Choosing an integration provider isn’t a small decision; it’s likely to be a long relationship. A lot of our customers have been with us for over 10 years and they often turn to us for our expertise. Doing your homework at the beginning will help you find the right provider for your business. This includes your current needs, as well as those that might arise in future. Here are five things to consider when choosing an integration provider.

1. Do they meet your technical requirements?

Before beginning the search for an integration provider, it’s important to look inward at your business and its objectives. You need to be clear on what you want to achieve to ensure the provider has an appropriate solution.

• Who are you looking to exchange messages with? Thousands of trading partners, or just one? Are they suppliers, retailers, customers, a network like eInvoicing or STN (Superannuation Transaction Network)? Where are they based? What levels of capability do they have?
• What messages do you need to exchange? Procurement messages, finance messages, reports, contracts? Is this likely to expand in future? Can the provider cater for the types you need?
• What services do you require? An integration and mapping solution, a webform solution, a pass-through solution? A solution to offer to your trading partners? Technical support and expertise?
• And how much work are you prepared to do? Do you want a completely automated solution with built-in business rules and matching, or are you willing to do some manual work? Do you have resources within your business that will complete some work, or are you planning to outsource it all?
• How flexible is their technology? Can it expand as your business does? Is it cloud based or installed? Can it cater for all future messages you might want to add down the track?

Once you have everything jotted down, you can rank the importance of the requirements – for example, ‘non-negotiable’, ‘important’ and ‘nice to have’. If you start with outlining your needs, it’ll make the process of eliminating providers much easier.

2. Does their business align with yours?

Make sure their business culture and service offering is right for you. Some companies have a very methodical way of working, whereas others can tailor their approaches to suit each client. Before getting started, discuss how the company would work with you, including what will happen after the solution has been implemented. Establish what level of guidance is needed along the way and be clear on what is chargeable and what’s not.

3. Do they have the right experience?

Do your research into the solutions they’re providing to their existing customers. Niche industries can have certain requirements that others don’t have. Ask the company what industries they have experience in and what challenges your particular industry faces. On the flip side, a company that has experience in various industries can be advantageous; they can apply things learned from one industry to others, and add useful features to their products and services. For example, the highest security required by some of our customers is applied to all gateways, regardless of your industry. Look at the company’s current customers to see if they’re companies you aspire to be like. Are the companies at the forefront of electronic messaging, and for example, excel in their supply chain efficiency? Asking for references is one of the best ways to find out about a company. Have a chat with the provider to see if they can put you in touch with a client or two. Lastly, pick their brains about what’s happening in your industry and in electronic messaging more generally. They may be able to shed some light on upcoming initiatives or changes. After all, technology is ever changing.

4. Does their support model work for your business?

Getting the solution up and running is the first step. But the ongoing support and maintenance is just as important. Think about the following things.

• What type of support will you need? Do you have an in-house team that can assist with technical enquiries? Or do you need your provider assist with all enquiries?
• Where is their support located? Do you need support to be based locally or will an overseas support centre suit you? Do you need to be able to phone someone straight away or is email support sufficient?
• How easy is it for the provider to execute additional requirements? If you choose to add other requirements at a later stage, how long will it take for requirements to be gathered and development to be competed?
• What are their support processes? How quickly will they respond to your enquiries? How can their support team be contacted? Are they available when you’ll need them?
• Do they actively monitor your gateway? Is it solely your responsibility or does your provider monitor the gateway for you? Do they have automated monitoring? And can it be tailored to your needs?

5. Is their pricing model suited to you?

Look at the pricing models of the providers you’re considering to see which one suits your business. Find out how the provider charges; is their charging model quite complex? Do they charge per message? Based on data consumed? Number or kilocharacters? Are their plans capped or uncapped? Also look at their charging model for ongoing support. As touched on earlier, be clear about what’s chargeable and what’s not. This will ensure you’re both on the same page and will reduce likelihood of conflict in the future. — These are some of the key things to consider when selecting the right integration provider for your business. Spending time doing this research will pay off; a long, healthy relationship is beneficial to your business and theirs.

We get a lot of questions from people who have been asked to trade using EDI, what it actually is. Put simply, electronic data interchange is the electronic exchange of structured data, or messages, between business applications. The aim of EDI is to minimise manual labour, ensure accuracy, speed up the exchange of messages and gain visibility into the trading process. Many large organisations, particularly retailers or those with a large supply chain, utilise EDI to streamline their processes and save costs. To better understand EDI, its use and benefits, let's look at an example of a typical exchange without EDI:

1. A retailer enters a purchase order in their ERP system.
2. The retailer sends that purchase order through email, post or fax to the supplier.
3. The supplier validates the purchase order to ensure that all required information is provided and they have stock on hand.
4. The supplier enters the purchase order into their ERP system or accounting package.
5. The supplier sends a purchase order response to the retailer by email, post or fax.
6. The supplier picks and packs the order and sends a despatch advice.
7. The supplier enters the invoice into their application and sends it to the retailer.

Imagine the time, money and data entry errors involved in this process. What if we could just connect the ERP systems or accounting packages of the retailer and supplier? Well that’s what EDI does. If two organisations are connected via EDI, the flow of messages is completely automated:

1. The retailer enters a purchase order into their ERP.
2. A map can be built in the gateway to convert the message into the format needed by the supplier, like an XML, EDIFACT, iDoc, flat file or CSV.
3. The purchase order is sent to the supplier’s application, where they can run validations. If the validation is successful, the purchase order appears within second of it being sent.
4. A despatch advice is generated in the supplier’s application and sent via EDI to the retailer.
5. An invoice is generated in the supplier’s application and sent via EDI to the retailer.

What are the benefits of EDI?

From a financial standpoint alone, EDI can lead to huge cost savings for organisations. There’s the time staff spend on data entry and chasing up issues, the improved cash flow because invoices are received sooner, accurate data always being on hand and much more. Let’s look the benefits in greater detail.

Cost savings

A lot of paper and printing is involved in traditional transactions. There's also the storage, filing, reproduction and document retrieval. All these processes involve labour costs, which EDI can significantly reduce. Studies have found the implementation of EDI can remove 90% of invoicing costs. Errors are another issue. Manual data entry comes with inherent data issues because of the high number of processes involved. An EDI solution reduces these manual processes drastically, reducing the likelihood of errors and removing the cost of following up the errors.

Increased speed and data accuracy

EDI can speed up trading cycles dramatically. Instead of waiting days to receive an invoice, you can receive it in seconds of it being sent. Data quality also improves when you implement EDI; studies show that it can reduce transaction errors by as much as 40%. There's also a reduced number of lost faxes and mail and less data entry errors.

Greater efficiency

One of the key draws of EDI technology is the automation of otherwise-laborious processes. EDI enables staff to spend their time on higher-value tasks, rather than data entry. The near-real-time visibility that EDI provides also helps companies achieve fewer stock-outs and fewer cancelled orders.  It’s near-real-time nature also allows organisations to track the trading process and be confident to make decisions based on the information available.

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More than ever before, it is becoming absolutely business critical to focus on extracting the best possible performance and efficiencies from your supply chain. Quick delivery, item traceability, and courteous service are now baseline expectations. To lift performance of any system, you need to determine not only your end-to-end performance, but also identify bottleneck points. The maximum throughput capacity at your bottlenecks will fundamentally impact your overall supply chain performance. In addition to specific bottlenecks that might need more capacity or faster processing speed, you should also aim to lift overall supply chain performance and capacity by implementing systemic improvements and adjustments to workflows. Here are 5 tips for systemic improvements that can help you dramatically lift overall supply chain performance.

1. Cross Docking

For situations where your supply chain involves distribution to a large number of regular locations, a cross-docking terminal used as a distribution hub can lead to a dramatic improvement. Items enter the cross dock on one side and only briefly remain in the dock before being loaded directly to outbound transport on the other side. The result can be lower lead times, less handling, lower transport costs, and more efficient transportation.

2. Data quality

Shipping, invoicing, and payments require large amounts of documentation. Data quality problems can quickly lead to shipping errors, mis-allocated inventory and unpaid invoices. Serial Shipping Container Code (SSCC) labelling can be used to electronically track any “package” of items within your supply chain, providing trace-ability. Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) gateways and cloud-based services allow the secure, automated exchange of eInvoices and shipping documentation with both suppliers and customers. These technologies can also be directly integrated with ERP systems and other business software systems, ensuring no human data entry is required, eliminating most data quality problems and removing paperwork-based bottlenecks.

3. Carrots and Sticks for suppliers

Contractual KPIs can be used to improve performance by making adjustments to timings of supplier deliveries. This is common practice for large retailers to reduce delivery lead times and therefore the amount of inventory held, while ensuring predictability in the supply of goods.

4. Real-time visibility and analysis

Technologies such as scanners and Internet of Things (IoT) sensors are able to generate a huge amount of real-time data regarding the flow of items within your supply chain. Up until recently, many organisations still used “batch” data collection and reporting, which effectively meant that it was only possible to detect problems in the rear-view mirror, hours or perhaps days afterwards. For many organisations, real-time (or nearly real-time) access to datasets can allow better traceability and customer service for clients, in addition to making it possible to apply predictive analytics to detect and avoid problems before they cascade into bigger issues. There's a common misconception that EDI is slow and outdated, but new transmission protocols allow companies to view their data is near-real-time.

5. Multiple supplier strategies

Whenever possible, ensure there is competitive tension for key items in your supply chain. While this may seem a little like a procurement issue rather than a supply chain issue, real-time supply chain visibility offers the chance to have automated trading strategies which adapts sourcing as supply chain issues occur – without human intervention.

It’s been a huge two weeks as a Gold Sponsor of GS1’s Supply Chain Week. There were many great topics, but here are a couple of our highlights:

Data and omnichannel retailing

Now is an interesting time for brands, because we are increasingly seeing them compete with their customers. Consumers can purchase runners from a Nike store, but they can also purchase them from Rebel Sport. They also have the added choice of viewing and buying in store or online, or a combination of both. With omni-shoppers now spending 350% of what their bricks and mortar counterparts spend, companies are now more than ever looking to give their customers a unified experience, and one that sets their brand aside from the rest. As customers demand enriched information, having clean and accurate data can really help boost a brand’s omnichannel strategy. In this age where everything is just a click away, if customers can’t find something from you, they will find it from your competitor. The importance of data doesn’t stop at the product though. Customers expect to see information about the product and your service; stock level, returns policies, delivery tracking and more. Having the data customers want, when they want it, is now an essential of a business’ omnichannel strategy.

End-to-end supply chain visibility

A huge part of the supply chain is visibility. Companies want to be able to track goods so they can plan and manage issues that may arise in the transportation process. This not only provides the company with smoother processes, but enables them to give superior customer service. GS1 has been driving the new supply chain industry standard, EPCIS (Electronic Product Code Information Services), which defines the standard message set for data capture and exchange about a product. Unlike regular product data, EPCIS holds information about the movement and status too — the what, where, when and why. The introduction of this new standard will mean a big shift for the industry and GS1 is aiding this by providing a centralised system where manufacturers, distributors and retailers can register information about their products and retrieve them as required. EPCIS is a big move for the supply chain industry, which has seen little development in recent years. Speak to us to find out how we can help your omnichannel strategy or implement EPCIS in your business.

Electronic commerce (e-commerce) has existed for over 50 years, enabling commercial transactions between and amongst organisations and individuals. In the early 1980’s, EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) emerged as a next stage of e-commerce development, allowing companies to exchange business documents (e.g. PO, invoices and ship notices) in a standard electronic format. If we analyse the busy world of retail, businesses today need to be aware of the ongoing industry challenges. Factors such as the emergence of new data-capturing technologies; the rise of mobile payments and increase of online businesses; the need to connect with users in multiple channels and customers’ need for speed; and the continuous challenges on supply chain management, are all threatening businesses performance and success. For this reason, through the implementation of EDI solutions, retailers will be in the position to take advantage of the following benefits: • Reduced Costs – eliminating or reducing administrative and personnel costs • Improved Data Quality and Accuracy – eliminating errors resulting from manual data input • Increased Business Efficiency – allowing businesses to concentrate on higher-value tasks • Increased Processing Speed – allowing businesses to communicate data more efficiently and accurately. Large volumes of commercial data can now be transferred from one business to another in matter of minutes, enabling faster response and greater customer satisfaction • Enriched Visibility – facilitating faster decision-making processes and improved responsiveness to customers and market demands • Shortened lead times for product enhancements and new product delivery – improving and building stronger relationships with business partners • Improved Customer Service – addressing customers’ questions and concerns more effectively since information is available on a “real-time” basis • Enhanced Logistics Management and Increased Productivity – allowing companies to manage and control production, purchasing and delivering requirements more efficiently From these benefits, we can observe that the use of EDI shapes the success and efficiency of a business supply chain management and business operations. MessageXchange is a cloud B2B Integration and Collaboration service that facilitates connection, mapping and message exchange across all industry standard formats and protocols. MessageXchange is capable of providing business solutions, for companies who are seeking to automate, map, log, and track complex or long messages of all data sources. Speak to MessageXchange today to see how we could tailor a solution for your business.

Efficient supply chain management has become a fundamental seasoning for business success and performance. Diners are increasingly influenced by tendencies. The proliferation of online information is driving and shaping consumer habits in unprecedented ways and with this, the awakening of their desire to know the whole story about the food served at their tables. Behind the scenes, this trend has increased the complexity in logistics and supply chain maneuvers, challenging businesses within the Foodservice Industry. It is not surprising that businesses are becoming more focused on improving their supply chain operations; an area that has been overlooked for far too long. Supply chain is the network of organisations, linked together from the upstream raw commodities suppliers to the downstream of final products or services, and the end consumer. For this reason, supply chain can be seen as an equation: the sum of all existing relationships that are involved in building a business ecosystem. A successful supply chain will produce value in meeting the customers’ expectations. Therefore, engaging and connecting every stage of these links, presents its own opportunity to develop a stronger supply chain management and enhance business operations. However, as supply chain management is diffusing within the corporate world, in order to remain competitive, small businesses might be wondering how can they achieve an efficient supply chain management. Fortunately, as technology evolved over the past decade, businesses today have the privilege of engaging and connecting its business ecosystem at its desire pace, and most importantly, doing so at a cost-effective manner. MessageXchange is a cloud B2B Integration and Collaboration service. It provides a solution for businesses seeking to connect and improve its supply chain efficiency, attaining an end-to-end visibility and traceability of its processes and activities. Business will be able to obtain:

• Better investment. Improve efficiency with no CAPEX
• Better integration. Automate, map, log and track complex or long running supply chain messages of all data sources (EDI, GPS, EFID and XML)
• Better visibility. Achieve additional insights and visibility via customized reports

The efficiency of supply chain can vastly determine the success and performance of a business. A successful supply chain will assist companies in improving their business operations and meeting its customer’s expectations. Customer satisfaction has powerful effects on the business bottom-line profitability. Speak to MessageXchange today or Join us at the GS1 Food service Industry Seminars, to see how we could tailor a solution for your business.