Having built up an impressive reputation within the home entertainment industry for the prompt and reliable delivery of replication and production services over the past 30 years, DOCdata is rightly known as one of the best service providers around. It marries up-to-the-minute technology with highly personalised customer service to deliver the projects on time and to specification. However, as trademark found out on a recent trip to one of DOCdata's plants in Waalwijk, just outside Eindhoven, there is an awful lot more that the company has to shout about, not least of which is its state of the art distribution system nestling in the Dutch landscape. The company's e-commerce fulfilment business specialises in fine-meshed logistics and personalised distribution across a range of media. Services offered at the Waalwijk base and, in the coming months, at plants across Europe, include procurement, allocation, picking, sorting, warehousing, personalisation, packing, shipping and invoicing. The base also offers support in credit card collection, meaning that DOCdata's facility is amongst the very cream of international product distribution and, importantly, one of very few that can fully support an online business without the terrifying requirement of distribution management. The fulfilment centre at Waalwijk processes goods like small electronics, books, CDs, DVDs, videotapes and games software as well as related products for a range of e-commerce, retail and direct marketing companies, with orders predominately being shipped from Europe.

As DOCdata outlines in its reasoning for initiating its e-commerce fulfilment facility: "Many companies require a logistics partner that is capable of handling a large amount of small orders in a fast and efficient way. DOCdata's IT systems make the fulfilment process fully transparent for its customers. DOCdata has an automated sorting system which is able to process more than 20,000 shipments to individual consumers per day."

Vast warehousing facilty

With DOCdata actively looking to set up a comparable facility in the UK within the next few months, Steve Toms, managing director of DOCdata UK, explains the process further: "We can go one of two ways in setting up e-commerce fulfilment in the UK. We can either find a Greenfield site and develop the facility ourselves or we can find a partner with a suitable site and bring in our expertise." He adds: "We are already having discussions with a variety of potential partners but obviously this is something we are keen to continue to do so that we find the most appropriate solution." Explaining the need for a cousin to the Waalwijk site, Toms states: "We can service accounts from Holland but increasingly we're finding that there is a demand at a local level, hence the fact that we are developing facilities across Europe." He adds: "Within our current customer base there are people who are handling their own accounts but who don't necessarily want to. If we can take the whole thing away and do it for them, then so much the better."

Describing the service itself, it is clear that Toms is understandably impressed with the facility DOCdata has created. "It's a very sophisticated order processing/picking/packing operation," he says, "that differs to any others at the front end of the operation thanks to the level of IT expertise we have. With potential new customers the first thing that happens is that our IT people meet with them to find out exactly what it is they require." He continues, stating: "Also, customers have a link to the key computer systems so that they can see account information in real-time, whether that's how much money has been collected or what's been dispatched. We're in the position where we can deliver to our clients bespoke reports that deliver the information they want to be receiving."

"Once the order's been taken the information is processed directly from the website and it then goes to the semi-automated picking deck. The products are collated along with the invoice and receipts and the delivery note. We have the capability to pick and pack 20,000 units per day and obviously we can bring in extra staff at any point to fulfil orders on demand."

For such a comprehensive service, the Waalwijk facility sounds extremely simple in its operation and Toms is understandably keen to have this perception extended as DOCdata increases its e-commerce fulfilment business: "It is important to us that the appearance of these sites reflect the image of the company, and that in turn has to represent e-commerce effectively, as a modern and streamlined process." As for the system's appeal, Toms is equally convinced that DOCdata has it covered, and given the company's roots in replication and project fulfilment, it is hard to disagree. He says: "The systems can handle all ranges of products but we've definitely found a synthesis in Holland between the customers as they're happy to leave the distribution to us since it gives them a one-off solution since we can be distributing computer peripherals or higher value consumables with a regular demand." He adds: "Obviously, along with that, security is a major factor because of the value of some of the products but, for example, in Holland we have 24-hour security systems and obviously the online side of things is as secure and up-to-date as possible as well."

DOCdata's packing operation

Certainly, major e-tailers are already providing their own pick/pack/process fulfilment but, in terms of newer set-ups or developing businesses, DOCdata is offering a substantial and useful service. As Toms concludes: "Obviously there are already online sites that can do this but we haven't come across anyone else who can provide this facility across the board. That definitely offers us a distinct advantage."