Fast launch of EDI communication at Fitness store
EDI communication launched in 1 month
Involvement of partners Alza and Mall
Original state and problem
The reason for the introduction of EDI communication in the Fitness store was, as with most smaller companies, the requirement of one of the key customers. Although Fitness store management is generally in favor of technological automation, it was necessary to consider the cost of introducing electronic document interchange due to the business margin.
The operator of one of the largest Czech e-shops, Mall.cz, was able to be very convincing thanks to its bargaining power towards suppliers. Most of its suppliers have gradually switched to EDI, which replaces the exchange of ordinary paper and pdf documents with structured data.
How it all went
Fitness store uses the Money S3 information system. Although there are several EDI extensions available on the market for this system, the company decided to start with the so-called webEDI, mainly due to the launch speed and also lower acquisition costs. "In the case of webEDI, the acquisition costs were not excessive, we were able to meet the requirements of our important customer almost immediately and at the same time speed up and refine the work with documents," recalls director Martin Zavadil.
The fast-growing customers Internet Mall and Alza.cz soon began to have a significant share in the company's turnover. This led to tense cash flow mainly due to two reasons of long invoice maturity for these large customers, which the company was not used to for smaller customers, and the wholesale nature of the company, which creates a wide time gap between buying (paying) goods abroad and money in the account for its sale.
An additional service Roger payment helped keep the growth in line by financing invoices against key customers. Fitness store can choose EDI invoices that it wants to pay in advance and not wait for the standard 60-day maturity. 75% of the volume of these invoices will then come to the company's account on the 2nd day after the assignment of the receivable and the remaining 25% will be obtained after deducting interest at the moment when the customer pays.
Several changes have been made
As with other companies, an immediate overview of business with key customers is essential for management, which can also be controlled from virtually anywhere thanks to the ORiON mobile application. The accountant, who handles the administration, perceives the benefits primarily in a unified organization and facilitation the whole process, which normally varies from customer to customer, order to order.
The biggest advantage and time saving for Fitness store is the quality of data at the entrance to the entire business case when creating an order by the customer. The use of GTIN (the so-called EAN) codes eliminates the need to manage and update identical goods code lists.
This minimizes the error rate in entering goods into the order. Errors in orders that were previously caused by poorly entered goods usually spilled over into other documents in the business case, and resolving them cost time, money, and deteriorated customer relationships.
download full case studyThe use of EDI needs to be seen from a broader perspective. To expect change. Thanks to EDI, I can pull any current statistics of business partners, but above all I can rely on the fact that the service works without problems in clearly defined boundaries. I receive a confirmation that the delivery note was received by the customer, that the invoice is OK, etc. Such simplicity, which you basically can't get out of normal business, because you have to keep hammering into that employee's head: "You lack a signature here. Did you take over the pieces?” That's endless. There is nothing to discuss with EDI. Period.
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