our success is how we’ve managed to scale up the business from a very small, family-run company whilst maintaining the really positive parts of the smaller setup, in terms of good customer service and a good atmosphere and environment within the team. BPA Platform is starting to provide us with that, which will enable us to maximise growth in different areas.”