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Radius Communications is the principal fulfilment specialist for O2. Founded in 1990, Radius was the original Nokia distributor in Ireland.

Radius approached Experience IT to build two solutions; a production line automation system and an online store order management module.

Production Line Automation


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The mobile phone distribution business requires more complex inventory tracking than most businesses. Each product has multiple identifiers or ‘serial numbers’ all of which must be captured and traced. Each handset pack has a MSISDN (phone number), SIM number, IMEI (handset serial number) and then a PackID product serial number to identified the composite product.

Experience IT built a bespoke inventory management and production line system based on a configure to order (or just in time) business process. The production management system was integrated with Exchequer Enterprise - a leading off-the-shelf ERP system which handled invoicing and financials.

This meant that Radius did not need to commit handsets or other raw materials to specific configurations until there was a customer order. This helped keep inventory levels down, eliminating build-up of slow selling configurations and reducing damages/wear as product was only handled when specific packs were needed for customer orders. The entire production is automated using scanning. The operator selects an order line to prepare for build and dispatch (a product model) and the system would only permit unallocated items of the correct components to be used (bill of materials) before printing the bar-coded shipping label. This eliminated human error and enabled Radius to provide a very high quality service to its customers.

The shipping management provides the daily provisioning files needed by the network operators and customer EPOS systems (so that the products could be sold on receipt). It also provides the reporting and analysis needed internally to manage replenishment and inform the business partners as to sales trends which is key to forecasting.

Online Store Order Management


O2 Online Store enables customers to purchase new and upgrade Prepaid and BillPay products. These orders are automatically emailed to Radius for shipping. The orders are XML encoded and encrypted using DES to ensure that only valid orders are accepted and processed. The Online Order Management module automatically receives the orders, verifies their authenticity (decrypts) and uploads directly to the order processing system. The order is built and dispatched within 24 hours. Integration with An Post SDS assigns a tracking number which is emailed so that the customer can see when their order is likely to arrive.