Equipping Pastors Worldwide

Introduction

Equipping Pastors Worldwide (EPW) is an organisation who distributes books to leaders of churches around the globe. They are a charity who receive books from various sources, store the books, and ship them from a warehouse originally just in the UK, and more recently in various hubs in different countries. EPW also translates and publishes books in many languages, and distribute ebooks.

Problems

EPW was tracking book requests and processing shipments using email, Word and Excel and handwritten notes. There was no stock control. Their staff are mostly retired - some are in their 80s - and many have limited computer skills. There was no reliable way to determine how many requests or books had been received. Shipments were sent via Royal Mail and all shipping paperwork had to be handwritten.

Goals/Solution

Develop a centralised system for:

Book catalogue

Tracking inventory

Tracking outbound shipments

Tracking inbound shipments

Fulfilling book requests/orders quickly and accurately

Reports to management on performance

Automating the packing and shipping process

Recipient details and shipment history

Donor details and history coming soon

Results

Secure, Cloud-based system available throughout world
Simple, easy to use warehouse system which uses barcode scanning to fulfil orders, stocktake, and receive deliveries used by people
Automatic spreadsheet created for upload to Royal Mail detailing all shipments taken to postal depot.
Stock levels known and re-order can now happen before stock runs out
Reports for management on shipments and inventory created with a click of a button
Book requests on website automatically imported ready for order fulfilment
Productivity doubled in two years with no extra staff
All information up to date