Lincolnshire, IL, April 14, 2010.  FORT Systems offers small and medium-sized businesses affordable, powerful, and high-quality e-business solutions for the wine industry and beyond.
 
The FORT in FORT Systems was derived from the core functionality of Fulfillment, Ordering, Reporting and Tracking.  Located in the heart of the technology and wine industries, the San Francisco-based company has been providing the latter with solutions such as its warehouse management module.

However, Scott Liebman, co-founder and CEO of FORT Systems, said that the company's different modules are also now being implemented in many other industries outside of wine. "In the beginning we thought we would focus solely on wine, but then companies in non-wine areas started calling us saying they want our solution too," Liebman said.

What exactly does FORT Systems offer to its clients? Well FORT Systems has several modules under the FORT Systems umbrella: FORT ecommerce, FORT Shipping, FORT Warehouse and FORT Compliance.
 
Liebman explained that the FORT Warehouse module manages fulfillment by multiple warehouses. Each location can be designated to fulfill certain products, types of orders or with a specified list of carriers (e.g., only FedEx). When warehouses carry the same products as others, orders may be routed to the facility with the lowest price, the closest to the recipient, or the largest inventory. The system can also configure each order according to the package sizes that each fulfillment center might have available (6-packs, 12-packs, pallets, etc...)
 
"The end consumer that is receiving the package doesn't necessarily know it is shipping from a third party warehouse. It is all seamlessly done via the net," said Liebman.
 
In addition, the company’s Warehouse management module provides:
 

• Dashboard to provide visibility and control to the administrators and clients, enabling them to monitor and manage activity on a real-time basis

• Order upload with integrated compliance and validation

• High-speed batch label printing or single Integrated Packing Slips

• Custom ship confirmation emails

• Low-level inventory warnings

• Shipping insurance management

• Alert notifications to warehouse staff and clients to ensure efficient management of critical tasks throughout each package’s life cycle

• Add/edit product

• Automated Customer Invoices

• Inventory, Order, Product, Restock Reports

• Custom Rate Schedules

• Zone-skip routing management

 
Liebman noted that this module is ideal for the drop ship industry.
 
The entire FORT system is tightly integrated with 3rd party couriers such as UPS and Fedex, and has a built in shipping module for retailers who ship their own orders.   The platform can print compliant thermal labels on all Zebra printers and any  inkjet or laser printer as well.  Dropshippers can fulfill orders with these fulfillment tools without having to install any software, and as soon as they ship orders, the ecommerce clients and the consumers have immediate access to the tracking information.
 
 
The FORT ecommerce module provides an efficient and powerful administrative system for managing a customer's business. The system was built over many years based on direct feedback from clients; the result is a flexible, robust, full-featured, and reliable order management system. The FORT ecommerce module also has the FORT shipping system built-in so customers can also fulfill their own orders with different carriers.
 
FORT Ship is a shipping module where customers with a multi-carrier shipping platform can upload their orders, and easily generate labels for multiple clients, carriers and order types.  Tracking numbers are generated automatically, and populated back into the ecommerce module.
 
The FORT Compliance module manages compliance information for customers on a state-by-state basis: customers simply need to generate the report and submit the data to the state. This compliance system alone can save a winery dozens of hours each month. This module makes it easy to keep up with all state laws, regulations, and mandated reporting frequencies which vary by state, and ensures that the system is able to handle any specific state requirement, such as excise and sales tax reporting, volume restrictions, etc.
 
Jim McClellan, co-founder and Executive Vice President with FORT Systems, said that the company's experience in the wine industry has allowed them help companies in other industries such as Holland America for tourism and Sealy Beds for retail.
 
"We started with the most regulated industry products, which are alcoholic, and moved to more simplified products from there, as opposed to the other way around. If you have a system that can accurately handle shipments of wine products, where regulations often vary by county or municipality, then it is relatively easy to move into other product categories.  Few categories are as complicated as wine; it is easier to ship pharmaceuticals or firearms than it is to ship wine," he added.
 
Liebman said that all of FORT Systems’ modules are web-based applications as the company follows a SaaS model. This enables rapid and efficient deployment virtually anywhere. No additional hardware or software is required and customers can be up and running within a couple of days.
 
In addition, "This is all Zebra-enabled. We take and set-up the Zebra printers so they can print for any carrier in a compliant fashion," said Liebman.
 
FORT Systems officially became a Zebra Premier Partner this year and uses the Zebra printers to print shipping labels and inventory reports.  The company is already collaborating with Zebra OEM partners to deploy customized solutions for its warehouse clients.
 
Recently, FORT Systems has started to integrate with some accounting and POS systems and the company is seeking partners that specialize in those areas.
 
"Even though we have our own ecommerce module, we don't offer POS or accounting solutions. And we partner with other companies who do front end web design," noted Liebman.
 
He added that partners in the barcoding industry would also be of interest to FORT Systems. "We want to partner with any company that can truly help complement our platform, and core value proposition."
 
Benefits to partners include revenue sharing, and if the solutions are integrated, there are co-marketing opportunities. "It makes both of our systems more interesting to the client and that is why we integrate in the first place," said Liebman.

In terms of the Zebra Motorola Partner Network, Liebman said he hopes to network and connect with other Zebra partners that need shipping and fulfillment solutions.