System Integration Platform for Celtic Freight Solutions

The Challenge

Celtic Freight Solutions, a Cardiff-based freight company with 62 employees, was running six different software systems across their operation: a transport management system, a warehouse management system, a separate accounting package, a customer portal, a vehicle tracking platform, and a customs documentation tool. None of the systems were connected to each other.

The result was that staff spent over 20 hours every week manually copying data between systems. A single shipment might require data entry into four different platforms: the transport system for routing, the warehouse system for inventory, the accounting system for invoicing, and the customs tool for documentation. Errors were common, data was frequently out of date, and there was no single source of truth for the state of any shipment.

IT Manager Niall O'Brien needed a way to connect these systems without replacing any of them. The investment in each platform had been significant, and each one worked well individually. The problem was the gaps between them.

The Solution

We built a custom integration platform that connected all six systems through a central middleware layer. The platform used each system's existing API to exchange data in real time, so that when information was entered or updated in one system, it automatically propagated to all the others that needed it.

The integration covered the full freight workflow. When a shipment was booked in the transport management system, the warehouse system was automatically updated with pickup details. When goods were scanned into the warehouse, the accounting system was notified to prepare an invoice. Customs documentation was generated automatically from shipment data that already existed in the transport system. Vehicle tracking data flowed into both the transport system and the customer portal, giving clients real-time delivery updates.

A central dashboard gave Niall and his team visibility into every data flow across the business. Error handling and retry logic were built in, so if one system was temporarily unavailable, the integration platform would queue the data and retry automatically when the system came back online.

The project took 10 weeks. We connected each system one at a time, starting with the two highest-volume integrations (transport and warehouse) and adding the others incrementally. This approach meant the team saw improvements from week one and could provide feedback as each integration was added.

The Results

The 20+ hours of weekly manual data entry were eliminated entirely. Staff who had been spending their days moving data between systems were redeployed to higher-value work. Data errors caused by manual entry dropped to near zero because information only had to be entered once and propagated automatically.

The real-time visibility across all six systems gave Celtic Freight a level of operational control they had never had before. Niall could see the status of any shipment, any warehouse item, and any invoice from a single dashboard. Customer service improved because the team could answer client queries instantly instead of checking three different systems.

The integration platform paid for itself in the first quarter through staff time savings alone. The ongoing maintenance cost of the integration platform was a fraction of what they had been paying in wasted labour.

Why Integration Was the Right Choice

Celtic Freight's situation is common among UK SMEs that have grown by adding software systems over time. Each system was purchased to solve a specific problem, and each one did its job well. The problem was not the individual systems, it was the gaps between them.

Replacing all six systems with a single ERP would have been a massive, expensive, and risky undertaking. It would have disrupted operations, required retraining the entire workforce, and cost well over £100,000. Integration was the faster, cheaper, and lower-risk option. It kept the systems the team already knew and eliminated only the manual work between them.

The integration approach also meant Celtic Freight could continue using each system for what it did best. The transport management system was still the best tool for route planning. The warehouse system was still the best for inventory. The integration platform simply made them work together as if they were one system.

And because Celtic Freight owns the integration code, they can add, remove, or modify connections as their business evolves. When they switch to a new accounting system next year, they only need to update one connection, not rebuild the entire platform.