Examples of Third-Party Freight

A user, such as a customer service representative (CSR) can enter a sales order in PeopleSoft Order Management and then shop for freight rates from the external third-party freight system while working with the customer to select the most desired method and cost of shipping. The third-party system responds immediately showing the CSR the freight carriers, amounts, and dates. PeopleSoft Order Entry then allows the CSR to choose one and assign the carrier and freight amounts to the deliveries on the sales order.

The following diagram illustrates the business process flow of a rate shopping integration using the PeopleSoft external third-party freight feature.

1. The CSR answers the phone and takes the customer's order. The sales order is entered directly into the Order Entry Form component while the customer is on the phone. The CSR saves the component and one or more delivery IDs are automatically created based on the delivery key configuration for the ship-from business unit on the sales order schedules.

2. The CSR requests rate shopping on the Order Entry Form component. The freight request page is displayed, where the CSR can choose the option to shop for rates and preview the freight options available. The Integration Broker uses a synchronous service operation to send out the deliveries to the third-party freight provider. The deliveries created for the sales order are sent out on the freight request transaction.

3. The third-party freight provider responds to the transaction request by returning one or more options for carrier, freight charges, and delivery times.

4. The Freight Rate Shopping page appears for the CSR to view, evaluate, and select the freight option that meets the customer's needs. The CSR is presented with freight options for each delivery assigned to the sales order.

5. The CSR communicates these freight options to the customer, and they both agree on an option. The CSR selects the option, and the carrier and freight amounts are updated on each delivery for the sales order. The appropriate carrier is assigned to the demand lines and the sales order schedule lines, and the communicated ship date from the third-party response is used to set the scheduled ship date on the demand and the order schedules.

Depending on the setting of the Restricted to Order check box for the delivery and depending on the delivery key configuration for the ship-from business unit on the sales order schedules, the sales order demand might be able to be assigned to deliveries that already exist in the system for other sales orders. In addition, the CSR or warehouse personnel could use the Delivery Management Workbench to combine multiple orders into one delivery ID and then initiate rate shopping from the workbench.

A user, such as a CSR, can enter a sales order in PeopleSoft Order Management and then request freight charges from the external third-party freight system. The third-party system responds immediately giving the CSR the freight charges.

The following diagram illustrates the business process flow of a best way integration using the PeopleSoft external third-party freight feature.

1. The CSR answers the phone and takes the customer's order. The sales order is entered directly into the Order Entry Form component while the customer is on the phone. The CSR saves the component and one or more delivery IDs are automatically created based on the delivery key configuration for the ship-from business unit on the sales order schedules.

2. The CSR requests freight charges on the Order Entry Form component. The freight request page appears, where the CSR can choose the best-way option to allow the system to find the best freight and assign it to the deliveries for the order. The request is sent to the third-party freight provider by means of the PeopleSoft Integration Broker. The Integration Broker uses a synchronous service operation to send out the deliveries to the third-party freight provider. In this example, least cost was selected as the best way option at the business unit level. The deliveries created for the sales order are sent out on the freight request transaction.

3. The third-party freight provider responds to the transaction request and returns only one freight choice per delivery ID based on least cost to the customer.

4. The CSR can optionally view the delivery IDs and the assigned carrier, scheduled ship date, and freight amount for the sales order.

5. When the freight choices are assigned to the deliveries, the appropriate carrier is assigned to the sales order demand and schedule line and the communicated ship date from the third-party response is used to set the scheduled ship date on the demand and sales order schedules associated with the deliveries.

A user, such as a CSR, can enter a sales order in PeopleSoft Order Management and then request freight charges from the external third-party freight system. The third-party system responds immediately giving the CSR the freight charges.

The following diagram illustrates the business process flow of a specified carrier integration using the PeopleSoft external third-party freight feature.

1. The CSR answers the phone and takes the customer's order. The sales order is entered directly into the Order Entry Form component while the customer is on the phone. The preferred carrier check box and carrier ID are provided by default to the sales order based on the Order Management default hierarchy (Order Groups page, the customer's General Information - Ship To Options page, and the Buying Agreement Form-Header Terms page). The CSR saves the component and one or more delivery IDs are automatically created with the specific carrier ID assigned to the deliveries. The demand lines are also saved with the preferred carrier flag set to yes to indicate to users downstream in the fulfillment process that the carrier ID on the demand and the assigned deliveries has been explicitly assigned.

2. The CSR requests freight charges on the Order Entry Form component. The freight request page appears, where the CSR can select the Use Specified Carrier option to request freight only for that carrier. The CSR can then select Preview Freight to first review the single freight option or Process Freight with Post-Ship Actions to assign the single freight option. The request is sent to the third-party freight provider by means of the PeopleSoft Integration Broker. The Integration Broker uses a synchronous service operation to send out the deliveries to the third-party freight provider. The deliveries created for the sales order are sent out on the freight request transaction

3. The third-party freight provider responds to the transaction request and returns only one freight choice per delivery ID based on the carrier specified for the delivery.

4. The CSR can optionally view the delivery IDs and the assigned carrier, scheduled ship date, and freight amount for the sales order. The CSR can elect to search from freight again using expanded search options to include other shipping methods and other carriers.

5. When the freight choices are assigned to the deliveries, the appropriate carrier is assigned to the sales order demand and schedule line and the communicated ship date from the third-party response is used to set the scheduled ship date on the demand and sales order schedules associated with the deliveries.

A customer sends sales orders using electronic data interchange (EDI). The sales orders are picked up and processed by the Order Completion process. Deliveries are created. Carrier assignments and estimated freight charges are assigned automatically and saved with the order.

The following diagram illustrates the business process flow of freight charges for a batch of EDI sales orders using the PeopleSoft external third-party freight feature.

1. The customer sends sales orders using EDI.

2. Your EDI coordinator has defined the run control that picks up the sales orders and processes them through the Order Completion process. The process completes several steps. The freight-specific steps include:

   • Assembling the sales order lines into deliveries. The delivery structure that goes out on the freight request transaction is also stored in the PeopleSoft system.

   • An asynchronous message (INVENTORY_FREIGHT_REQUEST) is sent out to the third-party freight provider. The asynchronous method allows the Order Completion process to complete processing without waiting for the reply from the third-party freight system.

   • The Freight Status field on the IN_DELIVERY table is changed to Rate Requested for the impacted delivery IDs. This status prevents further processing on the deliveries until a response is received from the external third-party freight system and freight charges are applied to the deliveries and the order.

3. The Batch Publisher process publishes the deliveries from the Order Completion process.

4. Later, the third-party freight system sends an asynchronous rate-results transaction that provides the resulting freight charges for the delivery IDs associated with the sales order lines.

5. The PeopleSoft Integration Broker receives the inbound XML message into the INVENTORY_FREIGHT_RESPONSE queue. The InventoryFreightResponse handler, a PeopleTools application class, formats the incoming data and populates the BCT staging tables. For each transaction request, the InventoryFreightResponse handler assigns a unique ID called the EIP_CTL_ID.

6. The Fulfillment Requests process (IN_FUL_BCT) using the 0380 transaction code (Freight) retrieves the transaction requests from the staging tables, processes them, and applies them to the PeopleSoft production tables. The deliveries for the sales orders are updated with the appropriate carrier and freight charges. Once the rate-results transaction has been processed in the PeopleSoft system, the Freight Status field on the IN_DELIVERY table is changed to Rate Received for the impacted delivery IDs.

7. If the transaction requests are not processed successfully, they are given an error status, and the appropriate error message is provided. The Maintain Transactions component enables you to view and correct requests that contain errors. Once corrected, you can relaunch the Fulfillment Requests process. This is an optional step, you can choose to have the request errors canceled automatically, and then you could create another request.

8. The sales orders continue through the order fulfillment process.

A user, such as a CSR, can enter a sales order in PeopleSoft Order Management. When the order is saved, the demand for the order lines is added to new or existing delivery IDs. The user can calculate order entry freight as described in the example above. Estimated order entry freight is maintained independently of the estimated shipping freight amount. The sales order is processed through Inventory order fulfillment, which could include removing backordered lines from the delivery ID and other changes in shipping fields. At the shipping stage, the transaction request for freight charges is sent to the external third-party freight system. The third-party system responds with the freight charges, and the freight amounts are applied to the deliveries and their associated sales orders.

The following diagram illustrates the business process flow of interactive freight calculation at shipping time.

1. The CSR answers the phone and takes the customer's order. The CSR enters a sales order in PeopleSoft Order Management and saves the order. When the order is saved, the demand for the order lines is added to new or existing delivery IDs. In addition, assuming the Order Management business unit is configured appropriately, when the order is saved, it is automatically reserved and moved to a releasable fulfillment state.

2. The warehouse control manager runs the Order Release process and prints pick tickets for orders. The demand is set to the released fulfillment state and is ready to be picked.

3. The warehouse picker picks the order, enters picking feedback information into the Picking Feedback component, and advances the order to a confirmed fulfillment state. The items are moved to the shipping area.

4. The shipping clerk verifies that the order is ready for shipping and records the shipment in the Shipping/Issues component. When saving the shipment in the Shipping/Issues component, the system uses the value in the Validate Delivery field to validate the delivery to verify that all the demand for the delivery have shipped. Using the Validate Delivery field, the shipping clerk can tell the system to automatically reassign demand that is not yet ready to ship to other existing or new deliveries. On the Shipping/Issues component, the shipping clerk has two options to freight and manifest the deliveries:

   • The shipping clerk can choose the Auto Process option on the Freight Option field and then save the Shipping/Issues page to automatically perform a best way manifest option if a freight service definition does not currently exist on the delivery. If the delivery contains a freight service definition, then the delivery is manifested using that freight service definition.

   • The shipping clerk can choose the Delivery Workbench option on the Freight Option field and then save the Shipping/Issues page to access the Delivery Management Workbench where he can perform freight and manifesting. The Delivery Management Workbench can be used to view and manipulate the deliveries and request freight from the third-party system. Using the workbench, the shipping clerk can request rate shopping, best way, or specific carrier. In addition, the Delivery Management Workbench enables the shipping clerk to request that the third-party system assign the shipped items to a shipping manifest and return the shipping label URL references and tracking numbers to the PeopleSoft system.

5. In the third-party freight system:

   • The freight charges are calculated and sent to the PeopleSoft system.

   • The sales order can be added to the appropriate freight supplier’s manifest.

   • Appropriate shipping labels can be printed and physically attached to the shipping container or package.

   • Tracking numbers are assigned and returned with the shipment response message to the PeopleSoft system. Tracking numbers are returned and maintained optionally at the delivery, shipping container, or package level. Label URL references can also be returned and maintained at the shipping container level and package level.

   • Based on your setup, specialized shipping documents, such as bill of ladings and export documentations, can be printed from the third-party system.

6. The freight charges, shipping labels, and tracking numbers are received into the PeopleSoft system. The delivery structure that goes out on the freight request transaction is also stored in the PeopleSoft system. As freight rates are returned they are maintained at the order, delivery, package, and shipping container level. The shipping labels can be printed from the PeopleSoft system. The tracking numbers are assigned to the delivery, packages, or shipping containers in the PeopleSoft system.

7. The appropriate shipping documents are printed from the PeopleSoft system. Note that documents generated in the third-party system are printed from the third-party system.

8. The order is depleted, invoiced, and costed in the PeopleSoft system.

9. When the carrier arrives, the shipping manifest in the third-party freight system is provided to the driver along with any other shipping documents.

A shipping clerk can launch the Shipping Request process to move a group of sales orders into the Shipped fulfillment state. The shipping clerk can also direct the Shipping Request process to launch the Inventory Freight Ship Request EIP once the lines are in the Shipped state. The Inventory Freight Ship Request EIP transaction is sent out to the third-party freight provider to request freight rating and manifesting. The third-party freight system sends back freight amounts and carrier assignments. The third-party freight system can create and maintain the shipping manifests, then send the tracking numbers and label URL references to PeopleSoft to be stored in the shipping history tables. This service operation can only be initiated from the fulfillment engine processes when the delivery is ready for shipment.

In this example, the Shipping Request process page is used; however any of the following pages, processes, and EIPs can also be used launch the INVENTORY_FREIGHT_SHIP_REQUEST EIP once the orders are in the shipped state: the Picking Confirmation process page, the Process Deliveries/Freight process page (in the PeopleSoft Inventory menu), the Inventory Shipping EIP, the Front End Shipping Request process page, the Inventory Front End Shipping EIP, and the Fulfillment Workbench. When sending this transaction from the Process Deliveries/Freight process page (in the PeopleSoft Inventory menu) the manifest option can be selected even though the delivery is not yet shipped; you just need to make sure that the delivery is shipped before the response transaction is received in the PeopleSoft system.

The following diagram illustrates the business process flow of batch freight calculation and manifesting at shipping time.

1. The Shipping Request process page is used to select a large batch of sales orders and move them to the shipped fulfillment state. This process completes several steps and can complete the following freight-specific steps:

   • Assembling the sales order lines into deliveries or validating existing deliveries. The delivery structure that goes out on the freight request transaction is also stored in the PeopleSoft system.

   • An Inventory Freight Request EIP transaction is sent out to the third-party freight provider to request freight rating and manifesting. On the Shipping Request process page, you can request the following freight options: Best Way, Use Specific Carrier, or Carrier with Best Way. The Rate Shopping freight option is only available from an online interactive page, not a process page or EIP.

2. The Batch Publisher process publishes the deliveries from the Shipping Request process.

3. Later, the third-party freight system sends an asynchronous rate-results transaction (Inventory_Freight_Response EIP) that provides the resulting freight charges for the delivery IDs associated with the sales order lines. The third-party freight system can also:

   • Add the sales order to the appropriate freight supplier's manifest.

   • Create the appropriate shipping labels for the shipping containers or packages.

   • Assign tracking numbers at the delivery, shipping container, or package level.

   • Generate specialized shipping documents, such as bill of ladings and export documentations.

4. The PeopleSoft Integration Broker receives the inbound XML message into the INVENTORY_FREIGHT_RESPONSE queue. The InventoryFreightResponse handler, a PeopleTools application class, formats the incoming data and populates the BCT staging tables. For each transaction request, the InventoryFreightResponse handler assigns a unique ID called the EIP_CTL_ID.

5. The Fulfillment Requests process (IN_FUL_BCT) using the 0380 transaction code (Freight) retrieves the transaction requests from the staging tables, processes them, and applies them to the PeopleSoft production tables. The deliveries for the sales orders are updated with the appropriate carrier, freight charges, tracking numbers, and label URL references. As freight rates are returned they are maintained at the order, delivery, package, and shipping container level. The tracking numbers are assigned to the delivery, packages, or shipping containers in the PeopleSoft system. Once the rate-results transaction has been processed in the PeopleSoft system, for the impacted delivery IDs, then the Manifest Status field on the IN_DELIVERY table is changed to Manifest Received.

6. If the transaction requests are not processed successfully, they are given an error status, and the appropriate error message is provided. The Maintain Transactions component enables you to view and correct requests that contain errors. Once corrected, you can relaunch the Fulfillment Requests process. This is an optional step, you can choose to have the request errors canceled automatically, and then you could create another request.

7. The appropriate shipping documents are printed from the PeopleSoft system. Note that documents generated in the third-party system are printed from the third-party system.

8. The sales orders are depleted, invoiced, and costed in the PeopleSoft system.

9. When the carrier arrives, the shipping manifest in the third-party freight system is provided to the driver along with any other shipping documents.