In 1997, I worked with FedEx to build an integrated order management system for the e-commerce company that I ran with my dad. Orders would come into my Perl-b

In 1997, I worked with FedEx to build an integrated order management system for the e-commerce company that I ran with my dad. Orders would come into my Perl-based order management system and the pickers would use the web interface to print a packing slip. A bash script would generate a Postscript barcode and then my Perl would generate a packing slip in LaTeX that included that barcode. The LaTeX-generated PS file was sent over a private T1 from the datacenter to the warehouse printer. The order would get picked and put in a crate with the packing slip. The barcode was then scanned at a FedEx shipping station by our shipping guys. That would trigger a script on the FedEx machine (written in Visual Basic, I think) that would make a call to PostgreSQL over Windows ODBC to pull the shipping address and shipping method. As soon as the workstation populated this info, it would spit out a FedEx shipping label and the VB script would then trigger an INSERT back into Postgres with the tracking number. This triggered another Perl job to mark the order as "shipped" and would send an email to the customer with the tracking number. TLDR: we had real-time order tracking with full shipping and billing integration in a tiny mail order bicycle parts business in 1997.