Last year, Radial, an established third-party logistics (3PL) provider, made the strategic decision to better serve the modern brand. The company saw the move as an opportunity to leverage their 40+ years of operational expertise to serve a larger volume of growing brands.
As they looked to better target fast-growing brands, which typically require easily configurable technology, fast, seamless onboarding and streamlined operations, they found that their highly customizable enterprise-focused solutions weren’t a good match for these needs. To win this market segment, they had to rethink their capabilities, including their tech stack to better serve the needs of the modern brand.
Radial found the ideal technology solution in Pipe17 + Logiwa’s 3PL accelerator. By combining Logiwa’s AI-powered multi-client warehouse management system (WMS) with Pipe17’s connectivity and order management capabilities, Radial has been able to reduce client onboarding time from 18‑weeks to as little as one week.
This newfound capability served as a key component of the company’s new offering, Radial Fast Track, which combines powerful and easily configurable technology with a simplified commercial process and streamlined operations to meet the needs of the modern mid-market brand.
“Fast Track is not just technology. It’s commercial, operational, and technology all working together to make working with Radial easy and efficient.”
Anthony Hockaday, Sr. Director, Product Management, Radial Fast Track
The Challenge
Historically, Radial had built and maintained a custom order management system (OMS). Both their technology and internal processes were designed to serve the needs of enterprise clients such as national retailers and global consumer brands. These enterprise partnerships typically included:
- Comprehensive onboarding with timelines of 18+ weeks to accommodate complex requirements
- Custom integrations tailored to bespoke enterprise systems and workflows
- Fixed warehouse pricing models that provided maximum capacity assurance year-round
- Detailed contracting and pricing structures reflecting custom SOPs and SLAs
While this approach served enterprise clients well, it created significant barriers for modern mid-market brands seeking faster onboarding and more flexible fulfillment partnerships. As a result, Radial was struggling to win new business in this market segment, which is key to capturing growth and building relationships with brands earlier in their lifecycle. Realizing that their custom-built technology was designed for a different customer profile, they started searching for a tech stack that could help them win against venture-backed 3PLs and 4PLs offering quick-to-deploy technology solutions for mid-market brands.
“We realized we needed to get out of the technology business and focus on what we do best—logistics and fulfillment. At the same time, we knew we had to serve modern brands significantly better. These are mainly Shopify brands. We simply couldn’t meet their expectations.”
Anthony Hockaday, Sr. Director, Product Management, Radial Fast Track
The Solution
After evaluating multiple Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) and order management systems, Radial chose Pipe17’s Order Operations Platform for its ease of use, speed, flexibility and power.
“Pipe17’s unique. It delivers both connectivity and order management workflows in a single, intuitive, easy-to-use solution. It’s not two independent systems smashed together that still don’t function well, like an iPaaS and legacy OMS.”
Anthony Hockaday, Sr. Director, Product Management, Radial Fast Track
Since Radial was evaluating WMS options at the same time, Pipe17 recommended Logiwa for its speed, compatibility and mid-market readiness. As a plus, Logiwa’s multi-tenant architecture supports greater collaboration between Radial and its brands. While Logiwa excels at optimizing warehouse operations like picking, packing and shipping, Pipe17 handles the order operations layer by:
- Connecting clients’ selling channels
- Orchestrating order routing
- Synchronizing inventory across all channels
- Proactively surfacing exceptions
“We looked at multiple iPaaS, OMS and WMS combinations, but they still came with the same challenges and complexity as our existing system and required specialized technical skills. With Pipe17, I can just toggle a few settings, configure the workflows and have a client connected with data flowing the same day.”
Anthony Hockaday, Sr. Director, Product Management, Radial Fast Track
Radial began implementing Pipe17 in March 2025. The initial goal was to use Pipe17 to onboard one new Radial client over a six-month time frame. However, the results exceeded all expectations. By the end of just three months, Radial had onboarded 7 new customers to their Fast Track fulfillment solution with Pipe17.
“Things took off faster and better than we expected. We went from evaluating Pipe17 to making it our standard approach almost overnight. Within a month, we had essentially stopped launching on our custom-built OMS.”
Anthony Hockaday, Sr. Director, Product Management, Radial Fast Track
Beyond simple data pass-through, 3PLs like Radial use Pipe17’s advanced order orchestration capabilities for:
- Product bundling and kitting
- Automated order routing and splitting
- Real-time omnichannel inventory updates
- Inventory buffers and segmentation
- Product catalog sync
- Transfer order and purchase order automation
- Warehouse returns and exchanges process automation
- Channel-specific “buyer’s remorse” order holds and order editing windows
- SKU mapping and SKU swapping
- Proactive error and exception management
And, because Pipe17 is intuitive and requires minimal to no technical resources to use, Radial’s operations team can configure and deploy solutions independently.
“Pipe17 sits between our customers’ sales channels and our warehouse management system, tagging orders and applying rules that drive the right workflows and pack‑out processes. This isn’t just about customer connectivity—it’s about managing complex, evolving scenarios without code, costly projects, or delays.”
Anthony Hockaday, Sr. Director, Product Management, Radial Fast Track
The Results
Quantitative Impact
| Metric | Before Pipe17 | After Pipe17 | Improvement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Onboarding Team Skillset | Technical | Non-technical | Simplified customer onboarding |
| Launch Speed | 18 weeks | ≈ 1 week | 18x faster |
| Integration Time | 8-12 weeks | Hours | 95% reduction |
With Radial bringing operational expertise and Pipe17 providing technology agility, the company has been able to create a truly differentiated fulfillment service that appeals to modern brands.
“We all can use the same golf clubs, but it’s technique that wins the game. Pipe17 brings us to the table; our operational excellence keeps us there.”
Anthony Hockaday, Sr. Director, Product Management, Radial Fast Track
And, while the transformation is delivering measurable results, Anthony says the impact on the organizational culture is just as significant.
“Once people saw Pipe17 and Fast Track working, the energy changed completely. Now everyone’s excited and optimistic about our future with modern brands.”
Anthony Hockaday, Sr. Director, Product Management, Radial Fast Track
What is Radial Fast Track?
Radial Fast Track combines four critical elements:
1. Customer Connectivity and Order Orchestration (Pipe17)
- 200+ pre-configured connectors for instant channel connectivity
- Partnership and interoperability with their Manhattan and Logiwa warehouse management solutions
- Pre-built automation workflows enable rapid deployment of customers business rules, reducing the need for custom development
- Operational visibility with near real-time omnichannel updates for orders, inventory, products, fulfillments and reverse logistics
2. Warehouse Management (Logiwa)
- Automated picking and packing optimization reduce operational setup
- Configurable templates and business rules with minimal coding
- Mulit–tenancy and client segregation allow for seamless, independent brand onboarding
- Intuitive UX enables faster staff training and adoption
3. Operational Excellence (Radial)
- 40+ years of proven logistics and fulfillment expertise
- Ability to scale brands from startup to enterprise
- Full-service fulfillment partner
4. Client-Friendly Commercial Model (Radial)
- One-week customer onboarding
- Simplified pricing structures
- Shared-space warehousing
- Faster channel expansion capabilities
Frequently Asked Questions About 3PL Customer Onboarding
3PLs reduce client onboarding time by eliminating both integration and workflow configuration bottlenecks. The most effective approach combines commerce connectivity with no-code order orchestration capabilities. Radial cut client onboarding from 18 weeks to 1 week using Pipe17’s Order Operations Platform, which provides 200+ pre-configured connectors to selling channels and AI-native, business-user-friendly workflow configuration for order routing, inventory management, and exception handling. This enabled Radial to configure complex customer integration and order management scenarios quickly and without developer involvement.
Traditional brand onboarding for 3PLs ranges from 8 to 18 weeks, depending on customer and tech stack complexity. Enterprise-focused 3PLs with custom-built systems often require 18+ weeks for bespoke integrations and custom workflows. 3PLs serving modern mid-market brands can achieve 1-2 week onboarding by using Pipe17 for customer connectivity and order orchestration. Extended timelines in traditional approaches stem primarily from integration work (8-12 weeks) and the need for specialized technical resources.
Yes. Pipe17 enables non-technical teams to onboard brands. Radial’s previous approach required specialized technical teams and comprehensive onboarding timelines that served their enterprise clients well, but created barriers for fast-growing modern brands. After implementing Pipe17, their team onboards brands through an intuitive interface for both integration and order orchestration. This delivers faster time to revenue, eliminates technical bottlenecks, enables growth without adding specialized headcount, and provides more flexible and agile services to customers.
Modern brands expect fast connectivity to their selling channels, real-time order and inventory visibility, self-service portals, support for complex automation and routing rules, and the ability to adjust workflows and add new channels quickly. These brands, often on platforms like Shopify Plus, demand onboarding timelines measured in days not months, plus flexible technology that will adapt alongside their business. They evaluate 3PLs on operational efficiency, not just warehouse metrics. 3PLs need technology that seamlessly connects customers’ selling channels with their WMS, synchronizes inventory in real time, proactively handles exceptions, and provides visibility and control. 3PLs without these capabilities lose deals to more agile, tech-forward competitors.
No. A WMS optimizes warehouse operations, but it doesn’t connect to your customers’ commerce ecosystem or orchestrate multi-brand, multi-location order routing. Modern 3PLs need to connect their WMS to every client’s selling channels, translate data, SKUs and shipping methods between systems, screen orders for channel-specific policies, catch exceptions proactively, and apply customer-specific processing and routing rules based on real-time conditions. Your WMS handles picking, packing and shipping, while Pipe17 handles connectivity and order management across the commerce ecosystem. Together, they deliver the complete solution modern brands expect from a 3PL.