NEDIS Connect Quick Start Guide B.N. Vervoort Project Engineer E-Commerce v1.0 1 / 12
Intro From a manufacturer's and distributor s point of view NEDIS is well aware of the shifts occurring in the marketplace. To facilitate the Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) process between our organisation and our resellers the NEDIS Connect Program was initiated. Through this program we aim to deliver the best possible solutions to seamlessly integrate your business processes with ours. Note that the program is always under development since we re striving to provide a full spectrum of integration possibilities for our partners. Using NEDIS Connect will allow you to: Automate your order process Reduce backorders by performing real time stock checks, previous to placing orders Automate incoming dispatch information including Track and Trace Fuel your processes with NEDIS article data Eliminate process defects Reduce the Order-to-Cash cycle Goal of this document: This document presents a general outline of the NEDIS Connect Program. The current available tools and how they can help you optimise your business. By providing real world implementation examples and process overviews it s our goal to be of as much service as possible. 2 / 12
Summary The following services are readily available from NEDIS and are advised to be implemented in the order as presented below. 1 Article Data Every day we publish product information, price and stock details. This information can be imported into your Webshop, ERP system, POS system etc. for sales and comparison functions while improving your processes and decreasing error margins. 2 Real Time Stock Check Prior to automatically sending your orders to NEDIS it is recommended to perform a real time stock check to confirm that the requested article has stock available. By doing so, you will drastically reduce your backorders, while, still being able to offer an alternative product to your customer. 3 Electronic Order By using our e-mail order format you can forward your orders automatically to NEDIS. NEDIS will receive these and process them as always. This saves time on your side while reducing error margins. 4 Dispatch Information When your orders are being shipped, NEDIS communicates an overview of all shipments for your orders into a single file that can be easily imported into your systems. Information includes: Parcel information, quantities shipped and Track & Trace information to track the parcels with the transporter. On the following page a visual representation is displayed of the just mentioned items implemented in an online environment (webshop) using dropshipment. The numbers correspond to the phases as described above. 3 / 12
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Article Data; Know what to sell NEDIS Article Datafeed; What is it? A quick and easy import of all data necessary to start selling NEDIS' products. To successfully sell the NEDIS products we do our best to provide our partners with as much data as possible about our product portfolio. Every night, our product data is being extracted and condensed into an Article Data Feed. These article data feeds can be obtained in 2 different file formats, being: 1 The data feed can be obtained in a simple (plain text) format called CSV file. This format allows to be imported into a spreadsheet application like Microsoft Excel to visualize the data or in any database application. Due to the simple setup of CSV files, all product data cannot be published into a single file hence NEDIS will deliver separate CSV files. These files combined represent the full set of product data currently available. There are files available for article master data, taxes and fees, images and videos and a file for product properties. 2 The other format Article Data is available in, is the XML format. XML is a more complicated but also a more structured format than CSV. Therefore the main product data is contained in a single (XML) file. This makes it harder to implement for non technical people. The following table can be used as a reference and for comparison purposes; Currently available data per filetype: CSV XML Article Masterdata separate file Incl. in main file Rich Content (Images/videos etc.) separate file Incl. in main file Additional Taxes and Fees separate file Incl. in main file Product Properties separate file Incl. in main file Accessories separate file separate file Alternatives separate file separate file Logistical data separate file separate file 5 / 12
Possible applications for the NEDIS Article Datafeeds Webshop Integration For sales For electronic ordering ERP or POS system integration For sales For comparison Information Desk system integration For sales For comparison Visual representation of article data integration and its application 6 / 12
Article Data Implementation Guidelines The following notes have to be taken into account while implementing NEDIS Article Data into your systems Article data feeds are daily files; the articles contained in a feed are the articles that are active for sales on that particular day. The date of publication of a file can always be retrieved from the filename. See the technical implementation manual regarding Article Data for more information. A separate file (OOP-file) is generated everyday containing all articles that have been set inactive for sales. This concerns end of life articles that have gone Out of Program (OOP) or that have been temporarily disabled. When an article is re-activated for sales it will appear in again in the article data feed and disappear from the OOP-file. This file looks back at articles within a 6 month range. A good way to implement the article data feed would be to download the file on a daily basis and use the articles provided as your product portfolio that you have for sale. In this way you ll always communicate only the articles that are also active for sales at NEDIS. Using the OOP-file on a regular basis you can cleanup your databases to make sure all articles are deactivated that are no longer active for sales at NEDIS. Minimum Order Quantities (MOQ); Not all products are available as a single piece item. While using our dropshipment service to ship directly to end users; make sure to always communicate this appropriately to the (end) user or filter out articles with MOQ levels deviating from 1. Additional Taxes and Fees; Products that are energy, media or copyright related might contain additional taxes or fees depending per country. If applicable, NEDIS will communicate the appropriate charges with the products. In the XML version of the article data feed this is included. For CSV, a separate file is available per country with an overview of applicable taxes and fees. 7 / 12
Real Time Stock Check: Reduce Backorders Real Time Stock Check, what is it? It s an electronic service that allows for requesting Price and Availability (stock) of an article at NEDIS. The real time stock check is very useful before accepting an order from your client. Why? Because it allows you to see if there is stock available at the NEDIS warehouses hence preventing backorders and allowing to maintain customer satisfaction. Implementation Guidelines When to use? The check is best used just before accepting an order from your customer (end user) or before posting an order (electronically) to NEDIS. In case of no stock available you can communicate this to the end user and present him with an alternative product. A list of alternative products can also be obtained from NEDIS for more information see the Technical implementation manual. Overview of P&A process 8 / 12
eorder; Automatically forward your orders to NEDIS Electronic Ordering. What is it? A convenient way to automate your order process at NEDIS. Electronic orders (eorders) have been introduced to solve the problems that rise when using the conventional ordering channels; phone, fax or manual emails. Conventional channels delay the process of fulfilling the order, increasing the cost of the total order lifecycle significantly. The main benefits of using the NEDIS eorder system: Can be applied to all businesses (regardless of their size) Shorten the order process and order delivery time Reduction of communication costs for paper, fax, etc.. (decrease cost per order) Time spent, mistakes and costs are minimized due to the elimination of manual processing of orders. (reduce error margin) The order process at NEDIS in short: After an order has been accepted and validated for stock using the Realtime Request it can be placed at NEDIS. Send your orders to NEDIS by using a specific text based email format with a password Use the designated email address for your specific NEDIS sales office to send in your orders Overview of eorder process 9 / 12
Dispatch Information Dispatch Information; What is it? Receive up to date information with parcel and tracking information regarding your orders The logistical process from shipping an order to receiving the order by our partners or their clients (end users) can be made far more transparent by supplying relevant information in each part of the process. When a purchase order is placed at NEDIS and this is order is processed and ready for shipment we communicate the exact details of the shipment. The contents in each parcel and the option to track the parcel over time through the transporter s distribution centre and along the way to its final destination. This data can be used to anticipate incoming orders and allocate the appropriate resources or in case of end user delivery (dropshipment) to keep the person informed about the shipment. Currently available for: NL - BE - LU - DE - ES 10 / 12
Example of detailed shipping information from the transporter s website 11 / 12
Technical Implementation Manual For more information and support of the Nedis Connect services download the implementation manual at: http://www.nedis-connect.com 12 / 12