Name: Modern Shipping on IBM i: How to Extend the Life (and Power) of Your System
Uploaded: 2025-11-16T16:12:05.850Z
Duration: 53 min
Description: Modern Shipping on IBM i: How to Extend the Life (and Power) of Your System

Transcript for "Modern Shipping on IBM i: How to Extend the Life (and Power) of Your System": Alright. Hello, everyone, and welcome. Thank you so much for joining us today for our webinar, modern shipping on how to extend the life and power of your system. My name is Taylor Pualka, and I head up alliances and marketing for Varsity, and I'm gonna be your host today. So before we jump in, just a quick note, q and a. So if you are joining us on LinkedIn live or if you're joining us on the webinar platform, make sure to find either the question box or the chat, and you can put any of your questions there during the session, and we will get to them towards the end. So without further ado, I want to introduce my panelists here, Charlie and Roberto. So, Charlie, you wanna kick us off? Hi. I'm Charlie Hawkins, director of sales at Varsity. Twenty two years at Varsity, thirty years in the multi carrier shipping software business. Thank you. Great. And, Roberta? Hi. My name is Roberto Anselloni. I'm the senior director of operations and client relations at Varsity. My background is technical. I have a college degree in computer science, and when I started working for Varsity, I was a programmer and software installer at our client sites. Today, my main responsibilities are managing professional services group and the help desk support. I've been with Varsity Logistics for over twenty years already. Wonderful. Thanks, guys. So, let's get into it. As many of you know, the IVMI platform is a workhorse. It is reliable, secure, and center to your e central to your ERP. But many think complex demands are forcing key logistics functions off your trusted system. So today, we are going to challenge that notion. We'll show you how to leverage g I v m i's power for all of your modern shipping needs. So why are we talking about this? Let's start with the central challenge that brings everyone here today. It's the IVMI paradox. So we all know that the system is unmatched in its stability and security, but why do so many logistics leaders still feel forced to look elsewhere when it comes to shipping? Charlie, what are your thought on this perceived paradox? Great observation, Taylor. There is an I there is a paradox. The IBM I, as you point out, is powerful, stable, central, but, unfortunately, it's not always perceived as modern, and the green screen situation, is not helping the situation. We look forward to speaking about why there's so much wrong with the perception of software that runs on the eye in many cases. There is a way to use it without green screen. There are modern APIs, deep in a very, very deep integration to your ERP or WMS, advanced carrier compliance, and real time data and advanced functionality just to name a few. Awesome. Great. So thank you so much, Charlie. But, Roberto, let's get a little technical, and everyone bear with us. I'm sure all of you have more technical bones in your body than I do, so I'm sure you'll enjoy this. So, let's tell everyone how it can be done starting with bringing all those complex shipping nodes, parcel, LTL, hazmat, and international into one centralized engine? Go ahead. No. Well, I think the, main problem with having to integrate with all the various parcel and LTL carriers for different types of shipping, such as HAZMAT and international, is that each carrier interface has different requirements and complex parameter lists, and they are often based on different integration technologies and methods. So, the ideal shipping solution needs, to allow for a single consistent shipping array shopping API that is based on the same consistent suite parameter list for all carriers and shipping types, making the ERP integration with the shipping system easy and straightforward, and leaving the integration complexity and details buried deep inside the actual shipping system. So let the shipping system development team figure out figure out and manage all the integration details with the carriers and keep up with the compliance changes. Right? With the one consistent shipping and rate shopping API, no matter the compliant changes imposed by the carrier, which are offered on a quarterly basis or even monthly basis, the ERP to shipping system interface will remain the same or very much the same. Having one consistent shipping ratio, and ratio of an API also lowers the learning curve for the programmers involved with the interface development. Basically, once you learn the consistent technology and parameter list, you're ready to make any interface changes independently and fast and efficiently. Awesome. That's the goal. Right? So Exactly. Exactly. So, let's get into automated rating and carrier compliance. So we've established that the API handles the complexity of all those note or those modes, but just having an interface clearly isn't enough. So the real power is what happens inside the engine with automated rating and compliance checks. Roberto, can you also talk us through how this works directly on IBM? Well, I think the, API based compliance integration with carriers has some advantages, but then the shipper relies on the API response time and Internet availability for printing labels and rating. Most importantly, the shipper will rely on the accuracy of the rates returned by the API. Lastly, very likely, the API will return the shipping label that, needs to be printed with very little or no opportunity to make any customizations, not even minor. So there's a lot of value in having all the various compliance rules and parameters defined within the shipping system in the IBM I. First of all, the carrier compliance is highly configurable and, therefore, is easy to tailor and customize to the possible specific shippers requirements such as, custom labels or custom rating rules. Also, the inter the internal control file setup automatically triggers the appropriate interfaces and parameters requires for required for the specific care compliance, including any custom logic. So once the setup is done and the interface program is developed, everything happens automatically and in a reliable and consistent manner. In addition, yes, the care compliance data will require some time for the periodic compliance updates such as the the rates, zones, and special charges update, but it will be accurate and reliable, especially in the case of contract based rate discounted rates. Since the discounted contract based rates are configured and tested locally, the shipper has control and is able to reliably calculate the expected care charges for prepaid and prepaid net shipments and use those reliable discounted, contract rates calculated during the shipping process to check and audit the freight bills later on. Instead of relying on a rate that is hopefully correct and hopefully based on the correct contract discounts that are returned by the carrier API. The this concept of on premise, premises locally defined carrier maintenance versus API based carrier maintenance and rating integration applies to both parcel and LTL carriers. And any ideal modern shipping solutions such as Varsity Logistics on the IBM I must offer both options for both types of shipping. So in summary, I think the ideal shipping system such as in the case of Varsity Logistics needs to provide both solutions. API based compliance integration with the carrier and also locally defined and maintained carrier compliance so that the shipper can decide what's more important for them. A little more complex, compliance maintenance for the on premises solution in the IBM I, but fast and reliable and easily customizable versus API based care compliance integration that would possibly be a little be a little bit less reliable and probably have a slower response time and fewer opportunities for customizations. But the advantage is that the big advantage is that it would require little or no ongoing care compliance maintenance. So, the shipper can decide what's more important for them if the shipping system offers both options. Yeah. Choice seems to be key. That's what it sounds like. Exactly. So thank you so much, Roberto. That was a really good detailed, response. So detailed compliance ensures the rate is accurate, but the process isn't necessarily complete until the physical document is generated. Right? So let's let's talk a little bit about output and document management. Roberto, can you share more about how the system manages label generation and that special documentation? Yeah. The shipping labels in Varsity Logistics are printed on Zebra printers via IBM I spool files written in ZPL Zebra language, and those SPO files are routed to the specific shipping station printer that is configured within the system. Labels in ZPL language printed via the IBM I SPO files on Zebra printers guarantee maximum throughput and reliability. Special documents such as hazmat label forms, bill of ladings, and also international documents are printed via IBM I spool files to laser printers also configured by shipping station. There's also another option. PDFs can also be generated and printed or stored in the IBM I IFS, also emailed if needed. Wonderful. Thanks, Roberto. So handling all those complex rules from DIM way to contract rates directly on the IBM seems to be IBM I seems to be clear. But compliance and centralized control are just one side of the coin. So on the other side is efficiency. And once we have the rules handled, as Roberto noted, Charlie, how do we use that intelligence to reduce costs and speed up our operations in shipping? Sure. Sure, Taylor. There are a couple of ways that that customers can, you know, get value and cost savings, out of the out of the system in in this category. And one would be increased throughput or velocity through your warehouse operation, and the other would be through savings, cost savings by picking the right carrier and even putting the right items in the right sized box. So, to talk about rate shopping, there's there's options, with both up you know, rate shopping upstream, and rate shopping downstream. So an example of rate shopping upstream would be getting rates, up at order entry. So you can make either give a rate quote or make that decision based on customer input live. We could also do that automatically, you know, use business rules and under certain circumstances or situations, use this carrier, that carrier, even adhere to, UCC one twenty eight, eight fifty six advanced ship notice customer rules automatically without user intervention. Another example of upstream would be from a website. So, you know, people from a website can pick their carrier and can automatically do this or that, or we can automatically do it up there as well. Oftentimes, that increases efficiency if it's done upstream. It certainly adds a little bit of time, to do it downstream. But downstream examples would be from the packing station and the shipping station. So, let's talk a little bit about some advanced functionality that also leads to cost savings and efficiency. And that would be some of our advanced packing, modules or functionality. So we we can actually get the data, from our packing, from from our excuse me, our packing module and manage which items are in which boxes or which boxes are on which pallets. So from that, there's another step that where we can actually optimize the shipment. And what does that mean? Optimization means to select the right pieces or boxes, the core pieces of corrugated to actually most efficient most efficiently ship that order. So, you know, this many in this box, that many in that box, all staying underneath the dimensional, weight limit, so to speak, for for a lower cost shipment. And, yeah, so I think that's probably the best summary, so to speak, of of of that question, Taylor. Yeah. That's that's sounded great. And I I didn't wanna interrupt you because you're on a roll, but I will say that I love when a website has the rates in, like, right in front of you. Like, I love that. I think that's super great from a consumer point of view, but I totally understand the benefits of downstream rate shopping as well with those actuals. So thank you so much for providing that. Roberto, let's let's move from from getting it right to getting it optimized and kinda extend that, discussion on on what Charlie left off on. So can you talk us through some of these advanced packing solutions that Charlie mentioned? Yeah. So let's deep deep dive a little bit into what bar into what Charlie mentioned. So first of all, Varsity Logistics offers a user driven packing module where the user decides what items to pack in the containers. So you have a a list of containers available on which you have to pack. You have a list of items that you can pack, from the pick ticket. And the user also decides how to build pallets in case of LTL shipping. So using this method, there is no automatic system tubing or validation to avoid extra surcharges or, such as bin weight or large package surcharges. Containers might not be might not be packed efficiently, but the user has full control over packing, which is very important when items of unusual shape or dimensions are packed and when the packing containers are not preestablished. Sometimes packers, embed smaller items into bigger items. They stack items. Right? So, it it it is a lot up to the user to decide how to build these containers. Again, control is key even though containers might not be packed efficiently. But sometimes when items are so unusual in shape and weight or just manufactured, is very difficult to, have a system that can that can put it all together. Varsity Logistics also offer an automatic packing module where an optimized packing software algorithm based on known item dimensions and weight, and available container types will create the packing structures and containers for the shipment trying to avoid, like Charlie said, as much as possible, dim, dim weight and large package surcharges, for example, by trying to, try different packing configurations, different cubing solutions, and it's a very complex it's a very complex algorithm. Basic take basically, taking the items and moving them around the boxes, trying to find the best, most efficient configuration. The packer will have to follow the packing instructions and suggestions from the automatic, from the automated, packing module, done upstream instead of making the packing decisions. Thus, we're eliminating human error and inefficient packing because the packer is using the software packing instructions. And you can do that through, you know, screens, label printing, form printings. We have various ways of doing invas, or you can just access the data and, and, you know, print, the packing configuration, for example, in a packing list. When either packing solution is installed, together with the shipping engine, since the individual container content is known, it would be possible to print custom container packing labels, like UCC one twenty eight labels or any other custom labels. This is done by interfacing with the TL Ashford software, to allow an easy custom label development. So even if even, the internal, the shipper's development team can develop the label. You don't need to be, you know, a highly skilled programmer to use TL Ashford. Also, EDI information extraction would be available, to be interfaced into an EDI translation software of choice for an EDI, ESN, a 50 a 56 transaction creation. So even though Varsity Logistics doesn't create the actual transaction, we can extract the information if you have the packing module because now we know, you know, what's inside the what's inside the containers and how are the container, containers, put together, for example, in a pallet. Packing within the shipping system is very important because we make international shipping and shipment shipping, which are both, supported by Varsity Logistics, much easier and effortless, since these two types of shipping require item level information that is not otherwise required. So if you have shipped you know, the packing, module in Varsity Logistics, international shipping and shipment shipping will be effortless and would just be a consequence, you know, a consequence or, like, an easy an easy, lead into the international enhancement shipping rules, basically. Awesome. Thank you, Roberto. Appreciate that. And thank you, Charlie, for the lead in. Seeing how system can automatically rate shop and even optimize packing to fight against those rising dim light charges shows, like, huge potential for savings. So let's let's move a little bit further, though, and talk about control after the truck leaves the dock. And I think this is such a huge topic right now in the industry. So, Charlie, if you could walk us through post shipment management, and specifically how we close the loop to turn shipping into a profit center rather than a cost drain. Sure. Thank you. There are a lot of ways to to do that, a lot of benefits after the box has left your building. You know, one would be the auditing of those bills that come in, both LTL and parcel, and I think Roberto plans on talking a little bit more about that. But an in house first cut or or, auditing function of the shipping system itself, no third parties, is a huge benefit to folks. So, I'll let Roberto talk more about that. But the other is our historical data, you know, because we're we're on the eye and we're sitting there next year ERP or WMS, worst anything that's that's required to ship a package is all saved in Varsity Logistics. And by the way, we manage two buckets for cost, you know, what your carrier charge is gonna be and also what you wanna charge your customer. But all the data is there, so it's not sitting out there with some carrier somewhere. It it's not sitting out there in in a a third party cloud that or that doesn't have access to your ERP and some of your, reporting management. So historical data can be can be, managed, report against in our system, or your own, and that that really helps create actionable items and and and k b KPIs. Awesome. Thank you, Charlie. And, Roberto, do you wanna dive a little bit deeper into that and provide a little bit more, technical knowledge? Yeah. Let's let's deep dive into that and be a little bit more technical and provide a little bit more detail. So I think an ideal modern IBM-based shipping interface should offer options for automatic shipping confirmation in the ERP once the shipment is complete. So since all the shipping data is kept on the IBM i, the two way interface can return all the shipping information that is available back to the ERP, such as tracking and pro numbers, you know, the final shipping weight, and so on. But most importantly, it can return the freight amount and store it in the ERP database. So the interface back to the ERP should also support all custom logic that is necessary to ship confirm the order so that the order will move to a ready to invoice status for accurate billing. The consistent two way interface parameter structure that we discussed at the very beginning will make the ship confirm interface back to the ERP very easy to program. You know, I'm a technical guy. I'm always thinking about the programmers, right, and the job they have to do. So, this is because all the shipping results, no matter the carrier or the shipping type, are returned consistently by the shipping API in the same return parameters, and this is what makes it easy. Also, another advantage of having the the data stored in the IBM, is, audit trade bills like, Charlie mentioned. So Varsity offers automated freight bill audit for both LTL and parcel carriers. In particular, we're very good with UPS and FedEx bills. Electronic, freight invoices can be downloaded to the IBM in an IFS drive on the PC when available on the carrier website. Then the user will set up dynamic audit rules and variance, rules and will always define how to treat, will also define how to treat the invoice based on the audit results. So thanks to this system, there there would be no more user driven manual audit where paper invoices are visually compared to expected calculated freight amount. That that's crazy. Right? Most importantly, the audit would be automated and owned and performed by the shipper with no need to pay, the high cost for audits performed by outside companies like Charlie mentioned. The audit process compares invoice freight amounts against expected contract based charges that were calculated at shipment time at shipment time and that they were kept in the manifest database until the invoice is received and the audit is executed. The user will go through exception handling. The user will review and approve or or partial approve the exceptions or reject them. And then an optional AP interface can also be built so that the approved payments can automatic automatically flow to the, accounts payable system. And, another observation that I wanna make that is that it's very important to have a system that detects freight discrepancies not only because they, because not only because of the obvious financial repercussions of being billed incorrectly by the carrier, but also because a freight discrepancy can be the symptom of a system technical issue or operational and user issue that reflects on the incorrect and processing that will be then be detected by the carrier when package weights and dimensions are audited at the carrier hub, thus creating the discrepancy between the freight being built and what the shipper was expecting. In other words, the Varsity Logistics Audit module can also resolve or help resolve technical and operational issues that are, discovered thanks to the discrepancy in freight. Thank you, Roberto. That was, like, super in-depth and awesome, so I really appreciate your input. Alright. So, let's go to advanced system solutions and customization. So, this, I think, is really, really interesting. We've covered the core foundation of compliance, optimization, and audit, but what about the complex custom needs of a modern warehouse as well as cloud and cross platform integration? Say that five times fast. Roberto, this is a 100% your domain, so I'm just gonna continue with you if you don't mind. Let's talk about how leading shipping solutions like Varsity Logistics integrates these systems into custom workflows and future proofs the entire operation. Yeah. The Varsity professional services engineers have implemented very interesting advanced, custom solutions in the field. I I can talk about it for for hours, but I won't. So I'm gonna give you for a few examples. So we have done pick to label solutions, especially based on the ship optimizer functionality that we discussed. We have done several batch shipment processing solutions where the, order information is uploaded to Varsity and the IBM I, For example, via spreadsheets, and then all the shipments are generated in batch and invisibly, automatically, creating the manifest information, the labels, and all the necessary shipment documents without any user intervention. We have implemented, custom drop shipping and zone skipping solutions to optimize shipping and reduce the freight costs. And, another example, very common, is that many of our customers also request custom shipping labels. This is, you know, 90% of our customers, And, they often require a four by eight, label instead of a four by six with a logo printed on it and or special barcodes for internal warehouse routing when customers run automated conveyor system systems. So the four by six, compliance label is usually very busy and very complex, so we have to extend it extend it by at least two, inches. So we're separate into the four by six. We print the four by eight. All the four by six compliance would be at the top. And then, for example, at the bottom, we can print the the logo or on the top, and then we can, you know, print the barcode for internal, warehouse routing. So these are example, but, like I said, well, I can I can talk for a long time about this stuff? Well, I might make you talk a little bit more. So, the examples that you gave really show how adaptable the Varsity Logistics Logistics platform is, and how skilled everyone is that works there. But, there's oftentimes that Varsity Logistics Logistics needs to integrate with physical devices on the warehouse floor. So, Roberto, if you could share some of the most common examples, and powerful types of customer RCs done with that, that would be great. Yes. We have implemented automated warehouse interfaces with devices such as waiting motion systems, Cubiscan, print and apply systems, and much more. We also integrate with all kind of scales by automatically retrieving the weight and importing it into our in the into the Varsity Logistics Logistics system without any user trigger scan or any type of intervention to get the weight. So they don't have to press button, scan anything. There's no, there's no other intervention other than placing the package on the scale. That would trigger the weight to go directly into Varsity Logistics Logistics. For cloud cloud based ERP systems, we're we also have engineered cross cross platform interfaces and integrations that have been very successful, I must say, always following the same model of a two way interface that not only maps the order information from the ERP to Varsity Logistics for shipping and rate shopping, but also that ship confirms the orders in the ERP on other platforms. The same way we do on the IVMI, we can do it on, cross platform ERPs. Excellent wrap up. Love that. So thank you guys for such a comprehensive look at modernizing shipping on IVMI. Just a quick reminder to the audience that we're almost to q and a, so you can still submit those questions through the webinar platform, q and a section, or in chat on LinkedIn live. So quickly, before we get to that and final advice and everything, to quickly recap our key takeaways today, we've talked about three main points really. Centralization, control, and longevity. So I think everything that Charlie and Roberto have explained thus far has been really, really beneficial. So hopefully, the audience thinks it as well. But, let's kinda go a little bit more towards wrap up and hear from each speaker. So, Charlie, if there was one thing you would want to leave our audience with, what would it be? You really think I'm gonna leave it with just one thing? Okay. I can just try. We are a little bit ahead of time. So if you want, like, one to three things that So here are my 15 things. No. So real really the I wanna make a statement first that the shipping costs have never ever been so high. Much like, we're getting gouged in other parts of our lives, you know, personally, the cost of shipping has gone up so much in the last ten years. You know, so maybe ten ten years ago, it it didn't necessitate really being very good and efficient in shipping. It does now. Okay? You fixed you you most people have fixed other issues with their ERP and WMS and, got bid now some AI, But you my suggestion would be people really need to take a look at their shipping. You know, the whole it's not broken, don't fix it thing, in my opinion, is out the window. You've heard today so many things that really will allow you to save more money in shipping. Okay? So I I one of the one of the byproducts or one of the primary themes in my opinion is the deep integration to your ERP or WMS. You heard about our packing and our shipping and our optimization and, managing two buckets of cost and all that. That's achieved best when we're going back and forth with the ERP multiple times in different departments, different things. And so we offer that and there's ability to do that on the eye. You know, if I were to go through the, you know, the, enforce and, you know, Oracle, Edwards, and all we we have turnkey interfaces to all those things. So we're not reinventing the wheel. It's not necessarily a huge professional services project. But I guess if you're pinching holding me into one thing, on the eye, okay, and mold a very deep integration tailor to their ERP or WMS makes these savings happen much, much easier. You know, a single API call to another system and just getting it out the door, it's not much better than the carrier provided systems and how they do it. So that's my advice. Beautifully said. Perfect amount. Thank you, Charlie. Alright. Roberto, what about you? What final advice do you wanna leave with the audience today? Yeah. My final thoughts. So, one of the important things for me being, having a programming background and to me, reliability processing speed is very important and, efficiency. So to me, it's always been very big, the concept the concept of a two way interface where, you know, varsity on the IBM I, any shipping system on the IBM I with an ERP on the IBM I, having the ship confirmed, the automatic ship confirmed. So I've walked into customers that were doing it manually. They had to, at the end of the day, download information from, care providers' shipping systems or shipping systems that were not efficient and having to update their ERP, that is that is a very hard process. So the automated interface, a two way interface that does the, automatic shift confirm, to me is very important. So, that's the style. That's the concept. That's the architecture that we use in Varsity Logistics to, right after you've complete a shipment, we go back to the ERP. Obviously, those pieces are, those interfaces and those pieces of programming, they are custom because each ERP requires custom processes to do the processes to do the ship confirm. And that's very important, though, because once you have completed the shipment, everything is moved up to ready to invoice status. All the information is brought back. There's no human error involved. If the interface encounters an issue, it would prompt for an error during the shift confirm process. So, again, the two way interface to me is very important, and they should confirm. So if I need to end this conversation with one statement, I would say that the reliability and processing speed of the IBM I system is reflected on the Varsity Logistics packing and shipping system, making it essentially the perfect synergy for a for a very successful and flexible implementation that will last for many years. And, we have seen that with our customers. So I I I can, you know, I can confirm that. Thank you, Roberto. I I clearly don't have, as much background in IBM and these solutions as these two panelists. They're very, very skilled and knowledgeable. But if I were to leave leave you guys with something, I would just say, try to find a solution that's very holistic, that can handle multiple of these things. So the rating, the shipment execution, the, cartonization piece is is is huge. The optimization that's the optimization piece that, Charlie and Roberto touched on today. So and and audit. There's just so many different things that that are involved in shipping. And if you can find a solution that, is capable to handle all of these for you so you don't have to, I I feel like that is so, so key. So that that's just something I would leave you with. But we are nearing the end, so I do wanna get to our q and a portion of the session, and we've had some really good, questions come in. So let me go to the first one here that is in the comment box. So I think this one is for you, Roberto. When you say rate shopping, packing line? Well, when we're talking about rate shopping, we need to distinguish. Right? And and Charlie talked about it a little bit in the beginning. Are we doing it upstream near order entry, or are we doing it downstream near, you know, after the packing right before shipping? So upstream near order entry, especially with Shop Optimizer, it will not slow down packing because it's done before packing at customer service level at, order entry or, web cart checkout, right, time. But even when ray shopping is done right after packing, thanks to the IBM processing light speed and ray shopping would be fast and reliable. It will be executed when all is packed and right before the first container is shipped. Again, we are leveraging on the speed of the IBMI and the VAR's deviating, system architecture that makes the process efficient and fast. And, again, you have one point of entry into ray shopping. The interface is very easy. You don't have to, you don't have to do different interfaces depending on what race, what rate you need for what carrier. You just do one program call. Varsity Logistics internally decides what to do, and it will return either the best carrier or a list of carriers. And that is done within the IBM very fast. So if you do it upstream, it might be a little bit more complex because you are taking, you're taking an order, so you don't really have the packing information yet. But if you have ship optimizer, that can figure it out. But, again, even if that takes a little bit more time, it will not slow down packing and shipping because it's done all the way upstream. And the final carrier service site that, is selected is kept in the order system, and that will be used for shipping. And, again, the shipping time, everything becomes easy because the packing is done, and you already have the shipping inform you know, the pack the the package information. So there's less logic involved, and therefore, the the the the process would be faster. I hope I answered the question. I think that was perfect. Thank you. Let's see the next one. Why is it better to keep all that EOD and tracking history on the IBM instead instead of letting the carrier keep it? You wanna take that one too, Roberto? Yes. Alright. First of all, it helps customer service customer service with, providing shipment information to customers calling in or emailing in for tracking purposes. And you can do that directly from the ERP since the ERP can be integrated with the Varsity Logistics database for inquiry and tracking purposes. Then, you will also have the ability to audit freight bills, either through the varsity audit module, that we discussed or even manual audit. Since the information is in the system, freight bills can be easily audited. Right? So that is a big advantage. Last but not least, and this is probably the first thing that I should have talked about, but I would say last but not least, shipment data analysis that is available on the APMI. The the data that is available on the or the I v on the IBM I will help the shipper negotiate, new and better contracts with carriers by looking at the shipping volume analysis, which is based on the zone data and geographical information. So for example, if I ship more frequent frequently to a shipping to a specific zone, maybe I should get a better discount. So I have a way to negotiate with the carrier. Right? So Varsity Logistics provides shipping data analysis tools, by the way, that can be used for this purpose, and all the shipping data is on the IBM available for analysis. So I think that is a huge advantage of, having the data on the IBM. And at the end, you get better contracts. You have the power of negotiation because you have the power of information. You have all the data available for you that is there. You could present it to your carriers, and it's not generic talk. It's very specific data based, you know, arguments or negotiations, basically. Yeah. I feel like that's so key because even in, you know, in 2025, there are still so many single carrier shipping strategies out there. And I feel like one of the number one things I hear is, well, we don't wanna lose our our contracted rates, and and we're we're nervous about that. But in fact, if you do diversify and add more carriers, multiple, different types, and you you use this as a negotiating tactic and then you rate shop, you're often seeing, an ROI, and you could be saving more money even, you know, without yeah. Yeah. So And I'll take the the the volume analysis. Right? That's very important. So if you have a lot of volume in one zone or in one state or in one geographical area, then you can tell the carrier, hey. Look. Well, I'm shipping a huge amount of of shipments to that geographical area, the zone, and stuff. So then you can start the the negotiation, the negotiation based on that. Right? Based on volume analysis shipping volume analysis. And you couldn't do that if you don't keep the data available and, ready to be queried and analyzed, basically. Exactly. Alright. Thank you, Roberto. Question number three. Let's see. This one about Charlie. If we leave the IBM, could we still use Varsity? Great question. So the answer is is yes. You know, we would need to know more specifics. But, you know, we have a lot of customers that use us cross platform. So if if, sadly, someone is going to a, you know, a cloud based non, you know, off platform, off the AI system, we've had a lot of customers that that, you know, were so reliant and and so impressed with Varsity. They actually we have prewritten cross platform integrations, to to a lot of things. You know, other people have decided to to run us in the cloud, and then, you know, from there integrate to other systems. So the answer is is yes. You can you can keep keep using Varsity Logistics. Beautiful. Alright. Next one. If we change ERP systems on IBM next year, how much of the shipping logic would we have to rebuild? Sure. So you wouldn't need to rebuild really anything except some of the integration. So we would just point your new ERP to Varsity Logistics. We pass data as Roberto's gotten into via parameters list. And so it's really very simple. I mean, the logic can all stay. The only thing that's changing is, you know, the the ERP that we're interfaced to. So it's that's very, very straightforward. Nothing along the lines of, you know, a new installation. Nothing at all like that. Sounds easy enough. Alright. I think this is the last one I'm seeing, but I could be wrong. We ship hazmat occasionally. Is the compliance check for hazmat fully integrated into the rating process, or is that a separate step? I don't know if either one of you wanna touch on that. I can answer. I can answer that. So Okay. Hazmat shipping is fully integrated into the rating process and into the shipping process. So where, the hazmat shipping is specific to the carrier, and we have what we call care compliance kit. And if a customer, ships, hazmat materials, the specific care compliance kit will include all the HAZMAT compliance that goes from the label to the rating to the special manifest to the special transmission. The the the shipper will need to have, you know, some kind of training with specific with the carrier. But system wise, they would be all set with Varsity Logistics because that is automatic. The interface will have to be enhanced to pass all the hazmat item information into Varsity Logistics. And once it does that based on the order and the package is shipped, then, hazmat labels will be printed out automatically. Special labels through exit points can also be printed. Warning signs can be, you know, visibly displayed on the screen so you could maybe you cannot combine two different hazmat materials. You cannot pack them together or ship them ship them in the same box and so on and so forth. So there is a a a base compliance, which is, the base compliance with the carrier because, again, like I said, labels, rating, and manifest transmission. And, also, there is an opportunity for all that custom, custom logic that varies by customer and varies by what you ship. And that would include, you know, special labels or warning warning, messages to the packer or to the shipper. Excellent. Alright. It looks like one one did pop in, like, last minute that I see. Since you mentioned boxes too, this makes sense. So if we if we use the automated or automatic packing optimizer, does our team still have final say if the box seems too full? Absolutely. So the the packing optimizer is can be used either as, an imposed way to do it to do the packing. So you just do what the ship optimizer tells you. There's no other, ways to do it, but that's very rare. You know? Ship optimizer, implementations always allow for override, and they're always suggestions. Right? So, the user will look at the packing configuration that Ship Optimizer put together and, will use that as a suggestion. You can follow it or deviate from it. You know, if you change things around though, you know, the freight that was estimated upstream when Ship Optimizer ran and determine the carrier service type of rate based on that configuration. And, you know, in the warehouse, if you're doing something different, then you might cause a a different a difference in in freight, but the user has the final saying. I would say that in our optimizer implementations, you know, 95, 98% of the recommendations are usually, accurate. The remaining 2% can be overridden. And, yes, the packer might cause a little bit of a higher freight. But what happens is that in that 2% of of, instances, even if the freight is a little bit higher, usually, shippers, you know, are charged, discounted rates and they and they charge for prepay and ad shipments. They charge, you know, publish rates at least. Right? So the shipping department becomes a little bit of a revenue department. So that 2% of cases that will cause a different type of repacking and a higher maybe a slightly higher freight, that higher slight the the slightly higher freight is compensated by the fact that in general, the shipper gets charged discounted rates, but bills publish rates. So at the end, the the shipping department remains the revenue department, and 98% of the times, let's say, the optimizer will, suggest the right packing configuration. And, again, most of the cases, you can override it if you want. But it can be configured to just where the warehouse will need an override or will need a little bit more involved, workarounds to override what the ship optimizer suggested. But, again, that is that is unusual. Usually, you can override it. Yes. Alright. Thank you, Roberto. So, we are nearing the end. I wanna be respectful of everyone's time. If I missed your question or if we didn't get to it, we will make sure to follow-up with you so you get an answer. Also, another bit of housekeeping, everyone will receive the recording. So you will receive that soon as as as soon as it's done, you know, being optimized and and whatever prepackaged, whatever video language there is for that. So you will get that. You will get the slides. You will get some additional resources. Our our speakers and panelists, their contact information is on the screen. Feel free to reach out to them directly if you do have a question as well that you just think of later. So I think that's all the housekeeping I have. Thank you so much for joining us. We hope you really you walk away with an understanding of, you know, how you can actually modernize your supply chain and your shipping on a platform that you trust. So, thank you all, and have an awesome rest of your day. Thank you. Take care. Thank you, Taylor. Thank you.