B2BGateway at UK Logistics & Supply Chain Excellence Awards

The B2BGateway and Maclaren team who attended the recent UK Logistics & Supply Chain Excellence Awards in the Park Lane Hilton Hotel in London. B2BGateway was shortlisted as a Finalist in the Technology Awards Category.

B2BGateway to attend Exact Live 2016 in Utrecht

B2BGateway, the leading, global EDI and automated supply chain solution provider will be attending this years Exact Live tradeshow in Utrecht, The Netherlands from November 8-9.

Exact Live 2016 is a two day event which will take place this year in Utrecht. Day one is focused on bringing the eco-system of Exact, its partners and third party add-on providers together to discuss overall solutions and to provide 'one stop' seamless solutions to the end user. Day two opens up the event to Exact clients and prospects who can hear from many great speakers as well as learn about new updates and 3rd party software providers who can enhance the users existing system, depending on their unique requirements.

B2BGateway provides cloud based, fully integrated EDI solutions for Exact Online users which remove the need to re-key data when exchanging standard business documents such as purchase orders, invoices, shipping notices, inventory updates, etc., with trading partners. Roger Leyden, Director of Global Business Development at B2BGateway will be attending Exact Live 2016 in Utrecht. If you would like to meet with Roger during the event, please email Sales@B2BGateway.Net  

B2BGateway to attend Natural Products Expo East in Baltimore

B2BGateway, the leading global EDI solution provider will be attending the Natural Products Expo East trade fair which takes place in the Baltimore Convention Center from September 22-24, 2016.

Natural Products Expo East is the East Coast’s Largest natural, organic, and healthy products event with over 22,000 attendees and 1,800 exhibitors. Each year Natural Products Expo East draws top retail buyers from independent stores, natural market chains and big box retailers – all with the mission to find the newest and hottest products shaping the future of the healthy living marketplace. Market categories represented at Expo East include natural and specialty food and beverages, supplements, pet, natural living and beauty. New emerging trends include:

·         Foods and beverages with floral ingredients such as hibiscus, elderflower and chamomile.

·         Coffee fruit, the refreshing and flavorful anti-oxidant rich and anti-inflammatory fruit.

·         Snacks using avocado oil, which has always been GMO free and is paleo friendly.

The majority of large scale box store retailers and natural markets chains require all suppliers to become EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) compliant for the exchange of electronic business documents such as Purchase Orders (EDI 850), Purchase Order Acknowledgements (EDI 855), Advance Shipment Notifications (EDI 856) and Invoices (EDI 856). Suppliers can also use the EDI for seamless communication with their 3PL’s for Warehouse Ship Orders (EDI 940) and Warehouse Ship Advice (EDI 945).

By using B2BGateway’s cloud based EDI solutions the supplier can integrate with all relevant parties in their supply chain. Full integration removes the need for the supplier to re-key data when exchanging electronic business documents with trading partners, leading to greater accuracy, increased labor efficiencies and expediting the order-to-payment cash cycle with customers.

If you would like to meet with the B2BGateway team attending this year’s Natural Products Expo East, please email Sales@B2BGateway.Net 

B2BGateway to sponsor launch of Acumatica 6

B2BGateway, the leading global EDI solution provider and Acumatica partner, will be sponsoring the launch of Acumatica 6 in Boston on September 8^th, 2016.

Acumatica 6 is the latest version of the award winning cloud based Acumatica ERP software suite. During the launch, John Roskill, CEO and Ali Jani, VP Partner Strategy, Product Management & Services at Acumatica will demonstrate to attendees how Acumatica 6 will help increase productivity and accelerate growth with new enhancements like the Universal Outlook Add-In, Dashboard and KPI widgets, greater drill down across generic inquiries, and so much more! There will also be a special guest attendance by Boston Red Sox Hall of Fame pitcher, Bill Lee and a partner expo.

EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) has become best business practice in the transfer of electronic business documents such as Purchase Orders, Invoices, Advanced Shipping Notices (ASNs), Inventory updates etc., between trading partners and is highly popular in market verticals such as Wholesale Distribution, Retail, Manufacturing, Healthcare, Automotive and Finance.

By integrating with B2BGateway’s cloud based EDI solution the Acumatica user can be compliant in all internationally recognized EDI standards and communication protocols such as ANSI X12, EDIFACT, Tradacoms, oioUBL, PEPPOL, VAN, AS2, etc. Full integration also removes the need for the Acumatica user to re-key data when exchanging electronic business documents with trading partners, leading to greater accuracy, increased labor efficiencies and expediting the order-to-payment cash cycle with customers.

According to Eugene Chang, Acumatica user and Head of Logistics at the gamers provider company NZXT, “B2BGateway’s cloud based, fully integrated EDI solution for Acumatica provides the communications, data translation and mapping functionality required by NZXT to comply with all our trading partners’ EDI requirements. Taking into consideration that Acumatica is a relatively new product and the short time frame required for our EDI implementation, B2BGateway did a great job! Within a month we experienced the many benefits of a seamless, fully integrated EDI solution.”

“B2BGateway is excited to be sponsoring the launch of Acumatica 6 in Boston, states Louisa Gooding, Director of Sales & Strategic Relationships at B2BGateway, “At the launch we will demonstrate to Acumatica end users and partners how B2BGateway’s cloud based, fully integrated EDI for Acumatica can tighten and improve the Acumatica users supply chain by reducing errors, cutting costs and improving overall efficiencies. I’m also personally excited to meet with Bill Lee, being originally from the Boston area and huge Red Sox fan, Bill is one of my all-time favorites.”

What is Supply Chain Management (SCM)?

Would you like to understand the concept of supply chain management but don’t have the time to do so? The good news is that in some upcoming posts we will explain to you the key principles and terms of supply chain management (SCM) that you can read and learn in under 3 minutes!
In this post we will focus on introducing the term ‘supply chain management’ and how your organization may improve the competitiveness of your supply chain.

The term “supply chain management” arose in the late 1980’s and came into widespread use throughout the 1990’s. Prior to this, businesses used terms such as ‘logistics’ and/or ‘operations management’. In the late nineties individual authors undertook an attempt to express the essence of supply chain management in one definition. Its constituents are the subject of a management philosophy, target group, goals and numerous ways to achieve these goals.

The subject of supply chain management is, of course, a chain that represents a network of all the organizations that are involved, through links up and down the chain of different processes and activities creating value in the form of products and services for the end customer.

In broad terms the supply chain consists of two or more separate organizations legally connected with one another by the flow of materials, information and finance. These organizations may be companies that produce parts, components and finished products, logistics providers and even the final customer. Network connections do not usually focus on the flow inside a single chain, but consists of complex flows associated with a variety of customer orders, which must be operated in parallel.

In the narrower sense of the term supply chain, it is used for large companies with multiple locations, often located in different countries. Co-ordination of the flow of materials, information and finances in multi-national companies effectively is still a huge challenge. The objective of managing all links of the supply chain is to increase competitiveness. This is possible because individual organizational units are not responsible individually for the competitiveness of their products and services in the eyes of the end customer but the responsibility lies with the supply chain as a whole. Hence competitiveness shifted from individual companies in the supply chain.

There are two broad ways to improve the competitiveness of the supply chain. One is the integration (or co-operation) of the organizations involved, and the second is better co-ordination of the flow of materials, information and finances. Overcoming organizational barriers, adjusting strategy and accelerating flows along the supply chain are the main subjects in this context.

If you would like to see how B2BGateway can help improve your organization's supply chain processes, please email Sales@B2BGateway.Net today

B2BGateway offers organizations complete integration for all their supply chain 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

Dreamforce 2015: Dream or Nightmare?

I must admit, that being a Dreamforce virgin, I was quite apprehensive about attending this year’s Dreamforce show in San Francisco. To the uninitiated, Dreamforce is the annual Salesforce user and partner conference and this year over 170,000 people were registered to attend in downtown San Francisco. I have been to large shows many times before with up to 12,000-15,000 attendees, but Dreamforce is over tenfold this number. So much so that all hotels downtown were completely booked out and Salesforce had to hire a cruise ship to dock at one of the San Francisco piers for the week to provide additional accommodation to attendees.

With these kind of mind blowing numbers: How would we literally walk the floor? Is it possible to get lunch with so many people? Would the afterhours social scene, where we tend to do a lot of business, be impossible? Will it be possible to speak to anyone at their booths?

Unfortunately form the moment we signed up to attend, the signs seemed ominous – not a hotel room downtown to be had for love nor money. We ended up getting a hotel in Milbrae out by the airport. Next problem – how to get in and out of downtown from Milbrae? We hired a car but traffic on the 101 and the cost of parking was becoming a nightmare. However, once we landed and took up residency at our hotel we quickly realized that the car was superfluous to our needs and that the BART rail system would be more than adequate at a fraction of the cost of car hire and parking charges.

With the car dilemma over, things were quickly picking up. The BART system worked a dream for early morning starts and late night returns, the queues for practical functions such as registration, demonstrations and lunch were very comfortable. It was also a plus that the exhibition room floors were well laid out and extremely easy to follow with a lot of booths having their own private meeting rooms for more in-depth discussions.

At B2BGateway, due to the nature of our EDI solution which is predominantly used in Wholesale Distribution and Manufacturing markets, we found it more beneficial to meet the ERP and OMS partners that built their products on the Salesforce platform. It was wonderful to meet with such great organizations as FinancialForce.com, Rootstock, Ascent ERP, Kenandy, Sage and Accounting Seed.

Over the course of the week I must say our nightmare premonitions never came to fruition. The whole show for us was a complete dream and finishing it out with live performances by The Killers and The Foo Fighters was the icing on the cake. Here’s to Dreamforce 2016, hope to see you there!

If you would like to know more about how B2BGateway’s cloud based, fully integrated EDI solutions can work with any ERP system built on the Salesforce platform please visit www.B2BGateway.Net or email Sales@B2BGateway.Net   

B2BGateway continues global expansion with new office in China

B2BGateway, a leading cloud based EDI solution provider continues its global expansion by opening a new office in Jinan, China. The new office will further enhance B2BGateway’s EDI and automated supply chain solutions to clients and trading partners in Asia.

 

B2BGateway is a world recognized EDI solution provider since being established in Boston, USA in 1999. As EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) has become best business practice in data transfer between trading organizations, B2BGateway believes the time is right to further enhance their offerings in the Pacific and Asian regions after recently opening an office in Sydney. B2BGateway’s EDI solutions are used primarily by clients in wholesale distribution, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, automotive, government and non-profit industries.

 

B2BGateway has developed a cloud-based EDI software solution that fully integrates with most ERP or accounting software solutions including SAP, JD Edwards, NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics, MYOB, Brightpearl, QuickBooks, Sage and Xero to name but a few. As an international company with offices throughout North America, Europe, Australia and now China, B2BGateway can support all recognized international EDI standards and communication protocols that may be required: ANSI X12, EDIFACT, Tradacoms, Eancom, Odette, XML, VAN, FTPs, AS2, etc.. By fully integrating the solution through cloud based technology, B2BGateway is able to remove the need for the client to re-key data. This, in turn, leads to greater accuracy, increased labor efficiencies and it expedites the order-to-payment cycle for the end user.

 

The new B2BGateway Chinese office will be based in Jinan, the capital of the Shandong Province and will be led by Jordan Johnson, who has previously worked with B2BGateway in their Rhode Island, USA offices.

 

For further information on how B2BGateway can help automate and improve your supply chain please visit www.B2BGateway.Net

What is the difference between Amazon Seller Central and Amazon Vendor Central?

At B2BGateway we often get asked by clients and partners ‘What is the difference between trading with Amazon Seller Central and Amazon Vendor Central?’ I came across a great blog recently by Trinity Hartman on Content 26 which lays out in simplified detail, the differences between both Amazon structures for merchants. A brief overview of the blog can be seen here:

 

If your products are selling very well on Amazon, chances are you may be contacted by an Amazon Buyer to sign up to sell your products through Amazon Vendor Central. But what is Amazon Vendor Central and how does it differ from what you are doing already on Amazon Seller Central? To answer these questions lets’ take a look at a brief description of both:

 

What is Amazon Seller Central?

 

If you are already selling on Amazon, chances are you are using Amazon Seller Central. Amazon Seller Central is the web interface used by sellers to manage and view their orders. If you sell via Seller Central, you’re considered by Amazon as a marketplace or third-party seller. As a marketplace seller, you have different options for managing your virtual storefront. Amazon has a pay-as-you-go system for individual sellers as well as a pro merchant option for high-volume sellers. Pro merchant sellers can also choose Fulfillment by Amazon where Amazon takes care of shipping, customer service, and returns.

 

What is Amazon Vendor Central?

 

Amazon Vendor Central is the web interface used by manufacturers and distributors. If you sell via Vendor Central, you’re called a first-party seller. You’re acting as a supplier, selling in bulk to Amazon. Registration on Vendor Central is by invitation only. A tell-tale sign that a company is selling through Vendor Central is the phrase “ships from and sold by Amazon.com.” Only Vendor Central allows enhanced content, which Amazon refers to as A+ content. What is enhanced content? It’s an extended version of the basic product description including scan able text that explains the features and benefits of the product as well as product images and often a comparison chart.

 

Whether you operate on Amazon Seller Central or Amazon Vendor Central, you can learn more about how B2BGateway EDI solutions can help you further improve and automate your supply chain with Amazon by calling + 1 401 491 9595 (NA) / +353 61 708533 (EU) or email Sales@B2BGateway.Net



Top 5 Advantages of EDI

Streamlining the Supply Chain and Increasing Sales!

Everyone talks about streamlining the supply chain process, tightening lead times and process flow automation…but most people have no idea what any of that means. To most, it sounds like a load of the latest buzz words with a really high price tag attached. Do you really need to be part of “The Cloud” to make your business better? Do you need a staff of programmers to make your business thrive? Do you need a PhD in Computer Science to understand this stuff? Well, for the last three questions the answers are Maybe, No and No. My focus here will be to demystify some of the newer technologies and to show how you can really (and inexpensively) use them to your advantage. 
To start with, we probably all know that the Supply Chain is the interdependent process of receiving and sending documents and the associated goods. For example, if you are a supplier, you receive a Purchase Order, you turn it into a sales order in your system, which becomes a pick ticket, and the goods are picked and packed for shipping. Often times, an Advanced Shipping Notification (ASN) is generated and sent to the Buyer to let them know what to expect. Once the goods are shipped, an Invoice is generated and sent to the buying organization. Several days/weeks/months later the invoice is paid and you are in the money.

Tightening of the supply chain can start with Electronic Data Interchange or EDI. EDI is the process of handling the documents in the supply chain electronically rather than on paper.  Ok, that may sound mystical and expensive, but it doesn’t have to be.  Doing EDI is simply a matter of receiving a document electronically and converting it into the right format so that it can imported into your order processing system. Years ago, this was done by hiring a whole IT staff and investing in lots of computers and programs to convert the data. Nowadays, companies are available to pick up that data, convert it and send it to you (over the Internet) in a format that can be imported into your system.     

This is a good time to explain “The Cloud”. Back when I was in college we had to draw computer program flow charts. The flow charts had weird symbols that you used to define parts of the process such as disk storage, decisions, cards, etc. (See Figure 2). As the years progressed and the internet became a huge part of our everyday lives, kids in college taking programming courses still had to draw flow charts but they needed a symbol to define the internet. As such they went with a Cloud image like the one shown in Figure 3.  So with all the mystery of “The Cloud”, it is simply a different way of saying the internet. Companies that offer services over the internet, have been called Internet based companies, Application Service Providers, Software as a Service companies and now they are simply referred to as Cloud based computing. Cloud computing is anything that takes place on the internet, from using QuickBooks Online, to doing EDI with B2BGateway.Net, or even buying consumer goods on Amazon.

So, now you understand EDI and “The Cloud”, but you are still asking yourself, “How do I increase my Sales”? The real increase in sales comes from using Cloud based EDI, but ratcheting it up a notch to be known as Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI).  With VMI, you….as the vendor, manage the inventory, (so that’s how they came up with the name).  What this means is that instead of you receiving orders from a company that is buying from you, you receive inventory information.  A company that is buying from your organization could easily buy from your competition, particularly if you sell commodity type goods, unless you manage the inventory.

When you approach an organization that is buying from you, and say, “Hey, we will completely manage your inventory and we will ensure that your bins/shelves/racks are never empty”, that is VMI. The buying organization saves money on purchasing and is always ensured that the goods are in stock. You will be ensured that you will always make the sale, because in essence, you are placing the orders to yourself. Pretty cool… yes, but how does it work?

 

VMI is just like EDI, but instead of receiving Purchase Orders for goods, your Cloud Based EDI service provider will receive inventory information. This inventory information can be in the form of on-hand information, or it could also be point of sale (POS) information.  On-hand is the optimal information to receive, but on-hand can be computed by subtracting POS items sold from the starting inventory.  Thresholds can be setup in the Cloud Based EDI service provider’s system to define Max Level, Min Level, Safety Stock, lead time, optimal ship quantity, etc. The on-hand quantity is compared to the levels that are set and if the quantities are below the threshold, an order is automatically generated. See Figure 4 for a clever and timely use of a flow chart decision symbol. From the end-users standpoint, you are receiving an EDI Purchase order, in both scenarios. Although it is not shown in Figure 4, you would still be invoicing in the normal EDI way.

So let us recap; you have tightened your supply chain by using EDI, (in the “Cloud”) and you have secured your sales channel by offering to manage the inventory of the buyer. You have increased you sales and you have effectively ruled out the possibility of the buyer buying from the competition, because the whole system will break down if they do.   

Now, human nature will probably take place; the buyer will say to you, “I’m giving you all my sales and I’m saving some money on purchasing. Yeah, my shelves are always filled, but they were when we were purchasing, what else is in this for me….?”  The proper response to this question, (It will always come up), is “We will give you better terms”. Many organizations that do VMI offer long terms. Yes it can be a bit painful, but since you are maintaining the inventory, you essentially own the stock until it sells. You can either set it up with extended terms that are longer than you buyers cycle times, or you can invoice for the goods as they are sold.

Your sales force is going to love you. All they have to do is say, “We will manage your inventory to make sure you always have goods in stock and you don’t have to buy the goods from us until after you sell them”. Who doesn’t love consigned inventory?   So you see; streamlining the supply chain, utilizing cloud computing, without breaking the bank, and increasing sales… is possible.

For further information on B2BGateway’s cloud based EDI and VMI solutions please call +1 401 491 9595 / +353 61 708533 or email Sales@B2BGateway.Net

EDI in the Transportation Industry

 

EDI has become very popular in the haulage and transportation industry as transportation companies and load brokers are adapting their systems to cater for EDI document exchange.

The advantages for those working in the transportation industry is that routine high volume communications can be automated allowing dispatchers and accounts receivables staff more time to focus on more productive/profitable tasks and provide clients with better customer service. One of the main advantages of EDI is that it eliminates a dispatcher from having to manually key information into the dispatch operational and billing system. This results in saving time and money while eliminating any costly data entry mistakes. The other advantage is that transportation companies who are EDI compliant can communicate seamlessly and electronically with all parties in the supply chain process.

 
All data is communicated between the carrier, shipper, and the consignee in electronic EDI documents known as ANSI X12 “Transaction Sets.” The most commonly used EDI Transaction Sets in the Transportation Industry are:

204- Motor Carrier Load Tender

211- Bill of Lading

212- Delivery Trailer Manifest

214- Shipment Status Message

210- Freight Details and Invoice

820- Payment Order/Remittance Advice

 

990- Response to the Load Tender

997- Functional Acknowledgement

 
Being EDI enabled allows carriers to have access to the vital information that helps them perform at optimum efficiencies and effectiveness, while at the same time saving time and money.
 
For further information on how B2BGateway can help your transportation organization become EDI compliant and meet the needs of your clients and their trading partners call +1 (401) 491 9595 or email Sales@B2BGateway.Net  

Top 5 Advantages to implementing B2BGateway's Cloud-Based EDI Solutions for NetSuite

B2BGateway has been providing cloud-based, fully-integrated EDI solutions to NetSuite users since 2001 and has learned a lot over the past 11 years. Here's a list of our top 5 advantages to implementing B2BGateway's NetConnect EDI solution for NetSuite:

1. Full seamless, cloud-based EDI integration with NetSuite, supporting all inbound and outbound data flows between your organization and your Trading Partners.There is no need to re-key data.
2. 24/7 direct global support with each client assigned a dedicated project manager for the lifetime of the relationship.
3. Full 'auto-magic' integration through Web Services.
4. Built in cross referencing and 997 Acknowledgements at no additional cost.
5. Fully integrated Advanced Shipping Notice (ASN) and GS1/UCC-128 label warehouse support.

For futher information on B2BGateway's cloud-based, fully integrated EDI and supply chain solutions for NetSuite please call +1 (401) 491 9595, email Sales@B2BGateway.Net  or log onto http://www.b2bgateway.net/accountingpackages.asp?ap=NetSuite