Are Your Customers' Retail Software Solutions Meeting Supplier Requirements?

VAR MWS & Associates (Gainesville, FL) is small, with two employees, so owner and principal Mike Stanke spends the majority of his time on the road installing his POS (point of sale) solutions. Recently, he had the occasion to stay close to home, working with three suppliers to a large grocery chain. He helped these suppliers meet new EDI (electronic data interchange) requirements from the grocer regarding its accounting and ordering systems. The experience gained by working with EDI has enabled MWS to pursue more business with other suppliers whose customers are implementing EDI.

In MWS' Florida installation, three large deli distributors were using an ordering and accounting system with DOS-based software and paper invoices. Account managers from the distributors would regularly go into the grocery chain's stores and meet with the deli managers. The account managers would see what products had sold, what was still there, what was needed, and how much of it was needed. This information would be used to help the deli managers prepare an order, which was phoned into the distributor. When the products were delivered, the delivery person would bring paper invoices for the store's records. Copies of the invoices were then forwarded from the store to the corporate accounting office for payment.

The grocery chain recently changed this process drastically. Instead of the informal ordering method, the chain instituted an EDI-based system. While account managers are still performing the direct service part of the equation, the distributors are required to use detailed invoicing, entered in advance, through an EDI system. To address these requirements, the distributors went to Cougar Mountain Software (Boise, ID), whose DOS-based version of the accounting program they were currently using. For the upgrade to the Windows version, Cougar Mountain referred them to MWS, which is an authorized training center for Cougar Mountain.

How Cost-Effective Can You Make An EDI Solution?
The grocery chain was asking its distributors to use a software program that could accommodate EDI in a DEX (direct exchange) transfer on handheld computers. With the DEX system, delivery drivers would plug the mobile computers into the deli department's computer system and download the delivery data into the grocery store's system. While a DEX application was developed for Cougar Mountain's Accounting for Windows program, MWS was concerned with the cost the entire solution would present to high-volume distributors. "For the largest distributor, it would have cost approximately $45,000 for 15 handhelds, the software interface, and initial implementation," says Stanke. He went to the grocery chain and asked what alternatives could be incorporated.

As a result of the conversation, the VAR chose to implement a NEX system (network exchange) that sends the information in the same format, but doesn't require handhelds. The Cougar Mountain software has been modified so that, instead of delivery drivers transferring information via handhelds, the order and delivery information is sent directly from the distributor to the customer. When an employee at the distributor enters an order, that employee can choose a menu command to create an EDI file. At the end of the day, the entire batch of orders is sent directly to the grocery store's corporate office via an EDI mailbox.

Expand Your EDI Capabilities Across The Vertical
Stanke says that MWS' ability to understand and integrate EDI solutions has opened doors for the VAR. "In many grocery environments, the EDI capability requirements are the same, or very similar," he continues. "The EDI portion is new for us, but now that we understand it and have a successful installation of the technology, a wide opportunity is opening up for us." In fact, MWS is in touch with three distributors in Texas that deal with a different grocer that has the same EDI requirements. Stanke says that opportunity came through the owner of one of the Florida deli distributors he worked with.