Australian Retailer Myer Successfully Deployed Descartes' Web-based Dock Appointment Scheduling Solution
NEW YORK, Jan. 11, 2010 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NRF 99th Annual Convention & EXPO Convention -- Descartes Systems Group (TSX:DSG) (Nasdaq:DSGX), a federated global network logistics solutions provider, announced that Myer Pty. Ltd., a leading Australian retailer, successfully deployed Descartes' web-based Dock Appointment Scheduling solution to help it manage and automate its inbound deliveries.
Descartes' Dock Appointment Scheduling solution enables shippers, carriers and consignees to collaboratively schedule loading dock appointments via the internet. By sharing the responsibility for loading dock door scheduling with inbound carriers and suppliers, rather than solely being the responsibility of Myer's warehouse personnel, Myer has streamlined its dock appointment process. With visibility into requested, scheduled and rescheduled dock appointments, Descartes' solution helps Myer optimize its receiving operations for inbound shipments to its warehouses, minimizing its demurrage and receiving labor.
For Myer, lead times, inventory, promotion dates and ensuring compliance are mission-critical factors to manage its operations. As part of its company turnaround strategy, Myer committed to developing a world-class supply chain and identified that the visibility and coordination of inbound freight shipments to its warehouses was critical to improving its supply chain performance. Historically, Myer's processes were manual, requiring suppliers and carriers to make multiple calls into each Myer Regional Distribution Center to determine delivery slots into the Myer warehouses.
With four distribution centers currently live and over 200 carriers and over 800 suppliers able to access the Descartes Dock Appointment Scheduling solution using the internet, Myer has reduced the time for booking a request to a confirmed delivery slot from hours down to several minutes. This has enabled Myer resources to focus time on other areas of the business and serving its customers. Descartes has provided Myer with real-time visibility into warehouse dock staffing requirements, allowing it to coordinate the flow of inbound freight to staff availability.
Myer's commitment to improving the efficiency of our supply chain has never been stronger. A key focus for us is enabling a platform that facilitates open communication across the entire supply chain to ensure visibility, transparency and the sharing of plans and information. We are working together with suppliers and carriers towards the same outcomes. Descartes' Dock Appointment Scheduling solution provides greater control over our inbound freight processes, which in turn enables us to more effectively manage warehouse operations, eliminate non-value-added 'back-and-forth' communications with our carriers and significantly reduce wait time at our docks, said Darragh Miller, National Supply Chain Manager at Myer. Descartes provides us with a flexible solution that enables us to improve our operations and delivery performance, whilst at the same time improving our overall service. Our suppliers win, our customers win and so does our bottom line.
Myer sets a high standard for other retailers that are looking to optimize their inbound freight operations and maximize their operational efficiency, said Lee Karlinsky, Vice President Alliances and Corporate Accounts of Descartes. Our solutions enable organizations, like Myer, to simplify their complex delivery operations, and gain greater control over essential processes.
Descartes teamed with Bestrane Group to provide this solution for Myer. Bestrane Group is a Descartes United by Design alliance for Descartes' logistics management solutions in Australia and New Zealand.
The Bestrane Group is proud to work with Descartes and Myer to deliver this value-add solution for Myer, said David Sanders, Managing Director of Bestrane Group. The ability to enable carriers and suppliers to schedule their arrival at Myer distribution centers is not only far more efficient but also reduces each party's exposure under Chain of Responsibility legislation. Descartes' solutions form a key plank in our strategy to continue to provide best-in-class, web-based logistics solutions to the Australian marketplace.
For more information about Descartes' Logistics Suite for Retailers and Federated platform, visit Descartes representatives at the NRF 99th Annual Convention & EXPO Convention at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York City from January 10 to 13 at Booth #1623.
About Myer
With 65 stores nationally, Myer is Australia's leading department store with 65 stores across the country. Myer are continually transforming to better serve customers and their changing needs. Myer's commitment to always having the biggest choice of products for customers has led to new and innovative ways of displaying merchandise within stores. Today Myer employs over 20,000 people nationally and focuses on high personal development for each individual. For more information, visit www.myer.com.au
About Bestrane
Founded in 2003, The Bestrane Group is an organization focused on managing specialist software solutions and provides a range of specialized business skills in the areas of strategy, costing, supply chain management and business information systems. Bestrane has a proven delivery record across a range of industry sectors including retail, distribution, manufacturing, engineering, banking and finance. The Bestrane Group has a staff of 15 based in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia with over 100 years of combined supply chain experience. For more information, visit www.bestrane.com.au
About Descartes
Descartes (TSX:DSG) (Nasdaq:DSGX), is making the world a better place by enabling global organizations with logistics-intensive businesses to save money by improving the productivity and performance of their operations. Underlying Descartes' offerings is the Descartes Global Logistics Network (GLN), one of the world's most extensive multi-modal business applications network. As a federated platform, the Descartes GLN combines with component-based 'nano' sized applications to provide messaging services between logistics trading partners, shipment management services to help manage third party carriers and private fleet management services for organizations of all sizes. Descartes' solutions and services deliver results by enabling organizations around the world to reduce administrative costs, billing cycles, fleet size, contract carrier costs, and mileage driven; improve pickup and delivery reliability; and optimize working capital through fleet visibility. Descartes' hosted, transactional and packaged solutions deliver repeatable, measurable results and fast time-to-value. Descartes customers include an estimated 1,600 ground carriers and more than 90 airlines, 30 ocean carriers, 900 freight forwarders and third-party providers of logistics services, and hundreds of manufacturers, retailers, distributors, private fleet owners and regulatory agencies. The company has more than 400 employees and is based in Waterloo, Ontario, with operations in Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Ottawa, Montreal, Miami, Minneapolis, Washington DC, Derby, London, Stockholm, Shanghai, and Toronto. For more information, visit www.descartes.com.
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