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   

Online Reviews - The New Word of Mouth!

 

The power of word of mouth has long been extolled by marketers far and wide as one of the strongest, most cost effective tools in gaining new customers and increasing brand awareness. A recommendation of a product or service from a friend, peer or associate is almost as good as a ‘done deal’.

So in today’s modern connected world of online communications and social media (Facebook recently reported 1 billion users in a single day), where does the traditional word of mouth stand? Please step forward and go straight to the top of the class Online Review. As once stated by social media expert Brian Solis “Welcome to a new era of marketing and service in which your brand is defined by those who experience it”.

Online product or service reviews make big impact on purchasers’ expectations and decisions.  A survey from PowerReviews says that buyers not only look to online reviews for more information, but the majority (57%) actually prefer to visit e-commerce sites that offer reviews. They also noted that 90% of buyers stated that buying decisions were influenced by online reviews. Ratings and reviews scored second only to price as the most important consideration affecting a purchase decision in the survey; recommendations from family and friends, product brand, and free shipping had less influence. Those 18 to 44 were 61% more likely to trust consumer reviews over friends and family.

 

To help your organization attract and improve online reviews, Nellie Alkap on Forbes put together 6 simple steps to get customers to review your business online:

1.       Setup profiles on multiple review sites.

Consider all the sites that are relevant to your business, e.g. Yelp, TripAdvisor, Trustpilot, LinkedIn to name a few. Also try to get your product listed on partners App stores or market places.

 

2.       Ask your customers.

Might seem like a no brainer, but the easiest way to increase your reviews is just to simply ask!

 

3.       Make it easy to leave reviews.

Unless someone has a negative experience to share, the average customer is not going to look for ways to leave your company a review. That’s why you need to ask them to post a review and make it as easy as possible for them to do so. Put direct links to your review profiles in multiple places; for example, a follow-up email, newsletter, and your website.

 

4.       Incentivise reviews, but don’t buy

Often offering a small incentive is a good way to show your appreciation to loyal customers.

 

5.       Thank your reviewers.

 

6.       Make reviews a part of your overall work processes.

Make sure that all customer service and sales employees understand the importance of soliciting reviews from the customers they work with.

If you would like to check out B2BGateway’s reviews or learn more about what we do visit these sites Intuit App Store, NetSuite SuiteApp Store, Intuit Marketplace or email Sales@B2BGateway.Net for further details.

Using EDI to Connect with eCommerce Platforms such as Magento and Bigcommerce

 

AU Webinar: Using EDI to connect with your ecommerce Platforms such as Magento or Bigcommerce. Tuesday September 08 at 12pm Sydney time. Details and registration here http://bit.ly/1N47ht0

Webinar: EDI for Xero users

 

Webinar: EDI for Xero users. Tuesday, August 25, 12pm Sydney Time. Details and registration here http://bit.ly/1E0fyeH

 

 

Trading Partner EDI updates: Zulily and WYNIT

In a recent communication to suppliers and 3rd party EDI providers, Zulily has announced that it is introducing the EDI 753 and EDI 754 transaction sets for routing instructions. The following is part of Zulily’s communications:    Utilize our latest EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) messaging to save time and ensure accurate inventory information. The new messages include EDI 753 (routing request to zulily) and EDI 754 (routing instructions to your company). Simply email EDI@zulily.com to learn more and start integrating EDI 753 & EDI 754 messages. We’re working hard to provide new EDI messaging and capabilities to make working with zulily convenient and easy!

WYNITannounced a planned change to their EDI inventory feed which will facilitate the addition of their new warehouse in Memphis, TN. According to WYNIT, they would like this change to be in place by September 7^th, 2015:

The purpose of this email is to inform WYNIT EDI customers, suppliers & business partners of a planned change to our inventory feed. The reason for the change is to enable the reporting of product availability in our new warehouse. Located in Memphis TN, this new warehouse will be used to distribute a select number of our supplier’s product lines.

WYNIT’s current warehouses in Memphis, TN and Reno, NV will continue normal operation and inventory will be reported for them in the same manner. The specific change for handling the new warehouse will vary depending on your type of feed, with details below:

1. Tab delimited feed:  Total WYNIT availability will continue to be reported in field 5.  Field 6 will continue to report availability in our current Memphis warehouse.  Field 7 will now show availability in our new Memphis warehouse.  Field 8 will continue to report availability for our Reno warehouse.

The format of the file will remain unchanged.  The same number of fields will be reported.  The only change will be positive values in field 7 for any product available in the new warehouse.

1. ANSI X12 feed:  Customers who receive traditional EDI feeds will only see a change if their current feed reports availability at the warehouse level.  For those customers, an entry for warehouse ‘NY’ will exist for each item.  It will only contain non-zero quantities for items stocked in the new warehouse. 

WYNIT expects to make this change between August 17, 2015 and September 7th, 2015. 

If you are currently trading with Zulily and/or WYNIT, please contact your B2BGateway support team today to see how these changes may affect you.

If you are not currently a customer of B2BGateway but would like assistance to meet Zulily and WYNIT’s EDI requirements, please call the B2BGateway sales team on +1 401 491 9595 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

Saks Fifth Avenue Updating EDI Mapping Specifications

Saks Fifth Avenue has recently communicated to all suppliers and trading partners that it will require updated mapping specifications for the EDI 810 (Invoice, effective October 05, 2015) and the EDI 850 (Purchase Order, effective August 17, 2015). Here is a brief extract of the Saks Fifth Avenue communication:

To facilitate processing of Invoice Payments and to move closer to common mapping among the Hudson Bay banners, Saks Fifth Avenue is making the following changes.

-          EDI 810 (US): Effective October 5, 2015

·         BIG03 Purchase Order Date (CCYYMMDD) which is to match the BEG Segment on 850 Purchase Order

·         REF*MA Segment to include ASN / Shipment #  which is to match the BSN02 on the 856 Advance Ship Notice   

-          EDI 850 Purchase Order: Effective August 17, 2015

·         REF*VR Segment to include Vendor Number which is to match the N104 on the Invoice 

If either the BIG03 or the REF*MA segment is not present on the EDI 810 document, the system will send the 824 Application Advice detailing the error. A corrected EDI 810 must be transmitted for payment processing.

In order to make sure that your organization meets the above deadlines, please contact your B2BGateway Support Team today.

If you are not currently a B2BGateway customer but would like help with meeting the Saks Fifth Avenue EDI requirements please contact our sales team today at Sales@B2BGateway.Net or call +1-401-491-9595.