Daily EDI Operations Monitoring

EDI Challenge

A DCS customer provides live flower and garden plants to home centers. Based in California, with nurseries in several North America different climatic zones, they ship-to their customers in three very high volume seasons – Spring, Fall, and Holiday. They are required to use EDI extensively with both their customers and LTL shippers. They use Sterling’s Gentran Integration Suite™, SAP, and Cleo’s VersaLex™ AS2 to provide maximum functionality and to handle the large traffic. They called DCS to monitor the process and provide weekly performance reports to management during the seasonal spikes in volume.

Solution

DCS uses the existing Sterling B2B Integrator and VersaLex remote management console to check processes twice daily. Additionally, the automated error message system alerts DCS to selected errors immediately. The most complicated transaction was the outbound Shipment Notice (ASN, 856) due to multiple stops at several stores. Another complication – a faulty firewall configuration complicated the communication set up, but offers very good security.

Result

The EDI process automation is now running smoothly and the speed, accuracy, and efficiency of the data flow are greatly increased. The faster response to EDI transactions provides a wider fulfillment window, quicker payment, less data entry error, and more flexibility in meeting increasing customer demands. DCS expertise kept the EDI operating cost down and keeps efficiency at its highest.