Crapola: The Daily Rubbish

Monday, September 25, 2006

Cutting Edge? FedEx ShipManager Isn't

PERMALINK || External link to topic of post

Sometimes you just have to ask yourself how a "Top 500" ranking is actually built. Do they really go hands on with some of these winners? Hmmm...

Case in point: FedEx Locks In Customers By Tying Shipping Data To Back-Office Apps, from InformationWeek at:
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=192700339

Don't get me wrong, FedEx ShipManager is a good piece of shipping software - I don't think I'm ready to give it an award though, and certainly not "Cutting Edge" by any measure. Although the piece isn't really a comparison or "shoot-out", anyone who has used rival UPS's WorldShip can pretty much see where I'm going. UPS WorldShip flat out leaves FedEx ShipManager in the dust, in performance, features and ease of use. Even the topic of the feature article, integration, is so much more reliable and intuitive with UPS WorldShip.

Here's an interesting quote, "We allow...drag and drop names from their address books into FedEx Ship Manager" - FedEx CIO Robert Carter. Unless he's talking about a totally different piece of software, I don't think there is any drag and drop whatsoever.

Compared to UPS's WorldShip, here are some "areas for improvement" facing FedEx ShipManager which should be apparent to anyone doing a full review of software in this category:
  • Integration isn't without bugs and FSM (FedEx ShipManager) has problems dealing with multiple package shipping during batch and single imports with some data successfully being imported during single packages, but mysteriously drops off with multiple package shipments (i.e. ShipAlert settings)

  • There is no automation whatsoever to repeat shipments, nor return shipments based on a past shipments. In a catalog/retail environment, good luck...

  • It has no long term "usable" storage options for shipping history. It essentially doesn't allow customers to maintain a record of shipments (shipment history) - which consequently ties into the previous item on less than optimal automation for repeat shipments (return or new) . In order to maintain some history, take heed: create an export profile and store your shipments in your own database. Don't waste your time tring to decipher reports, you'll get a nosebleed.

    re: it really has no "history" to speak of that you can use to "repeat" or "copy" a shipment you made in the past. All it has is a "daily history"...which is only good until the day's shipments are "closed"..yes, it's gone the next day...all you can do from that point onward is to track shipments...

  • Networked or not, you'd have to dedicate a machine to FSM. Why dedicated?
    • it has to be running before any "remote" clients can do anything
    • I don't think you'd want this puppy running in the background on your desktop - if you want to get other stuff done...and that's a comment from someone who has a workstation (not just a desktop - dual Xeons).

  • Gulp, FSM doesn't have any address validation whatsoever...ouch, even a much simpler/"less powerful" app from Stamps.com has this capability...We had to cobble up our own app, just to help FSM along...don't you think software in this category should be capable of this? Before being "crowned"?
FedEx ShipManager may have been the leader in the past, and in the past year or so, it really hasn't broken any new ground - and after being exposed to other solutions such as those mentioned above (not some custom software, the same out of the box, free software), I think this only becomes more apparent.

posted by EdSF at 9:53 PM

2 Comments:

  • As of 7/9/08:

    # Operating System Requirements

    * Microsoft® Windows ® XP with Service Pack 2 or
    * Microsoft® Windows ® 2000 with Service Pack 4 or
    * Microsoft® Windows ® Server 2003 with Service Pack 1
    * Microsoft Windows Vista is not supported with this version.

    # Minimum System Requirements

    * Intel® Pentium ® IV 2.0 GHz recommended (Intel ® Pentium IV 1.7 GHz minimum)
    * 512 MB RAM recommended (256 MB RAM minimum)
    * 200 MB disk space
    * LAN or DSL Internet access recommended (dial-up telephone line access minimum)
    * 4X CD-ROM or higher
    * 3 1/2" floppy drive
    * Microsoft® Internet Explorer ® v. 6.0
    * Available port if using a thermal printer
    * Laser and/or inkjet printer for reports and labels
    * Screen resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels recommended (screen resolution of 800 x 600 pixels minimum)

    We have this running on an XP Pro machine, 797 MHz Intel Pentium III, 480 MB RAM. We only use this machine for Fedex Ship Manager. It literally takes about 4 minutes for the program to start up, and close to a minute for each field entry to register, (Ex., click the drop down menu for shipping method, 30 seconds later, the menu finally appears. Select "1" for Priority Overnight, 30 seconds later your choice finally appears.) I know we don't meet the minimum CPU specs, but I don't understand why this program needs so much CPU power.

    By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9:12 AM  

  • Actually that's the way it really will be if you don't meet minimum requirements.

    It's a hefty piece of software - and in that sense, the latest and greatest from UPS also has hefty PC requirements.

    The more powerful they get, the more power they need from the PC.

    This post, though a bit dated, and there have been improvements with FedEx (they have address validation now), still applies to the things that matter: package and shipment automation.

    To date (7/2008), FedEx Ship Manager still cannot handle multi-package shipments automation (import files) properly.

    It's really a shame.

    By Blogger EdSF, at 9:12 AM  

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