Will we see you at SuiteWorld 16?

B2BGateway is yet again a proud sponsor of this year’s SuiteWorld conference taking place in San Jose, CA, May 16-19. SuiteWorld is NetSuite’s annual user and partner conference and has rapidly become the world’s number 1 conference on Cloud ERP.

B2BGateway has been NetSuite’s EDI partner since 2001 and provides NetSuite users with cloud based, fully integrated EDI solutions. EDI can be defined as the structured transmission of electronic business data such as purchase orders, invoices, shipping notices, inventory updates, etc., between organizations and removes the need to re-key data.

If you are attending SuiteWorld this May, make sure to drop by booth #305 and say hello to the B2BGateway team. Alternatively, you can attend the B2BGateway presentation on how to use EDI to improve your organization’s supply chain efficiencies in the Expo Hall on Tuesday May 17 at 4.15pm.

For further information on B2BGateway’s EDI solutions for NetSuite please visit http://b2bgateway.net/EDI-for-NetSuite.asp or email Sales@B2BGateway.Net 

So I bought a new car........

My phone rang, I recognized the number, ‘Oh no’, I thought to myself, ‘It’s Joe, the sales guy I collected my new car from only two days previous’. It can only be one of two things, he’s calling to give me a lecture about how crap the car I traded in was, or else there’s a problem with the finance. Either way he wants my new car back. Should I answer or just cower and let it go to voicemail? I answered.

Sales Guy: “Hello Roger”.

Me: “Hello Joe”.

Sales Guy: “Roger, temperatures dropped a lot last night and there’s a lot of ice on the roads, I just wanted to make sure you are ok?”

Me: “Why, yes I am Joe, thanks for calling”

Sales Guy: “No bother, I also just wanted to call and make sure you are happy with your new car and if there is anything else I can do for you?”

Me: “Thanks Joe, I am absolutely delighted with my new car and thanks for all your help”.

After additional pleasantries exchanged, call over.  I wipe the sweat from my brow and think, what a nice call, it only took the guy 30 seconds to make, but it made my day. I then started thinking further about my brief relationship with Joe.

It all started on a very wet Saturday morning last December when my wife and I decided to visit a dealership to view a car I admired and had been reading great reviews about. My only worry was, because it has a relatively small engine, would it be underpowered? I needed a test drive to see for myself.

On entering the dealership like two drowned rats from the deluge outside, I noticed a group of 3 to 4 sales people standing around, having a great conversation, laughing and ultimately ignoring my wife and I. Then a gentleman comes out of a doorway, notices my wife and I, comes straight over to us and says “Hi, I’m Joe can I help you today?”

After we proceeded to explain our needs, wants and likes and the fact that we would really like to test drive our chosen model with exact engine size there was a pause. He was not sure that he had one with the engine we wanted in stock. He proceeded to make us both a coffee and asked us could we bear with him for a few minutes – that he would either call back a sales guy who was not working that Saturday, but was driving one, or he would have a double check ‘down the back’.

After a few minutes wait Joe returns and says “I found one down the back, let’s go for a drive.” I drove, my wife sat in the front passenger seat and Joe sat in the back. The car performed extremely well and I was hooked. After I pulled over to turn around and drive back to the dealership, Joe asked my wife did she drive. After answering to the affirmative and after much persuasion from both Joe and I, my wife drives the car back to the dealership.

Back in the dealership, we agree on terms for a deal, but then my wife throws a curve ball, “I want one in black!”, she exclaims. Joe’s face goes red, “We only have a Silver or White in stock. I can order a black from the distributor but it may not get here until March/April. Alternatively I can ring around some fellow dealers to see if they have a black one in stock and are will to give it to me?”

“Please do Joe”, I said. So to cut a long story short, Joe sourced a black car from a fellow dealer, had it ready for me for collection for January 12^th, filled it with gas, setup all the cars settings, sorted the finance and let me drive away one happy camper.

Sales Guy: “Roger, temperatures dropped a lot last night and there’s a lot of ice on the roads, I just wanted to make sure you are ok?”

Now that, Ladies and Gentlemen is old fashioned, but brilliant customer service………….

B2BGateway and NetSuite: Conquering the Wholesale Distribution Marketplace

By Kevin Hoyle, CEO, B2BGateway.

B2BGateway and NetSuite first partnered way back in 2001, back when NetSuite was known as NetLedger and the term ‘cloud computing’ was not yet invented. Back then we just referred to the cloud as plain and simple, doing business over the internet! In the intervening 15+ years, the world of EDI and ERP has changed a great deal; many integrations now use web-services and CFO’s are actively seeking cloud based ERP systems such as NetSuite. These solutions provide instant anywhere ERP access, along with fully integrated EDI solutions, through cloud technology and they are both affordable and available to the masses.

Since B2BGateway became NetSuite’s EDI partner in 2001, the Wholesale Distribution market has evolved significantly. The traditional supply chain route of; manufacturer to wholesaler to box store retailer has been altered. Now, we have online shopping carts, multi-layered e-commerce stores and drop shipping where the retailer may never handle the goods. EDI technology has played a major part in automating and simplifying all e-commerce solutions. Take for example the EDI 846 transaction set or inventory inquiry document. The EDI 846 is used by Wholesale Distributors to communicate inventory levels to their trading partners. It has become particularly important for online retailers such as Amazon to have this information at hand, especially when drop shipping. Online retailers cannot reliably offer goods to consumers without having up to date inventory information from their distributors. Cloud based, fully integrated EDI solutions can solve this problem by instantly sending electronic inventory updates from NetSuite to the trading partners.

Furthermore, many Wholesale Distributors are now outsourcing their warehouse and transportation needs to Third Party Logistics Providers (3PLs). By using the EDI 900 transaction set series, Wholesale Distributors can automate and communicate electronically with their 3PLs. Going beyond conventional EDI, NetSuite users can have their EDI 945 transaction sets (warehouse ship advice), received from the 3PL fulfill their transactions in NetSuite.

In Wholesale Distribution, margins are tight and getting tighter every day. Customers have choices of where they can purchase their products and the competition is always out there. Through better management of the warehouse, dead stock can be eliminated, items can be purchased that have better turn rates, and long lead time items can be better forecast. Wholesale Distributors can use EDI to optimize order entry, but they can also use EDI for Advanced Ship Notifications (ASNs), invoicing, creation of shipping labels and in some cases for ‘Just In Time’ (JIT) inventory processing and ‘Vendor Managed Inventory’ (VMI).

As we start 2016, more and more distributors are beginning to sell directly to consumers through e-commerce solutions such as NetSuite’s SuiteCommerce platform, Magento, Shopify, etc., and see it as an important driver for growth. Wholesale Distributors, whether they are very mature commodity businesses or young technology distributors, are facing the same challenges with respect to e-commerce. Essentially, an e-commerce company relies on a virtual storefront to sell goods and the distributor to fulfill the orders. In the past, Wholesale Distributors shipped to a B2B world of brick and mortar organizations. Generally, goods would be packaged in lots of dozens or grosses. Now with e-commerce the Wholesale Distribution business is beginning to cover both B2B and B2C (business to consumer) marketplaces, where the customer is buying in quantities of one or two. As such, product packaging has had to change and the methods of handling items are different for these reduced quantities.  

Further, e-commerce has substantially changed retail. In a Wall Street Journal article, Sarah Nasshauer describes that retail now has between 13 and 20 different seasons. We all know about Christmas, Halloween, Spring DIY season, but there are seasons like Storage and Organization in January, Allergy Season in late spring and Fall Gatherings (rakes and sweaters) in early October.  Wholesale Distribution needs to fulfill orders for these new seasonal demands, so they need technology to better manage their inventory and to be able to quickly handle orders and order changes. Wholesale Distributors need to be more nimble than ever in order to meet the changing needs of their customers.

NetSuite is a great product to use for managing a Wholesale Distribution organization. NetSuite has fantastic inbuilt functionality, but it also supports a complete eco-system of third party add-ons, such as B2BGateway’s fully integrated EDI (which can be found on the NetSuite SuiteApp platform). By continuously adding or improving third party applications and verifying their quality through verification processes such as ‘Built For NetSuite’, NetSuite can be assured their customers are getting the very best integrated cloud technology and market leading solutions.   

Read the full CIO Review magazine article here

B2BGateway offers organizations complete integration for all their communication needs.

B2BGateway’s cloud based EDI and automated supply chain solutions offer organizations complete integration with all their trading partners and business tools, regardless of market vertical served. Using B2BGateway’s cloud based EDI and data exchange technologies provides growing organizations with a complete ‘one stop shop’ approach to fulfilling all their communication needs.

B2BGateway offers complete supply chain automation solutions by providing full integration from the customers’ ERP solutions to Online Shopping Carts (Magento, Bigcommerce, 3dcart…), 3PL’s (Third Party Logistics), Online Marketplace (Amazon, Rakuten, Zappos...), Box Store Retailers (Walmart, CVS, Target…), Inventory Software Solutions (ACCTivate, Numbercruncher, Fishbowl), Manufacturers (Apple, Ford, Caterpillar…), Government and Financial Institutions.

To learn more about how B2BGateway’s complete communications solution removes the need for today’s modern organizations to have many, many separate solutions and touch points, please visit www.B2BGateway.Net or email Sales@B2BGateway.Net    

EDI transaction sets frequently used in Manufacturing

As EDI becomes more and more popular in many manufacturing verticals and as the thin line between manufacturers and distributors becomes more and more blurred in today’s world of e-commerce transactions, here is a list of some of the more popular EDI transaction sets used in today’s modern world of manufacturing:

§  ANSI X12 810 / EDIFACT INVOIC – Invoice – sent by manufacturers to the customer to bill for goods ordered and delivered.

§  ANSI X12 830 / EDIFACT DELFOR – Planning Schedule/Material Release – provides forecast data for upcoming orders that helps suppliers manage materials and other resources such as labor requirements. Not all 830's, however, can be used to create a Purchase Order, just manufacturers with 830's that have release capabilities.

§  ANSI X12 832 / EDIFACT PRICAT – Price/Sales Catalog – used by manufacturers to provide product information and prices to their supply chain partners in the form of a catalog.

§  ANSI X12 846 / EDIFACT INVRPT – Inventory Inquiry/Advice – used to notify trading partners of on-hand inventory. Becoming a strong requirement from Online Retail trading partners.

§  ANSI X12 850 / EDIFACT ORDERS – Purchase Order – used by manufacturer to purchase materials and/or services from a supplier.

§  ANSI X12 856 / EDIFACT DESADV – Advance Ship Notice (ASN) – communicates the contents of a shipment, sent in advance of that shipment’s arrival, which also provides information on the order, the products, the shipment arrival date and time, etc.

§  ANSI X12 862 / EDIFACT DELJIT – Shipping Schedule – provides detailed shipping requirements and may be triggered by product usage, allowing suppliers to replenish items immediately (similar to VMI), in support of Just In Time manufacturing processes.

§  ANSI X12 940 / EDIFACT INSDES – Warehouse Shipping Order – used to instruct remote Third Party Logistics Providers (3PL) or warehouses to ship orders to customers.

§  ANSI X12 943 / EDIFACT DESADV – Warehouse Stock Transfer Shipment Advice – an advance ship notice to a remote warehouse that a transfer shipment has been made from the manufacturer.

§  ANSI X12 944 / EDIFACT RECADV – Warehouse Receipt Advice – acknowledgment of receipt of a shipment (such as may be referenced in an EDI 943 transaction) at the warehouse.

§  ANSI X12 945 / EDIFACT DESADV – Warehouse Ship Advice – used by 3PL or warehouse to let manufacturer know goods have been shipped to customer.

§  ANSI X12 997 / EDIFACT CONTRL – Functional Acknowledgement – customer acknowledges receipt of EDI transaction set from manufacturer.

If your organization would like to know more about how EDI can help improve its supply chain efficiencies, please contact B2BGateway today by visiting our website www.B2BGateway.Net to get a local office number or simply email Sales@B2BGateway.Net