How Hivebound utilizes SFTP To Go to boost end-to-end logistics

About Hivebound

Hivebound, a London-based startup established in 2021, is working with leading multinational companies to implement a new digital way to manage end-to-end logistics processes. By offering a powerful digital platform for simple supply chain collaboration, Hivebound aims to transform the way companies cooperate across the multi-trillion dollar supply chain industry, striving to make it more reliable, robust, and productive than ever before.

Hivebound’s cloud-based solution utilizes enterprise collaboration tools to simplify complex processes. This user-friendly approach makes the challenges of supply chain management a simple task, delivering a product that's appealing to their customers, which includes brands, shippers and logistic providers, ranging from SMB's to blue chip organizations who own their own warehouses or use 3PL facilities.

The challenge

As a B2B solution, Hivebound was set to optimize operations between shippers and suppliers, and in order to do this, they needed to integrate with their customers’ systems to import business documents such as purchase orders. Like all good things, they started small, with a manual process around sending files in various methods, receiving them manually and importing them into the platform. As the business grew, manual processes were no longer feasible and so they opted for an automatic method to integrate. While aiming to do so directly by exposing APIs, Hivebound’s team recognized that such integrations often turn into complex IT projects, potentially causing delays and increased complexities. Therefore, they sought a simpler solution to enhance operational efficiency, decrease the risk of human error, and guarantee timely data transfer and storage.

The solution

After an extensive search, Hivebound finally found the solution that ticked all of their boxes: SFTP To Go.

“SFTP To Go provided us with a solution that did not break the bank as we scaled. As there was a free demo, we were able to quickly test and validate that the solution would work for our needs. We tested on Friday, made a decision as a team in the afternoon and on Monday we had things set up and credentials shared with customers”. Zac Da Rocha, Co-Founder and Head of Product

The logistics and supply chain industry thrives on collaboration, often requiring daily interactions across internal departments and business partners. Hivebound provides a platform for customers to digitize, standardize, and automate many manual processes related to shipment coordination in a scalable way. Currently, many purchase orders are still exchanged via email, with inconsistent data formats posing a challenge for processing. To combat this, Hivebound utilizes SFTP to Go for straightforward transfer of purchase order information between a central system and their platform. This low-touch approach bypasses the need for time-consuming and costly API integration. SFTP To Go allows using custom domain names so that the experience for Hivebound’s customers is seamless with Hivebound’s brand.

Typical data exchanges include purchase order and product information, with files uploaded once or twice a day manually by customers, although the intention is to automate this in the future. Customers simply drop their daily purchase order files into a folder, Hivebound picks it up and imports it into the platform, and their customers' suppliers can now view and process these purchase orders. Using SFTP To Go’s webhook notifications, allow Hivebound’s customer success managers track file uploads as soon as they occur, on Slack.

“My favourite thing about SFTP To Go is its simplicity. As soon as a new customer comes on board, we can quickly spin up an SFTP folder in a matter of minutes. It's really not complex, our customer success team can do this without needing assistance from engineering or product”. Zac Da Rocha, Co-Founder and Head of Product