September 16, 2021 Filtra Systems Case Study

Manufacturer improves efficiency by integrating SYSPRO, Shopify, Amazon and a reseller website, and automates order processing.

Overview

Filtra Systems is a manufacturer and supplier of custom-engineered industrial filtration and separation solutions for multinational businesses in metalworking, water and wastewater, PFAS removal, oil and gas, chemical, industrial minerals, steel industries and much more. Founded in 1979, Filtra Systems has installed over 19,000 filtration systems in 37 countries.

The Challenge

Filtra Systems was originally looking for a solution to integrate its online stores with its ERP system, and therefore needed software that could integrate SYSPRO with both Amazon and Shopify. However, onboarding a new customer suddenly became the priority.

“Before we implemented our own project, we actually ended up acquiring a new reseller customer that was like an ‘Amazon on steroids’. They went from zero orders to around 300 orders a day, and there was no way we were going to keep up with that by processing the orders manually,” explained Richard Lamey, Chief Information Officer, Filtra Systems.

“The reseller was purchasing our line of light-duty home and industrial air filters from us and reselling them. Their website was taking orders, they would then pass those on to us, we would fulfil them and let them know about dispatch. They would then they let their customers know. So there were a lot of steps in there that we wanted to automate. Therefore, that project – integrating the customer’s interface with our SYSPRO system – became the first thing we needed to address, and quickly.”

The Solution

Filtra Systems carried out an internet search for SYSPRO integration with Shopify and Amazon and Codeless Platforms’ BPA Platform was returned in both searches, prompting the company to get in touch.

“It was a choice between selecting BPA Platform or using SYSPRO’s online sales tool. However, to use the SYSPRO solution we would’ve had to forfeit our Shopify and Amazon stores and transfer to that option, which we didn’t want to do. We wanted to keep with the mainstream sites that we liked and were used to. So we talked to a contact at Codeless Platforms, they showed us some demos and we decided to go with it.”

However, with its new customer coming “out of the blue, needing a direct connection”, Filtra Systems quickly realised that BPA Platform was the perfect solution, especially as they needed to turn the project around quickly and cost effectively. Having watched a couple of demos and videos, Richard felt quite at ease implementing and using BPA Platform to integrate Filtra Systems’ SYSPRO ERP with the customer’s website.

“Our IT department here is quite small so we couldn’t spend a whole lot of time configuring the integration for our customer. However, we had just purchased BPA Platform and so we decided to use it. BPA Platform is really easy to use, and the integration worked out really well. It took us maybe a month to get up to speed with it, but that was mainly due to the fact that we weren’t aware that we needed to purchase some SYSPRO API interfaces (SYSPRO e.net Solutions). Once we got that, and a SYSPRO employee made sure it was up and running properly, things started working really well,” enthused Richard Lamey.

“BPA Platform is now automating the taking of orders from the customer, acknowledging them, sending the tracking ID number from the shipper, and then sending the invoices after everything is shipped. Initially they didn’t want the acknowledgement, they just wanted to know when it was shipped. However, they subsequently wanted to know when we received the order. So now they get updated every six minutes.”

With the customer project up and running, Richard was able to return his attention back to the original project of integrating SYSPRO with Amazon and Shopify.

“I never would have thought that I’d use the Web API tool. However, that turned out to be the first one that I used when we bought BPA Platform. I intended to go straight into Shopify, then Amazon from there, and then stop. However, we used the Web API first and got it up and running,” said Richard Lamey.

“I started working on the Shopify project, but that was a little bit more complex because they have so many restrictions. However, I managed to get that one working fairly easily too. BPA Platform is a really neat tool. If it’s not defined, it’s not hard to find, therefore I can use it for anything that has APIs.”

The Results

Filtra Systems found BPA Platform very intuitive to use, especially due to its drag and drop functionality. As a result, the integration with the customer’s website was quickly implemented and the order processing was easily established.

“BPA Platform is just easy to use. It’s all flowcharting. A little bit of back-end setup for databases is required etc., but it’s mostly just flowcharting – if this task passes then you go here, if it fails you go there and you do something about it. Nice and simple. They actually teach you that in middle school here, amongst various other things,” revealed Richard Lamey.

“Orders from our customer are now processed immediately. We pull data every six minutes, get the orders processed really quickly and the customer gets feedback in that six-minute window. Whatever happens we send it out to them to too. If we were processing all those orders manually it would take 10 people a whole day to process them – just getting them into SYSPRO – much less all the tracking information that we had to do. So, we have saved a lot of manpower.”

Future Plans

With all the initial projects completed, Filtra Systems is now looking to further exploit BPA Platforms’ capabilities by automating other business processes within the organisation.

“Initially we were just looking for Shopify and Amazon integration with SYSPRO. However, I think BPA Platform is more useful than we thought it was going to be when we first looked into it. It’s a great tool, so I think we’ll use it for other projects, especially for any customer that has an API that wants to use it,” said Richard Lamey.

“My next project is to use BPA Platform to integrate SYSPRO with my time clock software, to get job costing out of it as things happen, instead of waiting for the batches to run at night. So that’s coming up too. So, we’re definitely exploring our options and finding places to use it. I can use it internally to even write and publish reports and things like that, which I hadn’t even thought about doing.”

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