V-Technologies
Streamlining Shipping Software Solutions

Twenty years back, shippers used hand written shipping labels for each shipment and referred to multiple paper charts to calculate rates. Two young college grads decided to tackle this laborious task. “We knew that to really make our solution as efficient and error-free as possible, we had to eliminate the re-entry of shipping information and access it directly from the accounting system,” explains Angelo Volta, President of Cheshire, Connecticut based V-Technologies.

Volta admits that the challenges for shippers have increased in the past 20 years. Processing Shipment, which was a low-tech function of the business, has now been transformed to a very information intensive process. “Having to deal with ever increasing amount of shipping data at a time when most recipients expect a shipping notification email within 24-hours of placing their order make it exceedingly difficult to not leverage technology for a helping hand,” says Volta. This is where StarShip, in integration with SAGE products, enters the shipping universe. Not only does Starship drastically reduce the time and errors in processing shipments, it instantly sends detailed shipping notifications to the recipient.

Starship provides complete integration with the existing ERP system so that there is no need for manual data transfer or use of different software solutions. Companies can ship small parcels and LTL from this application, using tools like rate shopping and ship via rules to find the most cost effective transportation method. StarShip not only streamlines shipping, but can automatically invoice shipped orders, include shipping information for improved customer service, and even integrate to EDI solutions for Advanced Ship Notice (ASN) generation. The dashboard provides instant access to shipment history, metrics and reporting, so there is no need to go back to the warehouse to gather these details on a shipment. To sum it all “work less, ship more” is what V-Technologies touts for Starship.

To overcome the information gaps that might exist due to multiple applications being used by a company, say, UPS WorldShip or FedEx Ship Manager, V-Technologies introduced ShipGear to shift the gear a notch higher. All a company needs to do is weigh the package and process the shipment. The order is automatically updated with shipment details and tracking numbers. With ShipGear and StarShip easing the processes, “Who thought shipping would be so exciting, really?” exclaims Volta.

Like children sharing toys on a playground, having different software sharing information is a beautiful thing

Both of these products work in integration with Sage. “We had an awesome opportunity to work directly with Sage to build better shipping functionality into their flagship product (MAS 90, back then) in the late 90's,” explains Volta. That was the time when Sage sold Starship through the reseller community. “In 2011, we made the decision to bring the interface development and sales in-house with the goal to provide our current and future customers with more new features, more value and more to look forward to in terms of future enhancements,” adds Volta. Both, Sage users and resellers gave double thumbs up to this move.

Group Sales, Inc. based of Cincinnati Ohio, is one of those satisfied clients whose shipping operations were redefined by Starship integrated with Sage 100. They were earlier using carrier provided software that was disconnected with the rest of operations resulting in lot of manual data transfers. Deploying Starship gave them an opportunity to expand their shipping options to include USPS and streamline their EDI workflow with the MAPADOC integration.

Providing simple solutions to complex problems is what V-Technologies strives to achieve. Also, to provide quality software support to customers so that they can reach a knowledgeable representative when they need is extremely important. As for the future roadmaps, some very exciting things lie ahead in 2015, but Volta maintains the secrecy.