 Note: This change requires integration with another system, so up to 1 day has been added to the specification and testing time to allow for this. If the specification time increases beyond this time allowed due to additional work required during this stage, the estimate will be increased to cover the actual time taken.
Assumptions:
- Jobs will be sent to Partnerlink and through to CALIDUS ePOD using the existing JobShare interfaces.
- Pallets for these Pallet Networks will be labelled with their own network's pallet labels, and not Partnerlink labels, like PalletForce. It is expected that pallets will be created by CALIDUS ePOD in the normal way, identifying the individual pallets by assigning each pallet a unique ID, counting from the 1 to the total number of pallets.
- The new partners will accept updates into their Transport systems from CALIDUS EPOD in the standard OBS format - the pallet network system will be updated separately. This will require a modification to identify consignments as being completed for Pall-Ex.
- The Consignment will already exist within the Pall-Ex TWINE system, ready for updating with POD information from CALIDUS ePOD.
- AE Parker will be assigned a Partner Code by Partnerlink, which will be provided to OBS Logistics prior to implementation of this change.
Note: This process is dependent on multiple reason codes for pallet networks change, specified in EST 318572 PART Job Group Level Clausing - No Duplicates. The work for this change must be completed before or as part of this change.
Note: The reason codes used by Pall-Ex are not currently used in the Partnerlink system (2 character numeric values from 01 to 19), so these will not cause any contention in the system.
Process:
- The new partner A.E.Parker will be set up with a new partner code within CALIDUS ePOD, will be configured for their use following the standard configuration. This partner will be configured for export to the TMS system in use.
- Pall-Ex specific reason codes will be set up as required by the Pall-Ex TWINE system.
- New Pall-Ex Jobs will be sent to Partnerlink through the existing JobShare format, or directly to the back-end TMSs.
- When planned, these jobs will be sent to CALIDUS ePOD through the existing interface in use for the existing partners, and will be identified with a new Job Group e.g. PALLEX. Note: This will require change to the sending process from the TMS system to accommodate this new job group.
- The jobs will be completed like any other normal delivery.
- When jobs are completed, the existing AutoExport functionality will update the Partners (identified through their Partner Codes) using a flat-file export of the job details in OBS Logistics' XML format, as it does with each existing partner.
- The AutoExport process will also export the files to Pall-Ex TWINE system, identified through the Job's Group and the configuration attached to it.
- The AutoExport functionality will store the success or failure of the export, along with any of the returned reasons from the export.
The Admin Export Configuration screen will be changed to allow the parameters for the new Pall-Ex extract to be specified against it.
The Partnerlink Import process will be modified to add a field to the import process to identify the Pallet System in use (for example, Palletforce, Pall-Ex, Fortec).
The new Pall-Ex Export process will work as follows:
At least 2 messages will be sent to update the Pall-Ex TWINE system, by connecting through three methods of their existing webservice:
- AddEpodPallet – One message sent per pallet on the consignment, to update a pallet and consignment with delivery and signatory information.
- AddEpodConsignment – One message sent per cancelled consignment, to update the consignment as cancelled delivery, with an appropriate reason code. Note: It is possible that the TMS systems may not be able to accurately identify the actual Pall-Ex pallet identity for the individual pallets. In this case (decided at functional specification stage), the process may be amended to always use this webservice to confirm the consignment as delivered rather than the above AddEpodPallet webservice.
- AddMPodImage – to upload the signature image from the delivery to the consignment.
The process will check the responses of sending these messages to the webservice, and will store the results in the Audit tables within CALIDUS ePOD. Messages that process in error will be marked as such, so that they may be identified and reprocessed manually if required. |
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