How Custom Technology and Exceptional Service Built a 10-Year Partnership with Kensington

Kensington is a premier distributor of electronic components, specializing in locks, trackballs, docking stations, ergonomic keyboards, and fingerprint readers—a reliable hardware vendor for over 30 years. With products known for their security and durability, Kensington needed a reliable logistics and fulfillment provider who could match their brand reputation.  

DCL Logistics has supported Kensington for over 10 years, their teams working in tandem to maintain consistent operational excellence, adapt to changing business needs, and help improve efficiencies along the supply chain.  

From creating a custom lot tracking solution that even the largest ERP provider couldn’t provide, to giving the team better operational visibility and dependable account support, DCL became much more than a fulfillment provider, it became a long-term extension of Kensington’s supply chain team. 

“One of the reasons we’ve stayed with DCL so long is because DCL manages a great deal for us, and they do it seamlessly. Our team has access to people and systems within DCL that honestly made their jobs easier than our ERP platform makes it. It goes back to how long we stayed with DCL. If none of that was easy, we would have moved out long ago.” 

The Challenge: DCL Logistics Solved a Problem That Even SAP Couldn't 

Like many enterprise businesses, Kensington relies on one of the world’s leading ERP systems to manage operations and inventory. But when it came to the unique tracking requirements of its products, the standard functionality wasn’t enough. SAP’s lot coding and batch management tools are designed primarily for products with expiration dates, not for the type of detailed unit-level tracking Kensington required. Their team could make the system work, but only by manipulating a feature that wasn’t built for their use case, creating unnecessary complexity and limiting visibility. 

Kensington needed greater visibility into every product moving through its supply chain. Each product requires unique lot and batch tracking, so every unit can be individually identified, ensuring the integrity and security of its products.  

Rather than forcing Kensington to work around the limitations of its ERP, DCL built a custom solution within eFactory, DCL’s order and inventory management platform. The result was a tailored lot tracking system that gave Kensington the visibility it needed while fitting seamlessly into its existing operations. 

Brad says, “DCL created a solution that one of the best ERP systems in the industry didn’t have. And they made it feel seamless. DCL had it solved quickly and managed extremely effectively. DCL had the order visibility, and they gave us that same visibility that we needed to run our business.”  

Instead of asking Kensington to change its workflow, DCL adapted its technology to support the way the business actually operated. 

The Solution: eFactory is Built to Make Supply Chain Work Easier 

DCL built a custom solution for Kensington within eFactory, its proprietary order management platform.  

While eFactory isn’t designed to replace an ERP, it gives customers operational visibility that some growing brands find hard to achieve through their own systems or off-the-shelf enterprise platforms.  

Originally built by warehouse operators for warehouse operators, eFactory provides real-time insight into inventory, order management, shipments, reporting, and fulfillment activity. The biggest benefit is that all of this is available through a simple interface that provides all the details a brand needs in one, connected platform.  

Carman Myers, Sales Operations Analyst at Kensington says, “eFactory is so easy to use and it has everything I need in one place. Our ERP has so many clicks to get what you want, but eFactory is not like that at all. The tracking is all in one place, the carriers are all in one spot. I don’t have to go between so many different views—everything I need is right there.” 

Supply chain technology should support and simplify operations, not create more work to manage. By giving Kensington a single tool to manage their order visibility and inventory allocation,  eFactory allowed their team to spend less time tracking and more time running the business. 

The Result: Great Partnerships Are Built on Service-First Support  

Experienced operators know that operations rarely go exactly according to plan because inventory changes, customer demands change unexpectedly, and quarter-end deadlines all require an urgent update to normal business processes. The teams who communicate quickly and solve problems together are the ones with smooth, agile supply chains.  

For Kensington, DCL’s responsiveness became one of the defining characteristics of the partnership. Adrian D’Souza, Inventory Planning Manager at Kensington says, “Both of our teams worked really efficiently together. Even when we had rush orders or all-hands-on-deck situations, DCL always responded very well. There were no ‘Oh my God’ situations ever and I’ve worked in supply chain for a long time, and those situations happen all the time in this business. The DCL team is super efficient and they helped us avoid those situations; they are a very good partner because they flexed when they had to.” 

That responsiveness extended to everyday operations. Carman says, “DCL is always quick with their responses: ‘Yes! It’s no problem. We’ve got you.’ I never once had to doubt or worry about DCL getting something out for us when we needed it.” 

Reliable account management is more about partnership than simply answering emails quickly. A true account manager is someone who understands your business, anticipates challenges, and works alongside your team to solve them. For a company like Kensington, that consistency became one of the biggest reasons for a legacy partnership of over 10 years.  

Brad Keller adds, “It goes back to how long we stayed with DCL. If none of that was easy, we would have moved out long ago.” 

In the fast-moving world of hardware and consumer electronics, staying with the same partner for years says more than any service-level agreement ever could.