The COVID-19 pandemic has thrown a wrench in the plans of many companies that outsource to third party logistic providers (3PLs), disrupting their places of business in a drastic way. Employees and their teams have had the difficult task of trying to problem-solve new challenges on a daily basis in regards to their personal lives and workplaces.
Despite everything, many are choosing to put the safety and health of their employees as a top priority. As such, many of our fulfillment clients are making the choice to have their non-essential workers complete their tasks at home. No one could have seen this coming, and everyone was treading in unfamiliar waters. With new technologies available to us, running a successful business remotely can be achieved thanks to the advances in cloud-based technology.
The transition has not been achieved without challenges. Businesses that are using older technologies and rely more on on-site equipment have been struggling to keep up. Fortunately, with help from Fulco Fulfillment Inc (FFI), you will be able to have full view and control of your inventory—all accessible from the comfort of your home office.
Is remote fulfillment even possible?
Handling fulfillment from any location can prove to be a daunting task. You will find yourself needing to assist new clients, figure out finances, or look up the status of an order. So it’s important to have the proper tools needed to access all of this information anywhere and anytime, whether that is through your own resources or the resources of a third party logistics provider (3PL) like FFI.
FFI’s essential employees have been faithfully reporting into the warehouse throughout the pandemic to ensure our remote fulfillment customers’ orders get picked, packed, and accurately shipped on-time. This means our customers can access their order information anytime, anywhere, by logging into FFI’s order management system (OMS).
The Key Tools to Remote Fulfillment
Reliable 24-Hour Uptime for Client Order Processing
The focus here is running your business rather than worrying about the reliability of your fulfillment warehouse. With our platform’s access to inventory, user data, and activity, you can run your business remotely in real time. You never have to worry if your orders will be processed because we maintain and meet your fulfillment expectations.
By logging into the OMS, you have access to important information and common tasks necessary to running your business:
- Inventory history
- Product quantities and usage
- Package tracking links
- Understock notifications
- Order and shipping confirmations
- Place online orders
- Choose expedited shipping
- Run data reports
- Estimate average monthly usage
Real-time visibility is critical within our industry. FFI’s client portal gives you access to your data at any time of day.
Is it worth adapting to remote practices with the end of the pandemic in sight?
Work-from-home and virtual access that started abruptly due to the pandemic has now become the new normal. The continuous momentum of both the vaccines and opening of brick-and-mortar establishments has our fulfillment customers evaluating where they want to work. Some are deciding whether to report back to the office 100%, remain partially remote going forward (working 2-3 days a week away from the office), or to go fully remote. Many businesses have become accustomed to this new flexibility. Major establishments have chosen to remain at least partially remote, including tech giants like Facebook, Salesforce, and Microsoft.
The New Normal Needs Flexibility
There’s no going back to the days before on-demand fulfillment management. Trust your business to a 3PL you can rely on with years of experience to show for it. Contact FFI and see for yourself how you can begin the process of remote fulfillment.