Integration

Integration (46)

E-Commerce as Data Supplier

CollaborationThe nearby article on data feeds for e-tailers has lessons for suppliers, also. Most crucially, manufacturers need to recognize that data feeds represent an opportunity for co-operation andnegotiation.

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Sharing Data Delivers Success

shared dataThe good news is there’s more and more product data available for suppliers and retailers. The not-so-good news is that sharing that data has become overwhelming as economic conditions continue to be a challenge and industry growth is changing the way data sharing continues to grow.

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Infographic: A CFO’s Guide to ERP in the Cloud

Take a look at this great Infographic. It's a very understandable depiction of the benefits and costs camparing hosted systems with cloud/SaaS based alternatives.

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2012 year of Collaboration

CollaborationWe're starting to see year end results from 2011. Many look promising but others still show struggles. It seems, from  talking with Retailers and Grocers, that they plan to continue implementing the strategies they started mid-2011. As companies continue to look at ways to improve operations to offset lower sales, an area of growing interest is improved partner collaboration. What does that actually mean to collaborate?

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Marlow Talks Combos

kitorderAs retailers continue to squeeze as much as they can out of their supply chain they are continuing to look at having the right product in the right place. To faciliate this, many are looking at working with assortments, musical runs, or prepacks which they will create by region. Two years ago I wrote an article on this topic, but thought it woud be relevant to address the concept again and make sure that if your company is considering supporting multiple skus, sizes, and color products within a caselot or prepack, that you are aware of what others are doing, in order to support a colaboration with your trading partners. Read more...

Data Syncronization initiatives

GDSNchartOver the past several months there's been a growing interest from Retailers and Grocers that are considering automating the process of the cleansing of their item files and/or the creation and setup of new products. In fact there are several industries that are collaborating in committees, one being the Food Service community. I know that companies like Sysco, US Foodservice, Dot Foods, Food Service of America Foodservice distributors are working toward using GDSN similar to what the Electronics industry did earlier. What's interesting about this to me is that you'd think that having clean data or lack thereof would have been one of the first steps even before sending orders electronically. But interestingly enough there have only been a few companies that have taken this step first. Read more...

Direct Store Delivery Processes and Alternatives

loading-docksOver the last several months I've noticed a growing interest in more partners connecting to Grocery Retailers than I have in the past, specifically around NEX/DEX. I'm not sure if these are new partners or if Grocery Retailers are now looking to expand their connections for DSD (Direct Store Delivery) orders through electronic trading but it seems like a good time to educate you on this system. ways that trading can be done, and alternatives to NEX.

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The Importance of Integration

IntegrationThis week I wrote about how VANs have evolved, and in my conversations while researching the article one resounding theme kept surfacing: integration.

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Supply Chain Data on the Move – An App for That Could Be Coming to a Smart Phone Near You Soon

mobile-appsSeems like today, given the fact just about everyone has a mobile phone (including the four-year-old my daughter played with today; granted it was a hand-me down from the parents, but it still worked!), that supply chain executives would want to access pertinent data away from their desks, while out and about and on the move.

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Getting the GREAT Out of EDI Inte-”great”-ion

Great_integration-thumbOk, before I go anywhere with this post I will admit the title is a bit corny. All I ask is to grant me a little leniency with the obvious cheese simply because it hit me like a “eureka” moment and there was no way I could pass up the opportunity.  Now that the pink elephant has been addressed, I can get into one of the topics that I am most passionate about within the EDI industry – integration of EDI into an organization’s ERP system. In order to truly reap the benefits of EDI, integration is not an option but rather a necessity. Any other configuration relegates an EDI relationship to not much more than an email or fax machine which is in direct opposition to the core purpose of EDI.

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