Throughout the past two weeks of the United States declaring a national emergency, grocery stores have been experiencing ‘panic buying’ — the action of consumers buying unusually large amounts of products just before or after a disaster. Consumers are preparing for not just days of quarantining but for possibly weeks or months.
According to the article, “There’s Psychology Behind the Foods We Don’t Buy in a Crisis” by the Counter, the foods consumers are buying right now are “raw ingredients-like produce, meat, beans, and grains-over prepared foods and snacks.” Being creative with cooking and eating well gives people things to do while bunkering at home. Working remotely, employees don’t have the urgency to get home during rush-hour and make an easy meal. Making well-cooked healthy meals is time-consuming, but it’s cost-effective since, generally, many of the frozen and prepared foods are more expensive. Additionally, individuals are leaning towards healthier eating because they can’t go out and exercise as much.
Julia Sklar, the writer of the article, interviewed Deborah Small, a psychologist who studies consumer judgment and human decision making at the University of Pennsylvania. She states that it will be hard to predict people’s behaviors. But still, hopefully, throughout this period, individuals “can maintain a steady-state of life for a few weeks” since they won’t be as anxious.
Hopefully, as consumers, we will adapt, we won’t buy based on panic, and we will learn to be more strategic with what we need to make it through.
Dear Customers & Partners, We hope that you and your families are all safe during this critical time. We would like to assure you that our team is secure and fully operational working remotely and that our EDI Systems will continue to process and support all of your EDI transactions as normal. If you need support please contact us by email at support@vantree.com or by phone 1-514-747-0350 / 1-800-488-9980 and use option #2 to speak to our support team. You can at all time call your consultant or project manager at their current number. We thank you for your ongoing support.
Chers clients et partenaires, Nous espérons que vous et votre famille êtes en sécurité pendant cette période critique. Nous désirons vous rassurer que notre équipe est bien protégée et entièrement fonctionnelle à distance et que nos systèmes sont entièrement opérationnels pour traiter normalement vos transactions EDI. Si vous avez besoin de soutien, contactez-nous par courriel à support@vantree.com ou encore par téléphone au 1-514-747-0350 / 1-800-488-9980 en utilisant l’option #2. Vous pouvez contacter votre conseiller ou votre gestionnaire de projet a leurs numéros réguliers. Nous vous remercions de votre collaboration.
Throughout the last month, Covid19 has altered the lives of people around the world. During these uncertain times, Vantree has the responsibility to do it’s part to help slow down the spread of this virus and support the community.
Over time, Vantree Systems has been preparing to decentralize our operations. Those plans have now enabled us to implement an emergency readiness plan regarding the COVID19 outbreak.
Customers
To help our customers with their readiness plan, we are extra attentive during this period. We are available through email, online messaging, and video conferences.
We have adapted our systems so that we can easily maintain server uptime and performance. Across our organization, we use enterprise software to ensure staff can work in any location around the world.
Whether you are looking or are already a customer – if you have any questions about our commitment towards your business, don’t hesitate to contact our Director of Sales, Philip Aguib, or our President, Scott Brooks.
Employees
Vantree is following the Canadian health recommendations for this epidemic to help ensure all our employees stay at their healthiest. Our President has mandated that all employees work remotely until further notice.
With our readiness plan in place, we are confident to be able to continue to support our valued customers, their projects, and any issues they are experiencing with the utmost integrity and professionalism.
Delivering EDI services with human connection is even more important during this time. By taking the necessary steps, we will get through this together.
SAP S/4 HANA is an ERP software part of the SAP Business Suite designed for larger enterprises. This solution has more simplicity, compelling features, and a massive increase in efficiency, such as planning and simulation options in many conventional processes.
The Challenge
Although it is easy to use thanks to SAP Fiori, SAP S/4 HANA is a powerful but complicated system. It is essential to work with a partner who has an excellent reputation for planning and delivering the solution based on your requirements. As implementations can be lengthy, the Vantree EDI Team goes above and beyond, working with your implementation partner, to make sure the EDI process is as transparent as possible and ensure you are comfortable with the new IT environment. We do our best to make complex integrations easy.
Our solution
Once implemented, Vantree’s Integrated EDI solution for SAP S/4 HANA transmits all EDI documents between your business and your trading partners without any human intervention.
The Vantree Team takes care of the entire EDI implementation giving your IT, Accounting & Operations Departments the peace of mind knowing someone is working closely with your implementation partner and trading partners on your behalf. We become an extension of your company!
We are responsible for contacting your trading partners, establishing all EDI connections, mapping all EDI documents, setting up any partner configurations, and completing internal and external testing.
Once delivered, you will have full visibility on documents flowing in and out of your system, through one single trusted data pipe – the Vantree EDI Network.
24/7 Data Flow Monitoring
Vantree’s EDI Solution for SAP S/4 HANA includes 24/7 transaction flow monitoring ensuring documents are received, sent, and acknowledged around the clock. The solution also consists of all system validation of data coming in and out, ensuring you are always working with clean data.
EDI Alerts
As with all our solutions, alerting includes automatic emails sent to a list of contacts showing a daily or weekly report of transactions with their statutes. You will also have access to our online portal to have even more visibility to view, search, filter, and re-queue documents. The best part is, you have those functionalities within the SAP S/4 HANA interface as well.
EDI Documents
Every integration is tailored to each customer, no matter the industry, the EDI document type, or trading partner. Inbound and outbound EDI documents mapped with a 1-many or 1-1 relationship.
To view some of the documents we trade for our customers today, click here.
Inbound EDI Documents
Inbound documents transfer from trading partners to the fully managed Vantree EDI Network.
The documents are delivered to your SAP S/4 HANA system in the required format from your SAP System.
An automatic document confirmation sent back to the Vantree EDI Network to confirm receipt and document processing.
Outbound EDI Documents
Outbound documents coming from SAP S/4 HANA deliver to the Vantree EDI Network in native SAP formats.
Document maps to individual requirements for each of your trading partners on the network.
A 997 electronic receipt is sent to your trading partners, confirming the delivery of the information.
EDI Document Processing & Implementation Environments
Whether you choose to work with Intermediate Documents (IDOC) or Process Integration (PI), Process Orchestration (PO), Vantree’s happy to accommodate your goals and accomplish the method you are most comfortable. Vantree’s EDI Solution for SAP S/4 HANA is also available for implementation in the Cloud and On-Premise.
The benefits of working with Vantree’s EDI Solution for SAP S/4 HANA:
Centralize your data
Ease of use in S/4 Hana interface
Full visibility on documents
Resolve errors quickly
Why trust Vantree with your EDI needs?
Prevention systems in place
24/7 monitoring and automated alerting emails
Honest and transparent communication
Culture of mutual aid focused on you
Average response-time less than 4 hours
Dedicated EDI Support Team for you
What makes Vantree unique is our ability to connect you with a Project Coordinator & EDI Analyst dedicated to your company. Our Support is always available during the Implementation, Go-Live, and beyond, ensuring you are still working with the same people.
If you are interested in learning more, please contact us. Let us formulate a package tailored to your budget.
The SAP SMB Summit is all about learning, exploring, connecting and being inspired. It’s a place where SAP partners meet other potential partners, maintain old relationships and flourish new ones. It’s an environment for smaller to midsize businesses to grow even further.
This year, SAP kicked off their annual event of the year at sunny Palma de Majorca, Spain. They held the annual event at the Palau de Congressos de Palma right next to the amazing Mediterranean views. It’s beautiful architecture by Francisco Mangado was truly the star of the show with its huge ceilings, grandeur open windows and minimalistic feel.
Vantree exhibited this year – as an EDI provider in the global marketplace, we continue to strengthen our relationships with partners in the global sphere as we feel it’s important to collaborate and grow from other businesses worldwide.
Every year at the show, SAP continues to impress with their keynotes, allowing their current and potential new partners to learn about their software. This year SAP spoke a lot about its Business ByDesign solution – a cloud-based ERP solution for small to medium size enterprises.
One of the many amazing keynotes that caught our eye was the “Human and Business” by Mark Raben, the Chief Technology Officer at SAP. His current role is to work with customers, partners and universities to help companies transform their businesses with technology. He shared his insights on how our brain works and how it impacts our business. He answered the question of how companies use technology to create more front-line business innovations.
Overall, we had a great experience at the SAP SMB Summit 2020 in Palma de Majorca. It allowed us to maintain relationships with current partners, meet new faces and learn new tools to help our business grow for the future. We’re looking forward to attending the next show in Cancun in March!
SAP Business One is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software designed for businesses of all sizes. As an ERP solution, it aims to automate business functions in critical areas such as financials, operations, human resources, and others. Vantree has developed a fully embedded EDI solution in SAP Business One that receives, validates, and sends EDI documents between a business, its supply chain & other trading partners.
Vantree’s solution leverages the power of SAP Business One by managing all inbound and outbound documents within the SAP Business One interface on your behalf. These documents are received and sent to trading partners, third party logistics (3PL), E-Commerce, Dropship companies, or any network that trades business documents. All transactions can be viewed, filtered, and searched by document type, partners, dates, and statuses. This solution saves users time, minimizes mistakes, and can significantly reduce EDI related trading partner chargebacks.
Here are a few of the documents we integrate and how they interact with SAP Business One modules:
Purchase Orders (850)
Purchase orders can be received 24/7 automatically in SAP Business One, eliminating the need to download and enter orders from different EDI portals. Vantree’s EDI solution for SAP Business One Solution manages the validation process based on custom criteria and checks for errors, invalid data, or other sophisticated checks such as SAP pricing vs. EDI pricing comparison or discount threshold calculations. If all validations are processed successfully, the orders are processed automatically into SAP A/R Sales Orders, and an email can be sent to internal teams, notifying them that orders are moving to the next step.
Invoices/credits (810/812)
SAP A/R Invoices and credits can be sent from the SAP interface directly to trading partners via EDI or other recipients using the fields from both SAP invoice data and the original Purchase Orders. This process gets scheduled or automated so businesses can run them at night, relieving the task from the Accounting Department during the day. Outbound EDI transactions include Invoices and Credits, are always validated for EDI standards compliance and custom validation if required. Our EDI Monitoring Team advises you of any failure and helps you resolve the issue.
Advanced Shipment Notice (856)
The Advanced Shipment Notice (856-ASN) is another document type used in more complex EDI scenarios. The ASN typically includes the details of the shipment, including pick/pack information. For example, items included in the shipment, units, weight, dimensions, and other details about the bundle. After purchase orders are received and accepted in SAP Business One, a user can generate an advanced shipping notice (ASN) automatically within the SAP Business interface. For typical Dropship Order ASNs, we use SAP A/R Invoice document, and for partners requiring MH-10 / UCC-128 type labels, the ASN is on SAP A/R Delivery. All label templates are configured by Vantree on your behalf to ensure you meet your trading partners’ requirements. Small parcel carrier tracking numbers (FedEx, UPS, Purolator) from A/R Sales Order is automatically captured and reported to trading partners.
Inventory Advice (846)
Inventory inquiry requests information on an item between manufacturers, suppliers, and resellers. It’s used for sellers to provide information about the inventory to customers and other sellers. The inventory information in this document includes quantity on hand, float quantity, on order quantity, returns, backorders, and quantity in transit. The inventory inquiry is pertinent for business because it gives peace of mind for trading partners with inventory updates sent to partners periodically. The Inventory Advice has quickly become critical data flow between suppliers and E-Commerce Marketplaces as they ensure your product remains available online 24/7. The inventory reporting is customizable per item, including both items and bill of materials.
Purchase Order Acknowledgement (855)
Purchase order acknowledgment reports any errors and indicates issues fulfilling the order. A summary purchase orders advise that the order is received, and a detailed 855 docs are to convey shipping dates or item ship details. In both cases, the system can send acknowledgments automatically to notify the warehouse department once the purchase order is accepted. The Purchase Order Acknowledgement can also be integrated with SAP A/R Sales Order to convey supplier-initiated changes or Vendor Management Inventory (VMI) sales scenarios.
Purchase Order Change Request (860)
This document is typically used for buyers to request to make changes to a purchase order. The modifications that could are, for example, adding items or changing the items. The purpose is to ensure better inventory management and efficient supply chains. Like with all documents, users can view/search/filter by all trading partners and choose to accept changes.
Warehouse Shipping Order (940)
A warehouse shipping order is typically used by sellers who authorize a 3PL to make a shipment to a retailer, grocer, or distributor. This document provides order details to the 3PL that are pertinent to the shipping of the order, such as address information, items, and shipping notes. This document allows for better shipping detail visibility and streamlines processes. It does not include sensitive order information such as pricing, discounts, and terms. 940s are exported from SAP using SAP A/R Sales Order.
Warehouse Shipping Advice (945)
Warehouse shipping advice confirms the shipment and is used to notify a trading partner when goods were shipped. Shared information in this document is typically the identification of the shipment. This validation system ensures information received from the original PO can be reused across other documents, eliminating the need for human intervention.
Credit/ Debit Adjustment (812)
This transaction set is used to notify a trading partner of an adjustment or a bill-back. It identifies and contains the details and amounts covering exceptions, adjustments, credits, or debits for goods and services. The reasons for adjustments are due to defective items, unreceived or returned goods, the number of goods ordered isn’t equivalent to goods delivered and error in pricing in POs. The document is multi-directional, allowing both parties to adjust. On the user side, this document interfaces with SAP A/R Credit Note.
Remittance Advice (820)
The remittance advice is a report by which buyers convey payment remittance details to vendors. Remittance details can include invoice numbers, net, gross, total amounts, item identification, any adjustments related. This document can also integrate with SAP Banking Transactions (Incoming and Outgoing Payments), thus fully automating payments to Invoices and Credits.
Put simply, here’s how it works:
Orders coming in 24/7
They are automatically accepted
Auto-ASN
Warehouse prints labels, picks/packs & ships
Invoices generated & sent
You get paid
Solange Dugas, President & Owner of GB Micro Electronics speaking how she highly recommends Vantree Systems EDI for SAP Business One.
Overall, Vantree’s EDI Solution for SAP Business One makes your business more efficient by simplifying redundant tasks, reducing common mistakes, decreases reaction times, and eliminates unnecessary chargebacks. It also allows you to strengthen your relationships with your trading partners by meeting EDI demands. Finally, it allows you to enable new relationships quicker which future proofs your business and gives you an edge on the competition.
If you are interested in integrating your EDI processes in SAP Business One, please follow the link here and request a demo or quote.
Thank you,
Emily Brooks Content Manager
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EDI typically comes as a requirement from trading partners, but it might come as a surprise that it can also be used as an important tool to improve your business. Here are some of the ways our solutions that can be used, and how they can help you in 2020:
Integrated EDI
ERP An ERP could be the next big step for your business, allowing you to manage all the data from different departments in one system. We work with ERPs such as SAP S/4 Hana, Microsoft Dynamics NAV and NetSuite. Our EDI integration allows you to manage your EDI documents such as 850, 810, 856 with any ERP while remaining in your day-to-day environment making it simple, convenient and manageable for you and your team. Having it all integrated brings you one step closer to an automated business.
E-commerce Year after year, the E-commerce industry grows 23% and is expected to have 4.5 trillion global sales by 2021. E-commerce is the new way of doing business and regardless of the type, Vantree can meet your needs and provide all crucial EDI processes to create vertical integration in your business. Dropship fulfillment is the way to reduce your operational cost while still selling online. This includes companies like Commerce-Hub, Fedex and DSCo who in turn serve companies like Costco and Kohls. Similarly, online marketplace allows you to list your products alongside others and benefit from having your products accessible in a marketplace setting. Online marketplace companies like Amazon.com and Amazon.ca have partnered up with Vantree to create a seamless integrated solution while maintaining a single communication channel. We’ve also connected to many specialized internal or private labeled E-commerce solutions like Shopify and Magento to help you create your own ecommerce shopping experience.
Third Party Solutions The benefit of our software being custom built is we can develop complex integrations for our customers. If you have plans to outsource your warehousing to 3PL (3rd party logistics) like Amazon or XPO, we can bridge to any third-party business of your choice. If you are managing your own operations using a WMS/OMS/IMS, speak to us about your goals and we can help you optimize your order fulfillment needs.
We also work with a great retail execution software company called CIS Group that can help your sales reps do their work while utilizing one simple mobile platform. CIS Group is one of the largest providers of software solutions in North America and accommodates resources for Sales Force Automation solutions and Direct Store Delivery operations.
We can also help you bring in orders (850) and send out invoices (810) directly from your Accounting system likeQuickbooks, Acomba and Sage while eliminating manual data entry and improving user satisfaction.
Benefits
Optimize Your Business By sharing your challenges with your EDI provider, you can increase efficiency in your organization. Some of the benefits of trusting Vantree:
Increase the efficiency by letting us do the work
Simplify redundant tasks
Automate processes
Improve speed of data exchange
Centralize your data
Navigate through familiar interfaces
Going above and beyond for your trading partners By investing in EDI technology, you will be investing in your relationship with your customers. Some of the benefits of trusting Vantree:
Eliminate charge backs
24/7 data flow monitoring on your behalf
Strong data validation processes setup on your behalf
Setup valuable alerts to speed up error handling time
Eliminate redundancy reducing common mistakes
Provide your supply chain with cleaner data
Decrease reaction times
Outcomes At Vantree, we make your goals, our goals. After sharing your challenges with us and trusting us with your investment, in return you will see growth and improvements on your bottom line. Here’s how:
Meet Customer’s EDI Demands Being EDI capable can give liberate valuable resources, future proof operations and standardize your project launches – making your business flexible. You can add new partners effortlessly and have anticipated growth.
Strengthen and Improve Relationships with your Clients Through investing in your relationship with your trading partners, you will be making end users happier resulting in an increase in organic growth and positive reviews on your products.
Increase Competitiveness Overall, having an integrated business can give you the edge you need to surpass your competition. Having a great product is important but as we all know, timing is everything. Being EDI ready can result in great opportunities.
With so many great results, why not invest in EDI in 2020? In the next blog post we’ll explore how Vantree integrates very seamlessly into many ERPs, starting withSAP Business One.
EDI documents between a business, its supply chain & other trading partners.
