Paragon Software Systems has announced major enhancements to its home delivery software. Paragon HDX integrates home delivery order management with live route optimisation enabling retailers and home shopping companies to improve their customer service. It helps companies manage their home delivery operations, enabling them to offer customers a choice of delivery options that are viable and cost effective. The home delivery software also reduces the cost of offering a premium service with narrower delivery windows.
The new features include web-based access to the system from any authorised site with enhanced usability, the flexibility to support depots having different planning cycles, repeat scheduling of deliveries over different frequencies, more flexible fleet availability management, and a simple web-ordering front end to complement an order management system.
In today’s highly competitive markets, customers increasingly expect good service as part of the sale. Unfortunately, they can be let down by inadequate home delivery services that are either inconvenient or result in late or missed deliveries. These missed deliveries incur major costs to the home delivery operator and retailer, which IMRG Research (Interactive Media in Retail Group) recently put at more than £790 million a year for the industry. Coupled with the repeat delivery costs is the loss of customers who turn to alternative sources, which can damage brand reputation. By using Paragon’s home delivery software, logistics departments will be able to work more closely with customer services departments to provide service improvements that will help build brand loyalty as well as win new business, while reducing costly delivery failures. The improvements in customer service are balanced with the company’s home delivery resources, with the software continuously optimising the home delivery routes as new orders are placed.
Paragon HDX home delivery software has a new web-based interface for quick, intuitive access to the system’s functions and it allows customised views of the home delivery plans. This makes it easy to highlight times for adjusting resources. The software’s resource diaries are displayed more clearly and can be altered in line with customer demand to handle special events such as sales and public holidays. Transport planners gain from a simpler view of the home delivery plan enabling them to review progress and finalise changes. The system also makes it easy to plan regular repeat deliveries with fixed frequency patterns.
Paragon HDX is a configurable modular system that can also be linked with vehicle tracking and proof of delivery systems for real-time fleet and delivery management.
