Webinar: 4 Reasons ERP Software Experts Prefer EDI by B2BGateway

 

 

 

Click on the above image to register for our latest webinar in association with ERP VAR: 4 Reasons ERP Software Experts Prefer EDI by B2BGateway.

Call +1 (401) 491 9595 or email Sales@B2BGateway.Net for further details.

What is AS2?

Question: Hi Louisa, I have just landed a contract to supply Walmart (woohoo!) but they want me to do EDI by using something called AS2. Do you know what AS2 is?

 
Answer: Hi Jim, thanks for the question. Yes, AS2 (Applicability Statement 2) is a specification intended to ensure the proper level of security and reliability for data transmitted over the Internet. Security is achieved by using digital certificates and encryption. In short AS2 is a secure way to exchange data over the internet, in this case the exchange of PO’s, Invoices and ASNs (Advance Ship Notices) between your organization and Walmart.

Document exchange requires more than just moving data over a wire. Because business documents are the basis not only of business planning and operations, but also the legal obligations between companies, the documents must be transferred securely, processed quickly and delivered reliably. AS2 is one of a small number of emerging standards that addresses these requirements and is becoming a very popular communication protocol used in EDI today. Walmart has been one of the great advocates of the adoption of AS2 in the EDI marketplace and many more have followed since.

If you would like to learn more about AS2 or indeed any other EDI communication protocol such as VAN, FTP, FTPs, HTTP, etc please email Sales@B2BGateway.Net or call (401) 491 9595 for further details.

Louisa Gooding is Director of Sales & Marketing at B2BGateway.Net

 

Healthcare Industry and the EDI 835 and EDI 837 Transaction Sets.

Question: Hi Louisa, I work in the Healthcare Industry and have been recently asked by one of our trading partners if we can handle the EDI 837 and EDI 835 Transaction Sets. Do you know what these are?

Answer: Hi Stephanie, thanks for your question. I will answer separately on both the EDI 837 and EDI 835 as follows:

The EDI Health Care Claim Transaction set (EDI 837) is used to submit health care claim billing information, encounter information, or both. It can be sent from providers of healthcare services to payers, either directly or via intermediary billers and claims clearinghouses. It can also be used to transmit health care claims and billing payment information between payers with different payment responsibilities where co-ordination of benefits is required.

EDI Health Care Claim Payment/Advice Transaction Set (EDI 835) can be used to make a payment, send an Explanation of Benefits (EOB), send an Explanation of Payments (EOP) remittance advice, or make a payment and send an EOP remittance advice only from a health insurer to a health care provider either directly or via a financial institution.

These transaction sets can be quite complicated to set up and if you are new to EDI, I would recommend that you outsource this function to an established 3^rd party EDI provider. For further details on EDI in the Healthcare Industry and the EDI 837 and EDI 835 transactions sets, please visit www.B2BGateway.Net or call (401) 491 9595

Louisa Gooding is Director of Sales & Marketing at B2BGateway.



Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) and the EDI 852 Transaction Set.

Question: Hi Louisa, our customer (a large store retailer) wants us to do something called VMI and the EDI 852 document. Do you know what these mean?

Answer: Hi Todd, thanks for your question. Vendor-Managed inventory (VMI) is a business model in which the buyer of a product provides certain information to a vendor/supplier of that product and the supplier takes full responsibility for maintaining an agreed level of inventory, usually at the buyer's store. A third-party logistics provider (3PL) can also be involved to make sure that the buyer has the required level of inventory by adjusting the demand and supply gaps.

VMI helps develop a closer understanding between the supplier and buyer by using Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) formats; with one of the most common EDI transaction sets being the 852 (Product Activity Data document) . EDI 852 transaction sets may vary, but will typically contain the following information:

For each item
- Item description
- Item UPC

Data can be summarized by:
- Store
- Distribution center

Key product activity measures
- Quantity sold ($)
- Quantity sold (units)
- Quantity on hand ($)
- Quantity on hand (units)
- Quantity on order ($)
- Quantity on order (units)
- Quantity received ($)
- Quantity received (units)

The EDI 852 information can be sent from the buyer to the supplier on a weekly or daily basis. The order decision is based on the data in the 852 transmission. The supplier reviews the information that has been received from the buyer and an order determination is made based on the existing agreement between the supplier and buyer.

The EDI software will verify if the data is accurate and meaningful and will calculate a re-order point for each item based on the data and minimum stock levels agreed between buyer and supplier.

As a symbiotic relationship, VMI makes it less likely that a business will unintentionally become out of stock of an item and reduces inventory in the supply chain. Furthermore, supplier representatives in a store benefit the buyer by ensuring the product is properly displayed and store staff are familiar with the features of the product line. Suppliers benefit from more control of displays and consistent orders.

For further details on Vendor Managed Inventory (VMI) and the EDI 852 transactions set, please visit www.B2BGateway.Net or call (401) 491 9595

Louisa Gooding is Director of Sales & Marketing at B2BGateway.

The differences between EDI X12 and EDIFACT

 

Question: Hi Roger, we recently got a contract to supply an organization in Germany which will require EDI. This would normally be no problem to us as we have been doing EDI with our North American trading partners for over four years; however, our new German contract requires us to use EDIFACT rather than X12 as their preferred EDI standard. Could you highlight the main differences between X12 and EDIFACT and suggest what I should do?

 

Answer:  In 1979 the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) chartered the Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) X12 to develop uniform standards for inter-industry electronic exchange of business transactions – now known commonly as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). These transaction sets, abbreviated to X12, are the predominant EDI standards used by organizations in North America today.

In 1986, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE) approved the acronym "UN/EDIFACT," which translates to United Nations Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport. UN/EDIFACT is an international EDI standard designed to meet the needs of both government and private industry. EDIFACT is the most popular worldwide EDI data standard outside of North America.

Here is a brief list of some of the different names given to documents in the X12 and EDIFACT transactions sets. You will notice that X12 assigns numeric values to documents whereas EDIFACT lists names or abbreviations.

TRANSACTION SET/DOCUMENT	X12 SET	EDIFACT
PRODUCT/PRICING TRANSACTIONS
Price Sales Catalog	832	PRICAT
Price Authorization Acknowledgement/Status	845	ATHSTS
Specification/Technical Information	841	PRDSPE
Request For Quotation	840	REQOTE
ORDERING TRANSACTIONS
Purchase Order	850	ORDERS
Purchase Order Acknowledgement	855	ORDRSP
Purchase Order Change	860	ORDCHG
Purchase Order Change Acknowledgement	865	ORDRSP
MATERIALS MANAGEMENT TRANSACTIONS
Planning Schedule/Material Release	830	DELFOR
Shipping Schedule	862	DELJIT
Production Sequence	866	--
Ship Notice/manifest (ASN)	856	DESADV
SHIPPING/RECEIVING TRANSACTIONS
Shipment Information (Bill of Lading)	858	IFTMCS
Receiving Advice	861	RECADV
Non-conformance Information-Disposition Transaction, Cause/Correction	842	NONCON
INVENTORY MANAGEMENT TRANSACTIONS
Inventory Inquiry/Advice	846	INVRPT
Product Transfer and Resale Report	867	SLSRPT
FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS
Invoice	810	INVOIC
Freight Invoice	859	IFTMCS
Payment order/Remittance Advice (EFT)	820	REMADV

There are many differences between an X12 and an EDIFACT document and I would recommend that if you do not have the capabilities to do EDIFACT in house that you outsource to a strong global EDI solution provider who can handle both data formats. At B2BGateway, we have offices located in North America, Europe and Pacific/Asia regions and can handle all internationally recognized EDI data formats including not only X12 and EDIFACT but many, many more (Tradacoms in the UK for example).

For further information on B2Bgateway’s international data standards capabilities please visit www.B2BGateway.Net or call (401) 491 9595. 

Roger Leyden is Director of Global Business Development at B2BGateway.

 

B2BGateway.Net records 35% growth during Holiday Season 2012.

B2BGateway.Net, specialists in global EDI and eCommerce Data Integration, have just announced that they have helped client’s complete over 4,100,000 transactions during the Holiday Season 2012. This represents a 35% increase in completed transactions when compared to the same period in 2011.
 
B2BGateway.Net attributes this substantial growth to increased consumer confidence, the extended shopping period associated with online eCommerce sites and the large number of new clients who outsourced their EDI requirements to B2BGateway.Net throughout 2012.

According to Kevin Hoyle, CEO B2BGateway.Net;

“This is a great testament to the quality of solutions and customer service offered by B2BGateway.Net. The popularity of online eCommerce sites greatly extends the shopping and delivery period, with orders being accepted and shipped right up until December 23^rd. According to comScore, Cyber Monday in 2012 accounted for $1.5 billion dollars in US spending alone.  Four or five years ago most orders had to be placed and shipments received by the end of October at the very latest for the Brick & Mortar Stores.”

B2BGateway.Net is looking forward to continued growth throughout 2013 as many organizations now realize the benefits of integrating EDI with their online eCommerce stores and their third party logistics providers (3PL’s). Having full seamless EDI integration between all trading partners and the client’s ERP/Accounting software removes the need to re-key data, reduces errors and hastens the ‘order to payment’ cash cycle.

'Closing the Sale' Webinar

Check us out on Thursday, January 24 to learn the three simple steps to closing the sale with B2BGateway!