Do you currently have a Ship On-Premises server and are considering a move to a cloud-based solution? This article will give you a short overview of the benefits and the requirements of migrating.
Benefits of migrating from Ship On-Premises to a cloud-based solution:
- Automatic updates – No manual updates required. You will always have the latest carrier updates, features, and security patches.
- Reduced IT workload – Your IT team no longer needs to manage software installations, updates, or server maintenance.
- Scalability – No need to worry about performance, even in peak season. Easily add or remove users and features without worrying about hardware limitations.
- Anywhere access – Use the system from any computer with an internet connection—no client installations required.
API or web interface?
Our customers have diverse setups, integrations, and requirements. For some, a web-based book and print interface is sufficient. Without any integrations, this setup can be implemented quickly and requires no development on your end.
For greater flexibility and customization, an API integration is the ideal solution. With our standard API, you control the customization on your side. You generate the requests and have full visibility into the data returned by the API. How you process this information within your systems and print the labels is entirely up to you. nShift ensures that your carriers are available within the API, but the integration itself is built by you.
Phases in the migration
Discovery phase
To estimate the migration, one or more meetings with you and a technical consultant from nShift will be required. During these meetings, we will review your current solution and outline your requirements for the new solution.
The estimate will be based on several key factors, including:
- API integration or web-based book and print interface
- number of carriers
- number of locations, e.g. do you have multiple shops, warehouses, etc.
- integrations to other systems, e.g. WMS and ERP.
- dangerous goods and price calculation
- use of portal export, Track, Scan App, etc.
- go live plan
Migration
nShift carries out the migration of carriers and enables any additional features like Portal export, Track notifications, etc. If you are moving to an API integration, you will carry out the development of the integration.
The scope of the migration phase depends on the complexity of your solution and your requirements.
Testing
Testing everything is important to make sure everything works as expected. It is recommended to test all carriers and printers. Some customers carry out all the testing themselves while others require assistance from nShift. The extent of the testing phase also depends on the complexity of your setup.
Go live
For a small customer doing manual book and print via our web-based interface, going live can happen right after the migration. For large customers with multiple warehouses, many carriers, dataflows and integrations this phase may extend over weeks and needs careful planning to ensure a smooth process.
API and developer resources
To help you learn more about our API and how to build an integration, we have gathered a collection of valuable resources here:
- Ship API Swagger: https://api.shipmentserver.com/index.html
- Swagger for testing: https://demo.shipmentserver.com:8080/index.html
- Ship REST API documentation: https://helpcenter.nshift.com/hc/en-us/sections/5402776930972
- Ship Cloud documentation: https://helpcenter.nshift.com/hc/en-us/sections/4407774478994