B2BGateway to be Gold Sponsor at Acumatica Summit

B2BGateway, a leading global EDI solution provider and Acumatica certified partner, announced today that it will be a gold sponsor of Acumatica Summit 2017 which takes place January 29 – February 03, 2017 in San Diego, CA.

The Acumatica Summit is the premier invitation-only event where the entire Acumatica partner and customer ecosystem gathers to hear the latest about Acumatica’s products and solutions, get product certifications, and collaborate on accelerating success in the cloud.

EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) has become best business practice in the transfer of standard 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.

At this year’s Acumatica Summit, B2BGateway will also demonstrate how they are part of Acumatica’s ‘Modern Distribution Solution’ – a grouping together of Acumatica’s leading add-on WD partners to give customers in Wholesale Distribution verticals a cutting edge in dominating their fields. By combining the strengths of B2BGateway (EDI), Kensium (eCommerce), Savant (WMS), Aaeon (Mobile Hardware Devices) with Acumatica ERP, the Acumatica client can get a certified one-stop solution that will help them fully automate their solutions, reduce errors and lower ongoing costs.

According to Norman Bentley, Manager of Information Systems at Soundcast, LLC, “Soundcast needed to setup newer technology to be more competitive, we looked at several EDI solutions, and after careful decisions we decided to go with B2BGateway.  B2BGateway EDI runs flawlessly with Acumatica, the implementation was quick and painless, we haven’t had any problems. B2BGateway and Acumatica are our founding stepping stones for success.”

“B2BGateway is excited to be a gold sponsor of Acumatica Summit 2017 in San Diego”, states Roger Leyden, Director of Global Business Development at B2BGateway, “At the Summit 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.”

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.”

Modern EDI – It’s no longer just X12, EDIFACT or Tradacoms!

In today’s modern world of integrated data communication, the term EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) no longer represents just X12, EDIFACT or Tradacoms file exchanges, but rather has become a much more generic term for the exchange of all business data supported by an ‘Any to Any’ integration. In fact, in today’s terms modern EDI represents a completely integrated communication hub for all parties in the supply chain.

While the traditional EDI data formats of X12 et al are still supported, and indeed still widely used in retail, wholesale distribution, manufacturing and logistics industries, modern EDI will also support the majority of additional file formats such as XML, CSV and flat files. Modern EDI will also be built on SaaS/cloud based platforms allowing much more flexibility, scalability and value for money to the end user.

The modern EDI provider will also be able to support API integration in tandem with traditional EDI ports. Therefore, the modern EDI provider becomes a complete, integrated communication hub to support all the needs of the end user, be it the ordering of goods from a factory, selling those goods to traditional box-stores and the modern online marketplace, selling their own goods and services on their own shopping cart and integrating with a 3PL for the storage and shipping of the aforementioned goods. 

	Traditional EDI	Modern EDI
File Formats Supported	·         X12 ·         EDIFACT ·         Tradacoms	·         X12 ·         EDIFACT ·         Tradacom ·         PEPPOL ·         oioUBL ·         XML ·         CSV ·         Flat Files ·         And much more
Integration	·         Desktop ·         Limited Connectivity ·         SDK ·         ERP ·         WMS	·         Cloud Based ·         ‘Any to Any’ ·         SDK and API’s supported. ·         ERP ·         Accounting Software ·         WMS ·         OMS ·         Inventory Software
Pricing	·         High, used predominantly by very large organizations who could afford it.	·         Affordable and available all.
Industries Predominantly Serviced	·         Retail ·         Manufacturing ·         Automotive ·         Large Scale Wholesale Distribution	·         Retail ·         Online Market Places ·         Drop Shipping ·         eCommerce Shopping Carts ·         Manufacturing ·         Automotive ·         Wholesale Distribution ·         Healthcare ·         Insurance ·         Third Parfty Logistics (3PL) ·         Finance/Government

If you would like to know more about modern EDI and how it can support your business’ communication needs, please visit www.B2BGateway.Net or email Sales@B2BGateway.Net

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 CEO, Kevin Hoyle, named as a Supply and Demand Chain Executive ‘Pro to Know’ 2015

The leading supply chain publication and industry expert, Supply & Demand Chain Executive Magazine, has named B2BGateway CEO, Kevin Hoyle as a Supply Chain ‘Pro to Know’ for 2015.  

 

Supply & Demand Chain Executive Magazine recognizes Provider and Practitioner Professionals in the supply chain marketplace. The ‘Pro’s to Know’ is a listing of individuals from software firms and service providers who have helped their supply chain clients or the supply chain community at large prepare to meet the significant challenges in the year ahead.

 

Kevin Hoyle founded B2BGateway as a software development organization, Shannon Systems, LLC in Boston in 1999. B2BGateway was the name given to a cloud/SaaS based EDI solution developed by Shannon Systems in the year 2000 that became so popular and synonymous within the industry that the organization now trades as Shannon Systems, LLC dba B2BGateway.

 

Over the past 15 years EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) has become a standard business requirement in the Wholesale Distribution, Retail, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Government, Third Party Logistics (3PL) and automotive industries. B2BGateway is a natural fit for organizations in these industries that require an efficient, cost-effective, cloud based EDI solution to communicate seamlessly with their trading partners.

 

By fully integrating the EDI solution to the users Accounting Software/ ERP through cloud based technology, B2BGateway removes the need for the end user to re-key data into their system, thus greatly improving accuracy, increasing labor efficiencies and expediting the ‘order-to-payment’ cycle.

 

In addition to supporting the North American EDI standard of ANSI X12, B2BGateway also supports all international EDI standards and communication protocols such as EDIFACT, Tradacoms, oioUBL, Odette, XML, VAN, FTPs, AS2, etc..

 

“It is an honor and a privilege to be recognized as a supply chain ‘Pro to Know’ by industry peers such as Supply & Demand Chain Executive Magazine”, states Kevin Hoyle, CEO B2BGateway, “When I founded the firm in 1999 I had no idea that it would grow so rapidly and now we have clients in over 30 countries operating in 17 different time zones. 2015 is a going to be a great year for B2BGateway as we introduce many great improvements and are currently constructing a new world headquarters in Rhode Island, USA”.

Life gets much Suite-r in EMEA for NetSuite

NetSuite recently held its first client and partner conference in London. The conference called SuiteConnect UK was based at clients, partners, developers and prospects based in the EMEA region. The opening keynote was given by CEO Zach Nelson and CTO and co-founder Evan Goldberg. During the keynote both speakers promised a greater commitment to grow and support new business in the EMEA region and this was evidenced in over 700 attendees showing up on the day when only 500 were originally expected.

Nelson spoke about NetSuite’s increased focus on the UK and European markets, saying business in Europe grew 100 percent in 2013 and citing the recent acquisition of London-based commerce firm Venda as a case in point. “Our investment in Venda this year was about investing in domain expertise in Europe. It was our largest acquisition to date. It’s bringing our companies together and getting us to focus on the next great opportunity for growth, and that’s Europe” said Nelson.

There will also soon be announcements about two in-region data centers. The locations of these have yet to be decided, but it seems likely that Germany or Switzerland may be the fore-runners.

Throughout out the day attendees were able to attend breakout sessions on some of the market verticals where NetSuite excels such as Wholesale Distribution, Manufacturing, Retail and Professional Services.

As NetSuite’s longest serving EDI partner, B2BGateway were delighted to be present on the day to meet existing EMEA clients and partners and to demonstrate our cloud based, fully integrated EDI solutions to new prospects.

It looks as if life will certainly be much suite-r for NetSuite EMEA over the coming months! 

For further information on B2BGateway’s fully integrated EDI and Omni-Channel solutions for NetSuite please call +353 61 708533 / +1 401 491 9595 or email Sales@B2BGateway.Net