Connecting orders and delivery operations with Elogii
As part of a wider software development project, we integrated Elogii into a bespoke business platform to bring order information and transport planning closer together.
The aim was straightforward: help operational teams turn orders into practical delivery plans, with better visibility of what was planned and what happened on the road.
Behind that objective was a more involved integration challenge. Delivery planning depends on accurate customer information, delivery requirements, vehicle availability and driver schedules. Those details needed to work together across existing business processes.
Our role was to connect those processes with Elogii’s capabilities, making delivery management a useful part of the wider platform.
The challenge: connecting business information with delivery planning
An order contains information about what a customer needs. Turning it into a delivery requires a different set of decisions.
When can the customer receive it? Which vehicle has sufficient capacity? Which driver is available? How does that delivery fit alongside the other stops on a route?
The project needed to bring this information together while giving operational teams a clear way to manage it. At a broad level, that meant supporting:
- The transfer of relevant order and customer information into delivery planning.
- Driver and vehicle information that reflected operational availability.
- Customer delivery windows and transport requirements.
- Changes to routes and assignments.
- Visibility of estimated and actual delivery activity.
The engineering challenge was to keep this information consistent as it moved between systems, so that planning decisions were based on the requirements attached to each delivery.
The solution: harnessing Elogii through integration
Elogii is a route optimisation and delivery management platform. It combines planning tools with capabilities such as live tracking, estimated arrival times, a driver application and electronic proof of delivery. Its optimisation tools can account for delivery windows, vehicle capacity, driver schedules and other operational constraints. Explore Elogii’s delivery management capabilities.
For this project, a particularly useful strength was its API: the interface that allows other software to exchange information with Elogii.
Elogii provides API access to tasks, routes, drivers, customers and depots, alongside optimisation functions. It also supports webhooks, which allow connected systems to receive updates when relevant events occur. This makes it possible to incorporate delivery management into an existing software environment. Read about Elogii’s integration capabilities.
We harnessed that flexibility to connect the wider business platform with Elogii, exchanging the information needed for planning and bringing delivery information back into operational views.
Building plans around real delivery requirements
One of Elogii’s strengths is its ability to plan around the conditions under which a delivery can actually take place.
A short route is only useful if the assigned vehicle can carry the load, the driver is available and the customer can accept the delivery. Elogii’s optimisation considers these kinds of constraints when assigning tasks and building routes. Learn how Elogii’s optimisation works.
Our integration supplied relevant customer delivery windows, vehicle capacity and driver scheduling information to support that process.
This was an important part of the development work. Business information had to be translated into planning information that Elogii could use, while preserving its meaning. A customer’s receiving hours, for example, needed to become a delivery window that could inform route planning.
By connecting those details, we gave the planning tools a more useful picture of the operation they were supporting.
Supporting the people managing the operation
Delivery plans also need to accommodate change.
Driver availability can shift, a vehicle may need replacing, or a route may require adjustment. The integration therefore included controls for updating assignments, changing vehicles and requesting route re-optimisation.
These functions brought Elogii’s planning capabilities into the workflows used by operational teams. Staff could manage relevant changes through the bespoke platform, with those changes passed into Elogii.
The focus was on making the connection useful in everyday work: giving people access to the information and actions they needed, while allowing Elogii to handle the specialist route planning.
Bringing delivery information back into the business
The connection also supported the return of estimated and actual delivery information.
We used that information to provide operational views of planned timings, delivery progress and completed activity. Bringing it back into the wider platform allowed teams to review delivery information alongside the business records it related to.
Comparing plans with actual activity creates a useful basis for understanding where routes take longer than expected, where delivery timings vary and where further investigation may be needed.
It also extends the value of the integration beyond dispatch. Information generated during delivery becomes available to support review and future planning.
What this enables
The project brings together bespoke software built around the organisation’s processes and Elogii’s specialist delivery management capabilities.
Order, customer and resource information can inform route planning, while planning and delivery information can feed back into the wider operation. Operational teams gain a connected way to manage the handover from orders to transport.
For us, this demonstrates the value of thoughtful integration. Elogii provides capable planning tools and flexible interfaces; the development work makes those capabilities relevant to the business using them.
By connecting the right information and building practical workflows around it, we have made Elogii part of a broader approach to simplifying delivery operations.