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BEYOND the INITIAL CONNECTION:HOW TO TRANSFORM YOUR B2B EXCHANGE

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1EDI SOURCE: BEYOND THE INITIAL CONNECTION

For anyone in charge of automating business processes using EDI to integratecustomer, vendor and partner data, implementing a solution that allows youto automate processes while maintaining visibility and compliance with yourbusiness needs can prove to be a unique (and daunting) challenge.

WHAT THE CHANGING B2B EXCHANGE ENVIRONMENT MEANS TO YOU.

of Investing in ERP CustomizationRISKS

Successful electronic data interchange, or EDI, initiatives requirethe consideration of a number of factors, beginning with who yourtrading partners are and how you want to integrate the data. But,EDI projects often stop there because companies fail to realize thehigher-level benefits of process automation, operational compliance,collaboration, and the powerful ability to provide valuableintelligence to business stakeholders.

Studies indicate that organizations are then attempting to achievethose higher-level benefits by customizing solutions in and aroundtheir enterprise resource planning (ERP) to enable EDI process

automation, visibility and control. After all, that’s the role of an ERP,to automate workflows and provide information access for the entireorganization, right?

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• Manual intervention into processes that should be automated perpetuates the risk of errors

• Increasing thresholds for write-offs since researching issues can be time intensive

• Lack of visibility and control based on limited access to the information that truly matters

• Lost productivity due to cumbersome research tools

• Failure to build customizations for unforeseen circumstances may result in poor customer service

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What modern businesses should consider is a comparableinvestment in a specialized EDI solution, which could:

• Quickly comply with trading partner requirements and realize the efficiencies of automation

• Prevent business costs through supporting your business rules that are too complex for ERPs to handle

• Improve performance with your trading partners by leveraging complete and structured EDI data, ensuring operational compliance with processes such as advance shipment notifications (ASNs)

• Deliver heightened visibility, where ERPs process steps are disconnected

Bottom line—businesses are investing significant time and resources into EDI, but are not realizing the full potential of automation since they’re investing in the development of customizations that compensate for either the deficiencies in their ERP or their existing EDI solution.

THE SOLUTION

Sure, but best in class companies arenow realizing that the true objectiveis to achieve integrated operations,and that requires leveraging data inits native EDI form that complimentsERP information.

See, when you integrate EDI datainto your back office system,you risk the loss of critical detailsof EDI documents. For example,perhaps your ERP package onlysupports a ship date, but yourcustomers provide you ship by,ship no later than, and expecteddelivery dates in their EDI messages.

Losing these types of message details can often lead to new,unplanned IT projects requiring development of custom reporting.This not only increases the total cost of the EDI data integration

project, but also makes your environment more complex, puttingyour most important business relationships at risk.

OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE

DDATA EXCHANGE

OPEROPERAATIONAL EXEXCELLENCE

Connect

Automate Volume

Comply/Collaborate

Apply Intelligent Levers

Automate Integration Rules

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ACHIEVING OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE

EDI projects often stop at ‘connect and comply’ because companies fail to realize the higher-level benefits of process automation, collaboration, and the powerful ability to provide valuable intelligence to business stakeholders.

“The old way of doing things was very manual. We had employees scanning, picking and loggingmaterial by hand, a very labor intensive experience. We achieved total first-year savings andon-going year over year savings of $70,800, and overtimes were reduced by 80 percent.”

—Joe Chadwick, Quality Manager, Tom-Cin Metals

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You get EDI translation and data mapping combined with data management tools in one complete and powerful solution.

INNOVATIONNo company has dedicated themselves more to innovation in the business-to-business space than 1 EDI Source. In fact, our company has been focused solely on helping companies learn and implement business-to-business transactions more effectively for more than 25 years.

INTEGRATIONGo beyond just integration with your trading partners. Through 1 EDI Source, we integrate your entire system including your ERP, warehouse and accounting applications, improving visibility to help you make better decisions. Our experience includes integration with standard ERPs including Oracle, SAP and Microsoft Dynamics. In addition to handling your unique integration needs with a standard ERP, warehouse management systems (WMS) or transportation management systems (TMS) packages, we can also integrate your EDI business with your custom back-office solutions.

MIGRATION PLANNINGOur EDI experts have handled hundreds of migrations from other solution providers facilitating a smooth transition for your internal teams and trading partners.

TRAININGWith 1 EDI University, users can learn how to maximize their investment in EDI/HQ™ through either a comprehensive in- person training facilitated at 1 EDI Source offices, or via monthly webinars scheduled throughout the year.

CUSTOMER SERVICEWhen you choose 1 EDI Source, you immediately receive a dedicated EDI consultant focused on solving problems, answering questions, and overcoming obstacles to achieve goals.

COMMUNICATIONSEstablishing reliable, secure connections with trading partners is critical. Our AS2 Complete solution complies with industry standards making it easy for you to send secure EDI or other data, create and manage certificates, and handle data encryption and decryption.

OUR SOLUTION…EDI/HQ™

EDI/HQ™ software or SaaS solutions from 1 EDI Source, Inc. were specificallydesigned to make managing your EDI tasks easier, more efficient and effective.

Garden of Life integrated EDI with their EBS solution using Oracle’s XML Gateway and quickly became EDI compliant and found significant value in automating the order to invoice process for all trading partners. The manage by exception capabilities of EDI/HQ™

allowed them to maintain low error rates and keep the IT team focused on value-added technology initiatives. Ultimately, Garden of Life was able to support their explosive companygrowth of $145 million in annual revenue while maintaining current staffing levels.

Read more about Garden of Life’s experience by downloading the complete case study at 1edisource.com/casestudies.

“The Oracle integration with EDI/HQ™ was easy, thanks to the intuitive mapping software.”— Kyndall O’Neill, Oracle Support Specialist, Garden of Life

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Every session in EDI/HQ™ begins with your own summary dashboard.Your dashboard provides a quick glance at key data, errors and othercritical events to allow you to dig in for more detail. Choose from a

variety of widgets that you want to appear in your dashboard and customize them to display the information that matters most.

The easy-to-use interface allows you to find what you need and drill into the detail, fast.

Customize your dashboard with a continually growing selection of widgets so you can see what matters most to you.

Start every session with your summary dashboard allowing you to see everything at a glance.

EDI/HQ™ DASHBOARDYour entire EDI operation at a glance.

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EDI/HQ™ is compatible with most back-office systems, including ERPs, WMS, TMS, accounting and other business system solutions. The real-time mapping feature allows you to apply data from actual transactions on the fly. Visualize the results as you go—no need for the “compile, test, compile, retest” approach of other systems. And it can process virtually any format—EDI, XML, delimited and fixed-length, as well as direct SQL integration with ODBC-compliant data sources.

Once your data is mapped, EDI/HQ™ allows you to view both sides of the equation—in your internal format and in the appropriate external format—side-by-side in the innovative EDI/HQ™ “View EDI Data” window. And you get immediate access to specific data or transactions with SmartFilters. Search for specific transactions using an almost endless set of criteria. Save your commonly-used filters for future searches within the “View EDI Data” window, or for use in Dashboard widgets and reports.

DATA MAPPING & INTEGRATIONIntegration isn’t just possible…it’s easy.

Find and review your data quickly and easily with the advanced “View EDI Data” window.

The real-time mapping feature dramatically decreases the time to onboard a new transaction.

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Managing by exception is only possible when you’re aware of the exceptions. That’s why EDI/HQ™ has built in sophisticated alert and logging functions. Sure, it can handle most common communicationsprotocols, but it also notifies you when things go wrong or key events occur so you can take immediate action.

EDI/HQ™ stops errors in their tracks before the transactions are transmitted. The advanced business rule validation allows you to avoid duplicate transactions coming in and duplicate application data going out. Each time this happens, EDI/HQ™ automatically alerts you via email or SMS text message.

Finding and correcting errors is easy with EDI/HQ™. The “View EDI Data” window allows you to view error details and the EDI transaction data simultaneously. You can also add “error” widgets to your Dashboard so you always see them first.

EDI/HQ™ also gives you the power to specify events to trigger automated processes and critical activities. You can schedule EDI/HQ™ to take care of it for you automatically. Set alerts to notify you whenever these key events occur, or add a widget to your Dashboard so you see them every time you log on.

ALERTS & AUTOMATIONStay on top of errors, key events and transactions.

Set triggers to establish when jobs get executed.

EDI/HQ™ handles most common communications protocols including FTP, sFTP, FTPs and AS2.

Configure EDI/HQ™ to handle exceptions on your behalf or leverage advanced alerting to let you know when you need to intervene.

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Complying with trading partner requirements is a constant challenge for any EDI operation. New trading partners are set up automatically from a single inbound or outbound transaction. You can even be alerted every time this happens via email or SMS text messaging.

Once a trading partner is added, simple tools allow you to override settings at the system, trading partner, or document type levels to ensure compliance with minimal effort.

From there, a host of features support the ongoing effort of keeping you and your trading partners on the same page. A built-in ‘ValidationEngine’ ensures that the syntax of all inbound and outbound transactions are correct. ‘Advanced Data Conversion Tools’ allow youto manage how specific terms or other variables in your inbound data are replaced with terms your internal system understands, and vice versa.

Say goodbye to custom programs to update internal versus external part numbers or matching a store number to a shipping address.

TRADING PARTNER SET UPGet connected without getting buried.

See everything about your trading partners and transactions.

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WE’RE FLEXIBLE. CHOOSE YOUR EDI MANAGEMENT OPTION.

On-premise ImplementationTake complete control of your EDI operations.

With EDI/HQ™, you are put in the driver’s seat to manage your EDI operations on your schedule and on your terms. The EDI/HQ™ software solution allows you to deploy the software in your data center with complete control over the infrastructure and management of the environment.

Hosted SaaS SolutionYour virtual EDI SaaS solution, with an emphasis on service.

Leverage a self-service EDI solution without all the IT and security hassles, not to mention those ongoing costs. EDI/HQ™ SaaS combines the power of EDI/HQ™ but is hosted virtually in the cloud. You can exchange data and manage trading partner relationships through EDI/HQ™ without having to install, support or update the software at your location.

Fully Managed EDIComplete EDI solution managed by EDI experts.

Fully outsource your EDI—we can take care of everything including hardware, software, staffing, security, trading partner relationships and more. With 24/7 dedicated support, you’ll achieve higher productivity with lower IT investment, translating in a higher ROI.

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Our IntelligentXchange solution easily puts EDI data at the finger-tips of accounting, finance, customer service and other business stakeholders, minimizing mistakes and decreasing research time.

The software simply clips onto EDI/HQ™ or other legacy EDI solutionsand transforms complicated data into meaningful business milestones and metrics, highlighting significant opportunities to enhance business relationships.

Advantages• Automatically detect operational issues before they cost money• Enhance supply-chain visibility and control• Gain efficiency by enabling business users with self-service tools• Reduce Days Sales Outstanding (DSO) through accelerated

invoice acceptance• Improve profitability by assisting deduction management practices• Browser-based solution supports quick, easy deployment

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WHAT’S NEXT?Once you’ve solved automation,it’s time to drive value throughyour entire organization.

“IntelligentXchange provided instant insight into a pricing issue causing a 5 percent variance on a key customer’s invoices. And1 EDI Source highlighted revenue opportunities,such as an additional $95,000 related to ongoing business and process issues.”

—Laura Keck, VP of Finance, Winston Products LLC

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Weary that EDI was putting a considerable strain on the day to day relationships withkey trading partners, Winston Products took advantage of the free, no-obligationassessment. The findings immediately moved Winston Products to deploy the SaaSsolution of IntelligentXchange.

Read more about Winston Product’s experience by downloading the complete case studyat 1edisource.com/casestudies.

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