Order to invoice, manual vs. automated

Purchase order to invoice three-way matching is a basic transaction reconciliation process for retailers to use in approving payment to a supplier, vendor or wholesaler upon completion of an order. This accounting procedure involves:

• Buyer’s purchase order
• Seller’s purchase order acknowledgement
• Seller’s purchase order change request
• Seller’s invoice
• Inventory receiving sheets or advance ship notice delivered to the buyer’s warehouse

Without automation, a person has to collect and compare the documents manually as part of the matching process. When documents get lost in the shuffle, a retailer may end up paying for the wrong quantity, price or shipping costs. If reconciliation and the subsequent payment doesn’t happen quickly enough, the retailer can miss out on promotions and discounts for timely payments. Human error and mistakes can become costly with manual processes.

EDI is one solution that automates purchase order to invoice reconciliation. This process enables you to exchange transaction information digitally. Through EDI, all vital business documents are standardized to match each parties’ requirements so information can be exchanged electronically. Documents such as purchase orders, purchase order acknowledgments (POA), advanced ship notices (ASN) and invoices can all be sent directly from the software and tools you already use.

Three-way match simplifies the transaction reconciliation and payment processes, automatically approving all documents that match for payment while setting aside items for further review. The only time a person needs to review a transaction is if something in the documentation doesn’t match. For most retailers, 70 percent of all invoices pass the invoice matching process without any problem. This means you can shift your resources to other work that could save money, such as issues related to price, quantity or payment terms.

Why automate order to invoice reconciliation?

Automated order to invoice reconciliation can add to your bottom line without making any drastic changes. Supply chain experts have estimated that retail organizations overpay an average of $120 to $150 per purchase order on things that are preventable, such as tracking down missing paperwork, fixing inventory errors, delays due to manual receiving processes, paying flawed or downright fraudulent invoices, incorrect pricing and more.

If a retail organization sends out 100,000 purchase orders each year, that adds up to $12 to $15 million lost. EDI and automated processes may not be able to fix all money problems, but together they can drastically reduce and even eliminate issues associated with the order to payment process.

One of our retail customers told us they used to have 15 full-time employees solely dedicated to managing the company’s invoices for their stores and warehouses. After implementing order to invoice matching via EDI and automating order to invoice reconciliation, they reduced their accounts payable staff by 66 percent to just five employees. In addition to helping the company grow their business by seven percent year-over-year, EDI automation saved over half a million dollars yearly just by reducing staff.

Automated order to invoice reconciliation process is a practical solution for a repetitive, time-consuming process that’s vulnerable to human errors. It can help retailers add hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of dollars to their bottom line without making drastic changes in how they do business. Imagine what opportunities could be explored with the money that’s saved?

Discover the value in increasing automation with EDI and a full-service team of experts from SPS Commerce. We have a suite of products that enables retailers to automate processes and save time and money.

Osborn, LLC is a leading supplier of industrial brushes. The company faced several challenges in its EDI configuration in SAP with its previous SAP EDI system. But after deploying SPS Commerce Fulfillment (EDI) for SAP, Osborn has overcome these painful issues.

Read on to find out more about the company’s SAP EDI challenges and what they learned along the way.

Managing EDI configuration in SAP takes time away from strategic priorities

Many SAP EDI solutions require significant ongoing maintenance from IT teams. For example, you may need to change EDI configuration in SAP to meet a new EDI requirement or add a new trading partner.

In contrast, full-service EDI solutions like Fulfillment handle all EDI configuration in SAP on your behalf. Since using Fulfillment, Osborn hasn’t needed to hire staff to support their EDI operations.

According to Josh Tobler, IT Director, “We don’t have any internal EDI experts. With SPS, this isn’t an issue. From adding new trading partners to troubleshooting any issues that arise, SPS has the experience to do it fast and without our direct involvement. Our partnership with SPS hasn’t just saved us time. It has freed up our resources to go after other initiatives.”

Inflexible SAP EDI creates an expensive IT burden

Making changes to your SAP system to meet your EDI needs can be difficult and costly, requiring significant resources from your IT team or external consultants. That’s why flexibility is essential to your EDI configuration in SAP, especially when your business is growing. Ideally, your EDI solution should accommodate any changes you need without requiring changes to your SAP system.

Tobler commented about the difficulties of EDI before using SPS Commerce. He stated, “(Our previous) EDI wasn’t working out well for our company. It was like pulling teeth to get anything done, and our previous provider was nickel and diming us on billing.”

SPS Fulfillment EDI for SAP empowers business users to make updates, correct, add and resend EDI data—without support from an IT department or expensive changes to SAP. What’s more, predictable pricing eliminates billing surprises that can disrupt your cash flow.

Poor scorecard performance leads to chargebacks

Retailers and distributors often scorecard their suppliers on order fulfillment performance. These scorecards include data about the accuracy and timeliness of advance ship notices (ASNs) and other supply chain documents.

Osborn partnered with SPS to help improve its scorecard performance and reduce chargebacks.

“Retailers, such as Amazon, charge us if we aren’t aligning with their requirements. These fees quickly erode our margins. With SPS, we are seeing significant improvements to our scorecard and reducing chargebacks. This news has even reached the desk of our CEO, who complimented our teams on improving our scorecards,” Tobler commented.

Unacceptable error rates damage buyer relationships

Bad data practices can result in inaccurate pricing, part numbers and descriptions. And sharing inaccurate data with trading partners leads to problems.

Before working with SPS, Osborn had to review and check orders manually to avoid errors. By using the SAP ECC integration in Fulfillment, Osborn can automatically create orders within SAP. Only orders flagged with errors or missing data need personal attention.

“Our error rates due to bad data were at 30 percent or more before SPS. Today they are under 10 percent and improving rapidly. SPS allows us to manage by exception. The SPS error rate is almost zero. Our goal is to match that with our internal systems,” Tobler explained.

Ready to revamp your SAP EDI initiatives?

If you’re tired of dealing with SAP EDI headaches like these, SPS Commerce can help. Our proven approach makes it easy to connect with trading partners and optimize transactions with your SAP system. Learn more about our SAP EDI integration, download the complete case study from Osborn, LLC or contact our team of experts.

What is an EDI ERP integration?

An EDI ERP integration is the translation of electronic order documents (EDI) from your vendors software into your ERP system. This connection allows data from orders, invoices and other documents to flow directly into your ERP system without human intervention.

Many businesses consider EDI ERP integration when planning to purchase new order management or resource planning software. Questions that arise during this process often include: Should we implement EDI or ERP first? Should we replace both systems at the same time? Do we have enough resources to manage these projects internally? Will vendor selection influence these questions?

Our point of view is based on our experience implementing our Fulfillment solution for clients. In short, Fulfillment is full-service EDI with end-to-end integration technology that allows for transaction automation all the way into the ERP. It’s a major reason we almost always recommend starting with EDI system replacement first. Here’s why:

EDI Resource Re-enforcement

If you’re looking to replace your EDI system, you’re likely in one of two camps: EDI is currently running in-house but it’s taking resources away from more important tasks. Or, your current EDI solution doesn’t meet your needs and you want to make a change.

Either way, signing on with a full-service provider will modernize your technology while freeing up resources to focus on critical ERP migration tasks.

Multi-ERP Testing and Automation

Access to automation and integration technology from a vendor like SPS Commerce can be a huge asset in implementing EDI before an ERP migration. The SPS Fulfillment technology allows for direct integration into multiple ERPs and full automation of EDI transactions, which is significant on a couple of fronts.

First, SPS Fulfillment will eliminate EDI dependencies in the current ERP, thereby creating a logical first phase to the project and a steppingstone to the ultimate goal of outsourcing EDI.

Second, when it’s time to parallel test transactions, SPS will deliver data into both the old and new systems simultaneously and provide the auditing and reporting needed to validate transaction success, resulting in a much smoother cutover.

Figure 1: An image of the System Automation for SAP workflow tree showing transaction delivery to multiple ERPs.

Keep EDI Complexity Out of the ERP

ERPs vary when it comes to EDI. SAP, for example, has robust out-of-the-box features. Oracle JD Edwards, meanwhile, requires you to build out functionality to get to a minimum viable EDI product, potentially leading to a heavily customized, home-grown solution – which should be avoided so you can stay flexible, nimble and scalable in the future.

The best practice is to leave complexity out of the ERP and host it with your EDI provider (assuming they can handle it). SPS provides access to a team of ERP experts who build business rules to your specific processes. We also offer dashboard and reporting tools to fill visibility and error -handling gaps. Knowing the extent of the integration and automation capabilities and tools provided by your EDI vendor can help inform your ERP selection and the project scope.

Timing and Risk

Let’s face it, an ERP migration is fraught with risk – after all, over 50% of all migrations fail. That said, migration is often necessary for growth and you’re only going to have one shot at it. Eliminating as much risk as possible from the process by implementing EDI first is very important.

There are many considerations when deciding to do an EDI ERP integration. Please contact us today on how SPS Fulfillment can be your EDI resources, speed up your migration timeline, and set you up for a more successful, lower-risk ERP integration.

Vendor portals can deliver all these benefits, hasten vendor onboarding and reduce data entry on the retailer’s end. However, the benefits of a vendor portal will only be as good as its flexibility to maintain pace with the retailer’s evolving requirements, and the supplier adoption rate. For example, changing ingredient and country of origin labelling regulations have significant supply chain implications – retailers that built a vendor portal even 3 years ago may discover their system unable to handle the new requirements.

From the supplier’s perspective, a retailer’s vendor portal is yet another portal that the supplier needs to learn and maintain: for companies with many retail customers, this can lead to a significant investment in order to manage all the relationships effectively. Retailers must consider this when implementing such a solution, because the supplier will be passing those costs back down the supply chain.

Types of vendor portals

In-house vendor portals are either developed internally or purchased as ‘on-premise’ software. The retailer maintains full control, but at the cost of software, hardware, infrastructure, personnel and training, and general maintenance. The responsible team must be proactive in discovering issues and scaling resources quickly to address problems immediately. Scaling up at short notice or for short periods has a high cost in staffing, processes and budgets. Sometimes, the one-sided view of a vendor portal supporting the retailer is insufficient in addressing the supplier’s needs, which can cause unseen pressures for the supplier and muddy the relationship.

Outsourced vendor portals the outsourced partner takes full responsibility for all aspects of vendor portal management, with a set monthly service fee. Under this model, the outsourced partner is responsible for proactive management including maintaining maps, handling changing field requirements, rapid scaling for peak periods, trouble-shooting, and generally owning every aspect of the retailer-supplier connection. A key benefit of this is that retailers and suppliers alike can focus on their core business and let the outsourced partner focus on their speciality. Changes and upgrades are accommodated within the monthly service fee, which means a generally standard and predictable monthly fee structure.

There are pros and cons to either option; are you the sort of company that wants to bring or keep IT functions in-house and develop real organisational competence there, or would you prefer to rely on a specialist partner so that you can focus on core competences? Answering this question answers which path you’re more likely to take.

Why SPS Commerce is the better choice in outsourced partners

The primary difference is that SPS Commerce offers a technology service, instead of just the technology. SPS has a proven ‘supplier community’ onboarding process – for an Australian example, see our case study showing 97% suppliers onboarded for THE ICONIC. Our solution is perpetual, continuing to onboard new suppliers quickly and efficiently, or adding new documents when the retailer alters order management models.

With SPS Commerce:

• Eliminate total cost of ownership by removing the need to maintain hardware, software, staffing and production costs associated with hosting and managing your own vendor portals.
• Improve speed to shelf by offering a turn-key, web-based portal that allows suppliers to receive electronic orders without any upfront technology investment.
• Maximise vendor adoption of electronic collaboration and automation by providing a ‘vendor-preferred’ platform that can be used across multiple trading partners.
• On-board new vendors in 24-48 hours, substantially reducing the time it takes to send out orders to new vendors
• Evaluate product effectiveness from day one, knowing that the product will be launched successfully.
• Attain complete, accurate product information from vendors while eliminating inefficient, cost-prohibitive and manual processes.
• Reduce redundancies for suppliers and merchants by consolidating all item information in one common format.
• Leverage the large SPS Australia team of coordinators dedicated to supplier on-boarding including supplier outreach, training, technical setup and support providing you an unmatched vendor management model. We’re also conducting more international programmes from Australia, networking with our teams on the ground in North America, China, and Europe for in-hours and local language support.
• Considerably increase business confidence by having 24 hours per day, 7 days per week, 365 days per year support globally to your supplier community.

SPS Commerce is active in almost 100 countries globally, with thousands of retailers and almost 100,000 supplier companies . Many of our retailer partners have used SPS vendor portals to assist in their growth; for example, one of the largest multi-national store chains in the world was able to reduce vendor onboarding from six months to just a few days or weeks. Another large global retailer reduced new item setup time from six weeks to a few days by automating item information exchange with suppliers. We also helped yet another retailer advance from 50 to 6,000+ trading partners with a fully automated end-to-end supply chain across order management models to include ship-to-DC, ship-to-store, VMI, Imports, cross-dock and drop-ship.

What will your SPS success story be?

Read more about vendor onboarding campaigns with SPS Commerce, or contact a retail supplier onboarding specialist today.

Considering a new ERP implementation? These 5 strategies will help everything run smoothly within your company and with your customers:

1. Plan for change
2. Manage people, not just technology
3. Think beyond your four walls
4. Consider timing
5. Define “done”

Here are 5 tips to ensure a successful ERP implementation.

1. Plan for change

A new ERP implementation is one of the few opportunities a business gets to rebuild longstanding business processes to align with future business requirements. Change management is the most difficult aspect of implementing new ERP systems. Make sure you’ve taken inventory of all of your current processes and integrations across the business. Take note of how new processes will be created when plugging in a new ERP. The last thing you want is for a process to be unexpectedly broken because it wasn’t accounted for in the ERP implementation process.

Appoint a leader to oversee the change process. They’ll set milestones along the way, convert the old processes and documents (order management process, item masters, document standardization, and so on), and take the time to handle everything carefully.

2. Manage people, not just technology

In many cases, upgrading your technology is relatively easy compared to managing the people who will be interacting with the new system. Your employees are used to working with the old system and are set into their routines with the existing processes. They may have even become accustomed to the time-consuming workarounds required to bypass system limitations. 

Despite the pain points motivating the system upgrade, humans are generally resistant to change. Some people might be intimidated by the unfamiliarity or complain that they miss aspects of the old system. It’s to be expected. But with executive sponsorship, the right action plan, training, clearly communicated rollout expectations, and clearly defined benefits, your team will quickly embrace the system and process changes.

3. Think beyond your four walls

How will your ERP system connect with your supply chain processes? If the ERP is the heart of your company’s internal systems and processes, EDI provides the oxygen, handling the exchange of important data such as invoices, purchase orders and ship notices into your company and out to your trading partners. EDI not only provides access to communicate with your customers, but it’s also your access route to revenue. If you can’t properly exchange your trading data, you risk lost sales, non-compliance fees, incorrect shipments, missed payments and damaged relationships.

Your EDI solution will need to be configured to accommodate your new ERP and whatever new processes result. If you have in-house or managed service EDI, your team will have to make all of the necessary changes to your EDI system. With a full-service EDI offering like Fulfillment from SPS Commerce, the EDI provider will help align your EDI processes with your new system, make changes on your behalf and ensure you don’t miss any steps. 

For most businesses, it’s best to connect your ERP to your EDI system before you begin your  ERP rollout. That way you can test the data flow between systems before you go live. Plus, you can approach your ERP implementation as one project rather than a series of many projects, allowing for less change management and increased adoption.

4. Consider timing

When you choose a new ERP system, you’ll want to implement it with plenty of time to get everyone adjusted and fluent in the new systems and processes. 

The best time to roll out a new ERP system is during the low season when there are the fewest chances for disruption. For many companies in the retail industry, that low period is after “return season” has finished up by mid to late January. 

Late Q2 and early Q3 are also good times to roll out, depending on your products. Additionally, the back-to-school shopping season in late July to early September is a great opportunity for testing how the new system is working. If you haven’t rolled out your new ERP by the first of August, you’re taking a big risk that your system won’t be ready for the holiday shopping season.

Surprisingly, many companies roll out new ERPs in the fourth quarter, smack dab in the middle of the holiday shopping season. This may be the worst time possible. Not only is there an influx of orders, but the deliveries are extremely time-sensitive – if the package isn’t delivered on time, you risk angry customers and returned products. 

5. Define “done”

Finally, define what “done” means for your ERP implementation. Are you OK with rolling out the new system before every process has been implemented? Or do you want to have absolutely everything in place before the rollout? This should be decided as part of the change management plan.

Depending on your business, which path you choose here can have an impact. Is your ERP changed over and mostly in sync with your EDI system? Are you shipping products in bulk to distribution centers? If so, you might be able to roll out the ERP before you’re actually “done.” That way, you can do live testing and just work through any bugs as they arise. 

Do you ship single units of product to retail stores for customer pickup? Or drop ship directly to customers? If so, your ERP system really needs to be 100 percent ready before you roll it out. Otherwise, you risk making customers very unhappy and driving them away from your business.

Need help with your ERP implementation?

SPS Commerce has helped thousands of customers find technology partners to implement a new ERP solution, connect ERPs to our EDI system, as well as navigate the treacherous waters of an ERP changeover. For additional information speak with an SPS representative.

Let’s explore how one company used EDI to support its growth through the following phases:

• Selling into national retailers with complex requirements
• Discovering that free portals aren’t as good as they seem
• Expanding operations to support new customers without adding staff
• Planning for future automation by making wise choices today

Stage One: EDI is a Retail Requirement

With the goal of bringing a healthy treat to mainstream retail, No Nasties has their sights set of national grocers. Today, consumers can find their products across Australia at Coles, Woolworths and independent retailers.

The No Nasties founders quickly uncovered that when doing business with national Australian retailers, including Coles, EDI is a requirement. The supplier evaluated several EDI offerings and selected SPS Fulfillment. “SPS was the right fit for our business. It is cloud-based, versatile, user-friendly and most of all is built to evolve with us,” commented Matt Kowal, Chief Commercial Officer at The No Nasties Project.

Integrate EDI with Xero or any internal system with the help of the local experts at SPS.

Stage Two: Deciding Not to Use Free Retailer Portals

Many Australian retailers offer free portals to their vendors. As a retail industry veteran, Kowal knew that they weren’t the right fit for No Nasties. “Portals may be free to use, but they are labor-intensive and clunky. In the end, it wouldn’t help our company. They are tailored to the retailer’s business, not ours, and wouldn’t support our future plans of integrating EDI with our internal systems. We quickly discarded portals as an EDI option and never looked back,” states Kowal.

Another reason portals weren’t the right choice for No Nasties is that portals are designed primarily for ship-to-store orders. The majority of No Nasties shipments go to national and regional retailer distribution centers (DCs), not stores. Kowal shares, “Coles requires its vendors who ship to their DCs to do EDI. This confirmed our decision to look beyond portals.”

Stage Three: Adding More Retailers

As the No Nasties icicles continue to catch on in the marketplace, more retailers are adding these frozen treats to their shelves. With each new retailer, No Nasties needs to setup a trading partner relationship on EDI.

“Onboarding new retailers is easy with SPS, there are never any delays on the EDI side,” said Kowal. “The SPS team is always available and they know what the retailer requires. They proactively make the connection without my team’s time. We can focus on other things and know the connection will be done very soon.”

Future Stage: Xero EDI Integration

As their business grows, the SPS solution scales to support it. Adding new trading partners, increasing order volumes and more require little to no resources from No Nasties. But, it’s not the technology that makes SPS their exclusive EDI partner. It’s the SPS team.

“The SPS technology is flexible and suitable for any size business, but it’s their people that are the strength of the solution. Their local experts and support are very good, always accessible and manage so much on our behalf,” states Kowal.

Looking ahead, the supplier doesn’t envision their growth slowing down. They see a need to integrate SPS EDI with their Xero ERP solution at some point for added automation. When the time comes, the team and technology at SPS are ready for them, having integrated SPS Fulfillment with this ERP and hundreds of others.

No matter what stage of business growth you are in, SPS has EDI for your needs. Contact us for a free demo.

• Implementing and monitoring EDI systems, including data mapping, translation and interfaces
• Ability to analyze EDI and data integration/transformation requirements from trading partners
• Performing EDI daily support and projects, prototype data transfers using various methods including, but not limited to, EDI, SAP IDOCS, XML, AS/2, FTP, SFTP, and general network file transfers
• Expertise in business systems specific to company needs across ERP, TMS and WMS 

Perhaps a trusted EDI resource has recently left your company, or even retired. Or maybe you’ve outgrown your current staff. If so, have you considered using a full-service EDI provider instead of hiring more developers? 

A third-party EDI provider can deliver the customizability, reporting, security and integration capabilities you need. And they’ll take ownership of many day-to-day EDI operational responsibilities — so your team doesn’t have to.

Here are three reasons to choose an EDI provider rather than adding more staff:

1. Focus your IT resources on more strategic tasks

If you work with retailers, grocers or distributors, EDI is probably a requirement for exchanging electronic information with customers. While EDI is a necessary function, it’s not a core competency for most businesses. 

Here’s a question to ask yourself: does having in-house EDI capabilities improve your company’s competitive edge in the market? 

If the answer is no, why should you dedicate IT staff to supporting a function that’s not core to your business? Why not have your limited IT resources focus on something that furthers your competitive advantage?

By using a full-service EDI provider, your IT staff can be freed up to concentrate on more strategic projects.

2. Support your IT needs with less work

Let’s face it. Managing EDI systems in-house is time-consuming. Experts estimate that around 95 percent of in-house EDI software is custom-built! 

Maintaining EDI maps alone is a massive effort. A different map is needed for each document type required by each unique trading partner, and these maps are often updated multiple times a year. EDI mapping updates can easily take up the lion’s share of an EDI developer’s time. An EDI developer must test, fix and debug existing maps, as well as create new maps based on new requirements.

In addition to supporting EDI maps and map changes, EDI developers also handle a host of other operational details such as:

• Contacting business trading partners 
• Troubleshooting errors and downstream effects
• Building out EDI reporting tools
• Monitoring data and connectivity

A full-service EDI provider handles the day-to-day tasks associated with your EDI operations. This translates to a dramatic reduction in work for your team.

3. Reduce costs

It’s important to evaluate how much EDI costs to implement, including the total cost of running an in-house EDI solution. Here are some of the costs to consider:

• Staff members to operate and maintain your EDI system
• Staff members to manage trading partner changes in maps and connectivity 
• Software license and maintenance costs
• Hardware costs, such as servers, storage and backup
• VAN fees
• Chargebacks for non-compliance due to outdated maps or errors

Full-service EDI solutions include all of the technology needed to handle ongoing EDI requirements, as well as staffing resources dedicated to keeping everything running. This is often a more cost-effective option than hiring additional EDI developers.

Consider full-service EDI rather than hiring more EDI developers. Learn more about how SPS Commerce Fulfillment (EDI) can help you cost-effectively address your EDI needs, without taxing your IT resources.

How much does EDI cost to implement? We worked with Forrester to dive into the numbers. Find out how apparel supplier Peter Grimm achieved a 372 percent ROI by using SPS Fulfillment.

If your company is going through a transition like this, automating your order-to-cash process is a must. Improving how you process EDI transactions is an effective way to gain this level of automation.

If you are a NetSuite user, deciding on the best EDI solution can be overwhelming given the vast number of choices available. When your business is evaluating EDI options, it is important to understand if the solution is “Built for Oracle NetSuite Certified,” embedded within NetSuite, and whether or not the solution is full-service.

What is Built for Oracle NetSuite Certified, and why is it important?

Built for Oracle NetSuite Certified (BFN) is a NetSuite initiative to provide quality SuiteApps to NetSuite customers. This ensures that SDN Partner solutions meet the same level of standards for security, data privacy and overall quality as the solutions offered by NetSuite.

All NetSuite Development Partners must complete the Built for Oracle NetSuite Certified review process for each of their SuiteApps before going to market with their products. The BFN approval status must be renewed in each new NetSuite product release cycle twice per year.

Once NetSuite Development Partners go through the in-depth evaluation and certification process, then the SuiteApp has qualified for the Built for NetSuite badge and publication on SuiteApp.com

Industry-leading EDI and NetSuite ERP integration

What sets SPS Commerce Fulfillment for NetSuite apart? The SPS Commerce integrated SuiteApp is built within NetSuite, allowing you to work within the system to exchange required documents. With SPS Commerce Fulfillment for NetSuite you can:

• Extend sales order records
• Extend Item fulfillment & inventory records to meet EDI requirements
• Use your existing processes and workflows
• Minimize data entry and errors

Unlike other EDI solutions, SPS Commerce Fulfillment for NetSuite doesn’t require unique mappings per trading partner –– or a separate tool to export files or upload anything into your system. Simply log in to NetSuite, and your orders will be automatically available.

Maximize your NetSuite experience with 24/7 full-service support

As the industry leader, SPS Commerce is trusted by more than 50,000 subscribing customers worldwide to provide technology and EDI expertise. Because SPS Commerce Fulfillment for NetSuite is a full-service EDI solution, it’s also supported by a dedicated team of NetSuite integration specialists.

SPS uses an agile and phased approach that strategically aligns with NetSuite best practices, ensuring a positive experience and outcomes from the start and as your business evolves.

We make it simple to collaborate with trading partners around the world so you can benefit from the speed and accuracy of automated sales order creation, order acknowledgment, ship notice management, invoicing, and more. 

Ready to take the next step?

Whether you are looking to connect to one trading partner or hundreds, already using NetSuite or in the process of implementing it, SPS Fulfillment for NetSuite can easily scale to meet your needs.

And because our full-service solution is BFN certified and embedded within NetSuite, you can be completely confident in ongoing compliance and seamless operations as your business grows.

For more information or to get started today, please contact us or visit our NetSuite ERP page.

But as we discussed in our previous post, not just any SAP EDI integration will do if you truly want to achieve the maximum benefits that system automation has to offer.

Special considerations for SAP EDI connections

To start, it’s important to note that SAP does not work directly with EDI. SAP has its own messages called IDOCS, which are similar to EDI messages, but they have their own formats. Because of this, in order to integrate EDI into SAP, a conversion of the information must take place, whether the conversion is happening from SAP IDOC to EDI, or from EDI to SAP IDOC.

For example, when you receive a purchase order in SAP, it is translated from the EDI format into an IDOC that is then integrated into the ordering process. When issuing an invoice from SAP, an IDOC is generated that is converted into EDI format for its shipment.

It’s this issue of translation from SAP to EDI – and EDI to SAP – that often trips up many EDI providers. Transactional Remote Function Call (tRFC), the standard SAP interface for communication between SAP systems, acts almost like a firewall and determines what information gets in and out of SAP, and how it gets there. That includes data being sent to and from your trading partners.

Many EDI setups don’t play nicely with tRFC, leaving you to take care of the transmission and translation of information on your own. Depending on what systems and trading partners you want to connect with EDI and SAP, the information may need to be translated and transmitted to multiple destinations. Without the right configurations, you could end up with more work than you expected. You may even need to hire additional people, even though EDI automation is supposed to help you reduce manual processes and staffing needs.

Implementing EDI Integration for SAP

As you can imagine, integrating SAP with EDI requires an abundance of preparation and expertise before you move forward. How you integrate each system and trading partner into your EDI solution requires careful preparation for each stage of implementation, from pre-planning to final rollout.

How you plan to use EDI could impact the solution you need. Are you using EDI for all your trading partners or just a few? Which manual processes are you automating? Which documents will need to be mapped and integrated? What systems and trading partners need to be connected to accomplish those goals? How will you align all of the processes for smooth operations? Most importantly, what do you expect success to look like once your EDI solution is live?

These and other questions should be thoroughly investigated and answered before making a decision on an EDI solution. You want to make sure that the vendor you choose will be able to make your vision a reality and address whatever needs that may arise.

Full-Service EDI Integration for SAP

SPS Commerce offers a complete end-to-end EDI solution for SAP, including the ability to support tRFC transmissions and SAP IDOC formats, all within a seamless integration. We bring the proven technology and SAP experts to manage the process from implementation through ongoing, day-to-day operations.

SPS Fulfillment automates inbound and outbound communications to keep you connected with your suppliers, vendors, and third-party logistics companies. That includes communications about purchase orders, invoices, inventory updates, shipments and more.

Part of what makes the SPS EDI integration for SAP so successful is how it addresses the issue of tRFC. In order to exchange all the documents listed above, the data needs to be able to get in and out through your systems securely. We have three ways to help you accomplish this, depending on your preferences and requirements:

• Direct tRFC – SPS pushes files directly through the firewall; it becomes a direct, native connection for information to flow in and out through EDI system automation.
• On-Premise Agent – If you want to have more control over what information can get into your SAP system, an “On-Premise Agent” configuration automatically sends outbound information for you, but restricts inbound transmissions.
• SFTP – This is the ultimate level of control. SPS Fulfillment EDI accommodates a variety of FTP options for you to send and receive data.

SAP EDI integration through SPS can also help you disseminate the information received through tRFC and on-premise agents across vital departments, streamlining and improving your current business workflows for faster, more accurate and secure transactions.

SPS full-service EDI solutions are flexible, scalable, and customizable to suit your systems, your support needs, your goals for system and communication automation within your organization.

The SPS Difference

Other solutions can only do so much in their ability to transfer information and translate IDOCS to and from EDI. In most cases, you’re expected to figure out on your own how to get the information from SAP to your EDI (and vice versa). SPS can figure it out for you in order to incorporate and automate all the documents, rules and processes vital for your unique business.

The SPS EDI solution is compatible with SAP’s multiple environments. Where other EDI solutions fall short, SPS makes it easy for you to send the information you need to where you need it, whether you’re working in Test, Production or Development environments.

The SPS Fulfillment EDI solution offers a level of visibility, automation and process orchestration to your operations that’s unlike any other EDI solution out in the market. You’ll be able to get a view of what’s happening in the system and how transactions are moving along within it. EDI automation ensures that information is moving from system to system, partner to partner appropriately, according to the business rules and process requirements of your unique organization.

With role-based access, empower your staff with the information they need to perform at their best – IT personnel can log in directly and see every IDOC, every EDI transaction, while every customer service can get a view that helps them answer questions. The data from within can be used to help you make forecasts, improvements and identify issues that may not have come to your attention yet.

When errors do arise, you have help with SPS. When our system identifies errors, it sends you a notification about the problem. We can send the message directly through SAP natively, so you can know quickly what is causing the issue and address it before it becomes a bigger problem.

When you need to improve business processes and efficiency, trust SPS Commerce to help. The SPS SAP EDI solution offers support for any business document and any trading partner. Additionally, SPS Commerce is a member of the SAP PartnerEdge program and has the expertise to extend the value of your SAP investment.

Join hundreds of other companies that have ditched manual processes with the industry’s most complete EDI Integration for SAP. Contact an SPS representative today for a 10-minute consultation or a brief, personalized demo.