Sage Group plc is collaborating with a giant of another industry to make it easier for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to ship products to their customers.
On Tuesday the British enterprise software giant’s Canadian arm announced a partnership with shipping icon United Parcel Service (UPS) that will, in the words of executive vice president product Nick Goode, give SMBs the ability to send “the right products to the right customer, at the right price… at competitive rates,” according to a Jan. 22 statement.
In the same statement, UPS vice-president of global product innovation Jerome Roberts called the deal an illustration of UPS and Sage’s shared commitment “to empower small businesses to thrive in a global marketplace.”
Released last October, Sage Business Cloud is a multi-platform financial management solution that gives customers access to several Salesforce-powered features, Salesforce Einstein-powered analytics, mobility support for both iOS and Android devices, inventory management tools, and a customer support centre.
Thanks to the UPS partnership, customers can add accounting and shipping integration to that list, with UPS and Sage promising that customers will pay competitive domestic and international rates for the latter service.
According to the Jan. 22 release, SMBs taking advantage of Sage Business Cloud’s UPS integration will have access to a free UPS service, designed to give online shoppers more control over residential deliveries, that sends an email or text message to consumers the day before their scheduled delivery and provides them with the option to reschedule or reroute their packages to an office, neighbor, or nearby UPS Access Point location.
There are more than 27,000 Access Point locations around the world, according to UPS.
According to Sage, the benefits of adding the UPS integration to the Sage Business Cloud platform include:
- Having a single, real-time source of customer and order data, with customers able to print a shipping label using Sage Financials without having to re-type order information, thus simplifying financial management and shipment processing.
- A single, simplified user experience that allows customers to choose how fast and how much they want to pay by offering air, ground, and international service options.
- The integration of accurate shipping cost calculations into customer order forms.
- Improved product profitability evaluations, thanks to the ability of SMB customers to know all costs in advance.
Sage is releasing the Business Cloud’s UPS integration in nine markets to start, including Canada, the U.S., and U.K., with other markets to follow later in the year. You can learn more about the service here.