Pakk Integrated to Legacy Stock System
In this section we examine a scenario where Pakk will be used in conjunction with an existing legacy 'master' system needs to be the source of truth for stock levels.
The Scenario
Company InfoRepairs Inc runs a successful computer repair business. They purchase and hold stock of hundreds of different PC components that are used by engineers to service call-out repair jobs. They also sometimes send parts directly to consumers as part of self-service warranty repairs.
They have a mature, custom-built system that deals with purchasing, stock control and logistics that needs to remain in place.
The Requirement
InfoRepairs wants to move more aggressively into B2C and B2B parts sales. They want to operate multiple websites across multiple parts brands, selling both retail and wholesale.
They have selected Pakk as a commerce platform for the following reasons:
Ability to manage multiple brands within a single account
Ability to manage multiple webstores within a single account
Ability to easily sell B2B and B2C using different pricing schemes, payment methods, payment terms etc
Easy to set up, efficient, fast and modern websites
Easy reordering and account management for customers
Efficient management of the sales order cycle, from order placement to dispatch
Efficient management of credit, returns and refunds
Centralised CRM to manage everything related to customers
Integrated help desk
Integrated transactional email and communication management
The Solution
Pakk will be used as the single-source-of-truth for everything related to sales and customers for the direct sales business.
The repairs business will continue to be managed exclusively through the legacy system.
The legacy system will be the single-source of truth for stock and inventory management and Pakk will be integrated with it.
Purchasing and goods in will be conducted using legacy tools.
Accounting will be conducted using legacy tools.
The Setup
In Pakk, items will be set up as 'Externally Managed Stock' items, meaning that Pakk will disable stock 'impacting' for those items, only allowing stock levels to be set by the external system.
Stock levels for all items will be periodically updated on Pakk by the legacy system.
All orders for the parts direct-sales business will be placed on Pakk (no direct sales orders to be placed on the legacy system). These orders might come from any of the Pakk websites, or manually entered (e.g. telephone/email orders).
Order payments will be registered on Pakk directly (either automatically when placed via the website or manually allocated if payment is against outstanding invoices etc).
Orders will be transmitted from Pakk to the legacy system for downstream warehouse processing and dispatch.
Dispatches will be transmitted back from the legacy system to Pakk so that order status is up-to-date on Pakk and Pakk can act as single-source-of-truth for managing orders and customers.
Returns will be managed primarily in Pakk (initiation, track, receipt).
Credits and refunds will be managed in Pakk so that customer balances are accurate and up-to-date.
Workflow Points
Customers will be 'mutually exclusive': Pakk will have no knowledge of legacy system customers and vice versa. An existing repairs customer that also wants to direct order parts will be a 'distinct entity' on both systems.
Returns will have to be entered into the legacy system, either one-by-one manually (when received), or as a daily/weekly stock adjustment in bulk.
Pakk will be able to report on sales and revenue, but not on margins or profitability (because it has no knowledge of COGS).
Integrations
Bulk update of stock on Pakk from the legacy system (via CSV item bulk update endpoint)
Transmit orders from Pakk to legacy system (via generic API GET order list endpoint)
Receive dispatches from legacy system to Pakk (via bulk RPC dispatch order endpoint)
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