You are probably familiar with this ‘BIG VAN’ claim repeated early and often by the champions of value-added networks (VANs):

‘The advantage of the network is the network itself.’

The claim, like all wide-ranging quotes, is to some extent only relatively true. Its validity depends upon who you are connecting with and how actively you link up with your trading partners. A closer look at the flow of goods and information within your business network will possibly reveal that no single network or VAN can address all your B2B/B2C communication needs.

While EDI and, in some instances, the VAN does help you connect, connecting with all your trading partners translates into a significantly higher ROI.  EDI today means more than simply X12; it means supporting multiple standards, formats, and transactions from X12, UN/EDIFACT, and GS1 XML trade messages to a number of non-EDI formats like JSON, flat files, text files, and proprietary XML message formats.

Read more: The truth behind the “competitive advantage” of value-added networks

EDI also means accessing a diverse set of communication methodologies – like AS2, MFTP, FTP, SFTP, and APIs – each with their own set of variables. While transaction formats and transportation methodologies make EDI more versatile, the complexity of handling such varied data formats and communication methodologies creates its own set of challenges, particularly when you consider the ‘BIG VAN’ value proposition.

The ‘BIG VAN’ value prop proudly claims that all members in your value chain are available on the same network or VAN as yours; while true to some extent, this is not an entirely accurate assessment. A VAN connection is by all accounts handy and, in some cases, necessary to interact with some trading partners. But it certainly is not everything.

The right tool with the right EDI transportation methods delivers far more effectively than ‘BIG VAN’ and at a lesser cost.

The Significance of the EDI VAN Interconnect

The ‘BIG VAN’ claim is largely backed by the EDI VAN interconnect. The interconnect is a tool that helps your value added network communicate with other value added networks and facilitates exchange of EDI transaction documents between connected pairs of trade partners. The more partners you connect with, the bigger the benefit derived from your communication network.

VAN interconnects effectively reduce friction between and among VANs, while also reducing the need for new VANs. The largest of the VANs reduce VAN-related confusion within partner networks by making claims to connect to thousands of trading partners; in effect though, ‘BIG VAN’ highlights the characteristics of EDI under which all EDI solutions and VAN partners operate. 

But what about transactions beyond X12 EDI? 

‘BIG VAN’ and the interconnect rely on a steady stream of ISA and GS identifiers within X12 transactions to move data, without which the ‘BIG VAN’ is about as useful as a cell phone without buttons.  While the VAN connection does handle X12, what about images, APIs, or XML files? These are typically not included in ‘BIG VAN’ offerings and, in most cases, require a different product altogether, adding to your overall cost.

A closer look at the VAN interconnect reveals that the reality of ‘BIG VAN’ is very different from the claim; if the interconnect connects ALL VANs then ALL VANs have the same access to trading partners, which means that ‘BIG VAN’ has a very different concern. ‘BIG VAN’ is concerned that it will inevitably be relegated to the stature of an ‘Ordinary VAN’ and without reservation. 

‘BIG VAN’ makes a big claim and living up to that claim is becoming nearly impossible.  This makes all ‘small VAN’ operators a competitive threat – why else would ‘BIG VAN’ make such claims if not to control and confuse the market? The VAN interconnect and image files remove the confusion from the claim ‘the advantage of the network is the network itself’; what else is there to the reality of ‘BIG VAN’?

The Synergy

Architecturally speaking, an EDI solution is actually made up of three components (or solution layers, if you’ll pardon the expression) – the transportation, transformation, and integration layers. While EDI is very effective when it leverages a ‘VAN’ connection, the VAN component is only a fraction of EDI, less than 30%.

Think about your VAN connection in the same way you think about how your mobile phone functions.  Your mobile phone functions by combining the services provided by the phone manufacturer, an infrastructure provider, and a telecom company; similarly, EDI functions by leveraging the synergy of these component layers to work as a synchronous whole.

Components of the ‘VAN Solution’

• Transportation. Along with VANs, this layer works using many other methodologies such as AS2, MFTP, FTP, SFTP, and APIs. Most of these methodologies have been around for a couple of decades now. Your VAN, in fact, may still be using FTP to connect you with your VAN mailbox; if it is not leveraging FTP, it is likely using AS2. Get in touch with your EDI team representative and ask, they should be able to tell you.
• Transformation. The transformation layer facilitates translation between different (EDI) formats. Formats like X12, UN/EDIFACT, GS1 XML trade messages, JSON, flat files, text files, or proprietary XML messages are transformed into formats that your ERP systems can easily understand and use.
• Integration. In the final layer, the transformed message is available to be consumed by the ERP. API connectors have been introduced in recent years to connect you with your ERP in a normalized way, much like the ODBC connector you may have used in the past.  The integration layer can be an API or a connector like ODBC or ODATA – the main emphasis here lies in providing (a) the route for landing the messages and (b) feedback that lets you know whether the order was rejected or accepted. The latter is the target, which requires the least manual input.

Do More Connections Provide More Benefits?

The key word is ‘choice’. If one network has the potential to provide a competitive advantage, do multiple networks offer even greater benefit?

The quantity of available networks is only one criteria that determines how effective your network is.  Connecting to multiple VANs is, frankly, a drain on resources, particularly when all VANs make use of the same VAN interconnect. 

While there is a need to be mindful of the connections available to your trading partners, using multiple VAN connections to stay in touch makes no sense at all. It is like having two or more cell phones or cable TV subscriptions, particularly when methodologies like AS2, MFTP, FTP, SFTP, and APIs are available.  Many of these options have low or no cost associated with them while VAN costs are subscription based and incur transaction fees that need to be paid monthly, much like that second cell phone that we referenced earlier.

The AS2 Effect

Application Statement 2 (AS2) is used for a reliable and secure transfer of data over the Internet. It provides a direct, unhindered connection with a trading partner and delivers document receipts and real-time tracking without requiring a VAN or a VAN interconnect. Your standard internet connection serves as the transportation layer; it is payload-agnostic, which means you can use the same tool to transmit images and every business has internet connectivity today. 

Unlike a VAN, AS2 does not typically have monthly charges or transaction fees. It reduces the chances of transaction failure by establishing a one-to-one transmission channel, without the need for a middle man, a VAN interconnect, or a ubiquitous VAN. Also, there is a Message Delivery Notification, but more on the MDN at a later time.

Putting It All Together

Now that we have unpacked the ‘BIG VAN’ claim, we can conclude that your EDI solution should provide more than one communication channel, has to be capable of handling a wide range of EDI formats, and MUST integrate smoothly and automatically with your enterprise systems.

We’ve also come to the conclusion that ‘BIG VAN’ cannot support the features that you need without complicating matters with additional software and subscriptions.

That’s why PartnerLinQ is different. PartnerLinQ is not a VAN; rather, it is a highly scalable, dependable, and configurable EDI and B2B communication solution. PartnerLinQ is ‘integration without complication’ that supports integration with Microsoft Dynamics 365 and other ERP systems. It includes an AS2 solution, FTP, MFT, and SFTP and can connect with any VAN, making it the perfect tool for B2B/B2C communication for your EDI and non-EDI partners.

PartnerLinQ also supports API-based ecommerce platforms like Shopify and Magento out of the box, providing your organization a seamless shift between EDI and API integrations; there’s nothing to add and nothing to buy, it’s all in there.

The solution also operates seamlessly between EDI and non-EDI formats – from X12, UN/EDIFACT, and GS1 XML to non-EDI formats like XML and JSON. While there are too many formats to list in a blog, this is a crucial factor that make PartnerLinQ a perfect choice for your EDI, B2B, and API integration and for smooth communication, while decreasing your reliance on ‘BIG VAN.’

The last few decades were marked by widespread adoption of computers quickly followed by automation; in fact, Industry has not stopped advancing since the Industrial Revolution began in Great Britain (Industry 1.0 1760-1840) more than 200 years ago. Now the way we produce, buy, sell, and trade things is undergoing yet another series of changes, perhaps even somewhat of an upheaval.

Modern manufacturers are today enhancing their processes with intelligent autonomous systems powered by digital innovations like Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), and Machine Learning (ML). The once far off dream of smart factories is a reality; we have surpassed the targeted robotic processes and connected systems we once dreamed of and are enabling decisions without human intervention.

Our systems today, with access to more and more data, are growing smarter by the day, ensuring that our world produces more and wastes less. Industry 4.0 is no longer a buzzword, it’s a reality that suppliers and manufacturers across the globe are struggling with, each playing catch-up in a world undergoing a seismic shift.

Connecting to Deliver Experiences

Harnessing the potential of Industry 4.0 means emerging from the operational mindset. Customers today spend less time ‘gathering’ the goods and services they require as they once did and more time enjoying them. The market today is filled with choice and with choices just a few clicks away, they can spend more time on experiences that engage them personally.

Today’s consumer is all about convenience, shopping availability over price. A recent article cites 75% of millennials value experience over things and expect additional utility from the brands they patronize. The experience is derived from the utility offered by access to goods and services. It becomes business-critical for brands to understand evolving customer desires and deliver experiences that delight.

For manufacturers, factors like on-time delivery, responsiveness to demand, and seamless partner connectivity all add up to a memorable brand experience; as a result, organizations need to augment their digital supply chains across here-to-fore traditionally siloed business areas like manufacturing, planning, logistics, R&D, after-sales services, and maintenance.

The digital supply chain seamlessly connects partners along the value chain and enables organizations to fully realize their Industry 4.0 vision by accommodating design, manufacturing, logistics, inventories, and even asset management.  Industry 4.0 means connectivity and it involves wide areas of your business.

Building a Connected Digital Supply Network

Nearly everyone I talk to these days is on a path to building a connected digital supply network; while they are on the same path, the journey towards Supply Chain 4.0 is different for every business. What has become critical is an understanding of the components that make a digital supply chain reliable, flexible, and efficient.

• Customer-Centric Design

The customer needs to be the front and center of all supply chain planning. Organizations with an in-depth connection with the end-client can monitor their behavior and analyze trends and innovate accordingly. Smart solutions and intelligent interfaces capture real-time data on customer behavior from the live environment and help design customer-centric supply chain and manufacturing processes.

The product development process needs to be deeply integrated with this design concept. In fact, the entire demand chain needs to be understood, documented, retained, and related; only then can you have a deep understanding of your Order to Cash, PO to Payment business processes and realize how and where to make improvements.

• Real-Time Visibility

Siloed functional processes affect an organization’s flexibility, leading to long and cumbersome planning cycles. All too often one process ends and another begins, without bringing about an abrupt end to progress between business units.  Seamless communication and synchronized units provide a unified, real-time view of both supply and demand chains. These processes enable optimization of workflows and include inventory and other services once thought to the outside of the ‘norm’. 

Tracking these data, and further still these transactions, helps increase supply chain visibility and productivity, assisting managers and planners to make informed decisions that are based on reliable insight.

• Timely Delivery

Reliable and timely deliveries top the list of priorities for today’s customers and factors in the convenience of today’s consumer demands. Timeliness is a critical supply chain component that can make or break the customer experience; when the customer reaches for your product and it’s not where they expect it, they can very easily reach for another. Whether they’re reaching for a substitute product or another retailer, the outcome is the same; there’s an opportunity cost for your business and the consumer.

Companies that prepare to leverage Industry 4.0 capabilities can streamline logistics, guarantee better delivery experiences, and reduce out of stock conditions with seamless communication. Warehouses can monitor storage conditions, optimize delivery schedules, and quantify inventories and reorder points, which are often tragically overlooked.

By simply looking ahead to real-time weather and traffic updates with connected vehicles, we can adapt to the best routes based on supply and demand activities and ensure our products and services reach their intended targets on time, every time.

A Digital Supply Chain for Your Next-Gen Intelligent Enterprise

While the ‘chain’ metaphor explains the underlying utility of a supply or demand chain – connected and sequential – it simultaneously depicts a sense of flexibility and strength. The ‘chain’ implies a connection from one point to the next. The business environment today also requires responsiveness and agility which cannot be ignored.

Today’s digital supply network needs real-time insights that drive supply chain visibility, supply chain planning, communication, analysis, and execution – an orchestration of interactions across all critical business units, which is no longer a chain but more of a continuous strap. While the chain metaphor persists, the links previously used to identify business units fades into the background emerging as one continuous loop through which a truly flexible organization enables work and data to flow seamlessly across functional areas. This allows quicker issue detection and resolution, effectively reducing operational and financial risks.

Intelligent technologies power intelligent enterprises; when these are combined as a synchronous whole as they exist in Industry 4.0, they dramatically improve an organization’s ability to navigate the digital economy of today and deliver an experience that exceeds customer expectation.

We’re not quite sure what’s going to happen with retail in the future and we certainly learned a lot in 2020.  Together we learned about retail, about our businesses, and about our supply chains. We learned about control and that we may not have had as much control over our supply chains as we once thought. The transparency and visibility into our networks were far less than we had imagined, and we learned that while today may look bright and sunny, dark clouds could easily occlude the light.

Regaining Control to Drive Customer Experience

While the retail world scrambles to respond to the ‘new normal’, it is a time to look back at all that happened and analyse if we could have done things differently.  The one positive to emerge from 2020 was the lessons to be learnt from the pandemic’s impact on the retail supply chain. Large-scale disruptions highlighted key areas for retailers to focus on for improving their business models. Modern retailers must now turn the lessons learned into opportunities and as motivators to chart a course to the future.

Many of the opportunities for improvement relate to areas of business where customers are indirectly impacted, such as partner-to-partner alignment and communication as well as processes like transaction management. These behind-the-scenes areas have a broad impact and could greatly benefit from automation, which became apparent during last year.

Streamlining manually intensive processes is another area that could benefit from the lessons learned in 2020. Executing on these opportunities and others serve to free up time, energy, and resources bringing focus on more strategic tasks.

Retailers of today need systems that generate more accurate forecasting, compelling pricing, and efficient sourcing. Enterprises with clear view of their inventories, customers, and business processes will effectively harness these operational advantages to drive greater internal efficiencies and enhance their customer’s experiences.

The Need for Transparency and Visibility

The restrictions placed on businesses great and small as a result of the pandemic led to prioritization of short-term and tactical strategies and short terms fixes such as activating alternative sources and injecting more capital into broken processes to prevent further disruption. These interim solutions to larger issues require additional visibility into the supply chain, which most organizations lack. 

When visibility is limited, demand, inventory, and supply chain data remain dispersed or siloed. While legacy data integration solutions can unify information from different systems, the process involves a lot of time and cost and must be repeated as the business evolves.

A growing number of organizations function on a global scale and deal with widespread and complex supplier networks, which they need to track precisely. In addition, retailers need to address customers’ demands for rapid order fulfilment, curb-side deliveries, and an evolving regulatory landscape when it comes to traceability and transparency.

Today’s retail organizations require a unified supply chain solution that delivers a comprehensive view of the supply chain, is auditable, and includes history and traceability. Organizations have a growing need for end-to-end and in-depth visibility to generate granular data sets, which can then be leveraged to provide actionable intelligence and insight into what the future may hold. Insight leads to better anticipation of supply-side challenges and enable real-time decision-making in the face of challenges, opportunities, and market conditions.

The Modern EDI for Integrated Communication

PartnerLinQ provides a digital supply chain connectivity solution that supports diverse file formats across your trading partner network, while also providing seamless integration between ERP, WMS and TMS platforms and ecommerce platforms, digital marketplaces, B2B portals, and social channels.

It uses intelligent EDI processing and unique field-mapping techniques to automatically reconcile data formats and dramatically reduce onboarding time, allowing customers to derive immediate benefits from a direct communication channel. As an end-to-end supply chain connectivity solution, PartnerLinQ puts you in complete control of your business by providing increased flexibility, full visibility, and deep integration.

PartnerLinQ for Centralized Control and Visibility

PartnerLinQ was designed for rapid implementation, scalability, and flexibility. This makes it the perfect data interchange solution for any organization. It supports both VAN-based and direct-to-partner connections and gives businesses the freedom to choose multiple methods of implementation at the same time and on the same platform.  

A centralized management console allows organizations to easily monitor performance, identify transaction errors and their causes – whether API, CSV, EDI, JSON, XLS, or XML – and generate statistics on the progression of their inbound and outbound transaction sets.

PartnerLinQ can also generate alerts when an event occurs and alert your team to high-priority customer interactions, helping rectify errors the moment they occur and keep key customers satisfied. The strength of a modern business lies in the scale and depth of visibility across its supply chain network. A digitally connected supply chain helps you regain control by leveraging communication across upstream and downstream channels.  PartnerLinQ’s unified supply chain solution brings together partner setups, document exchange configurations, API support, and business rules within one robust platform to enable informed decision-making and mitigate whatever the future may bring.

The Importance of a Connected Supply Chain

As we put a highly turbulent year behind us, there is one lesson that businesses will take with them into 2021: be prepared for the unexpected. The chain of events that will forever define 2020 impacted businesses across industries and around the world.

The pandemic took nearly every business by surprise, regardless of scale, sending waves of disruption across most supply chains. Supply chain in general nearly came to a grinding halt due to global lockdowns and subsequent changes in consumer behavior and demand. This consequently impacted factory output, with nearly every warehousing and transportation company finding their operations, their businesses, themselves, and their families at risk.

We’re all consumers at some level and depend on supply chain leadership. Supply chain leaders have to constantly lift, shift, and adjust plans; they have to be prepared for the predictable and the unprecedented. Labor, infrastructure, cybersecurity, natural disasters, even weather and fuel, contribute to transportation disruptions.

The entire nature of the supply chain has changed with 2020, resulting in a different focus for every participant. There’s a noticeable shift from focusing on savings to increasing velocity, with an increased focus on agility and survival  – survival by way of developing collaborative and connected supply chain networks that deliver on expectations.

Focusing on Supply Chain Connectivity

A successful supply chain strategy delivers increased responsiveness and intelligence, which fuels informed decision-making and, with a modicum of luck, leads to success. Focusing on some key areas can enhance supply chain connectivity and equip enterprises to deal with what the future holds.  Electronic Data Interchange or EDI is one of those key areas.

Visibility

Businesses that rely on outdated processes and disparate IT systems across their supply chain operations struggle to deliver efficiency, responsiveness, and insights – all of which are now imperative for prolonged success. The lack of real-time access to information reduces visibility, which in turn limits the ability to respond to supply chain risk. These risks are amplified when not identified as such, or are wholly unprecedented, as the case with 2020.

A digitally connected supply chain, on the other hand, offers businesses a way to leverage communication and access the insights required to meet customer expectations, something that is just not possible with a paper-based process, or one that is highly dependent on human interaction.

Managers can more efficiently and effectively manage supply chain operations when they can see the data and understand what’s going on in near-real time. Deep insights and real-time information keep supply chain decision-makers on point at a place where they can improve performance.

Flexibility

While visibility is the starting point that provides insight, supply chain managers also need flexibility. Flexibility is what it takes to get the job done when an opportunity does present itself.  If you had visibility into the future, you might have bought into Bitcoin. If you were charting supply chain events during 2020, you would have noticed ripples.

A run on frozen food when people were asked to remain at home had a predictable impact on refrigerated food products weeks later, when an overburdened grocery supply chain struggled to resupply frozen food products.

Nearly the same impact was observed with the production of paper products where carriers transporting finished goods were repurposed to carry raw materials, not even making a dent in the overall supply of finished paper until very recently. Lastly, there’s an oversupply of hand sanitizers and a shortage of ordinary alcohol throughout the supply chain today.

Look carefully and opportunity presents itself in these scenarios again and again; insight is what drives supply chain managers to capitalize on these opportunities.

Integration

Integration of suppliers, customers, and other partners has become a critical component following visibility and flexibility; one can only be as flexible as your supply chain connectivity solution allows.

Suppliers, customers, and other partners often rely on different communication standards, data formats, and integration methodologies for consistent connectivity and communication. The result is a very intricate and complicated web of B2B and B2C networks.

While electronic data interchange (EDI) may be a preferred method of supply chain connectivity and communication, today’s competitive landscape is very different than yesterday and will be even more different tomorrow. B2B and B2C interoperability requires real-time collaboration, end-to-end visibility, and an increased flexibility among supply chain partners.

Taking Control of Your Network with a Digital Supply Chain Connectivity Solution

PartnerLinQ’s unified supply chain solution delivers end-to-end digital connectivity for your enterprise at the speed of business. It puts you in complete control by providing increased flexibility, full visibility, and deep integration into the enterprise where you need it. PartnerLinQ is a complete supply chain connectivity solution that seamlessly integrates your multi-tier global networks, channels, and marketplaces to your enterprise.

Backed by more than 25 years of integration expertise, PartnerLinQ ensures that you have a resilient and connected supply chain capable of overcoming the challenges of today and the unexpected threats of tomorrow. Purpose-built for B2B and B2C communication for your EDI and non-EDI trading partners alike, PartnerLinQ delivers true integration without complication.

• PartnerLinQ enables frictionless partner onboarding as it is easy to use, configure, and maintain.
• Centralized business rules, reporting, and alerting ensure that your team is instantly aware of any issue, allowing them to take action right from the home screen.
• Hosted on the cloud, PartnerLinQ ensures infinitely scalability and capability to process thousands of transactions per hour. There’s no hardcoding and nothing else to buy – it’s all there.

PartnerLinQ digitally connects you and your partners to bring seamless communication, unparalleled agility, and superior operational intelligence to your fingertips. It will empower you to take complete control of your supply chain network and overcome the disruptions of today and those no one saw coming. If a unified supply chain solution is what you expect from your EDI platform, talk with our experts. 

In football, a good team chemistry is key to gaining a winning advantage over the opposition. Your opponents, on the other hand, will pull out all the stops to stand in between your team and victory. In such a fast-paced game with continuous movement, the players are in a constant struggle to maintain balance between defence and attack. Communication and collaboration are critical, and separate the champions from mere contenders.

Similarly, the fast-paced business environment demands a lot of movement on and off the field. Just like a champion team, businesses rely on key players and a healthy supply chain. Across procurement, production, distribution, and sales, strong collaboration and clear communication help tackle changing market conditions, thus playing a key role in surpassing customer expectations.

As market complexities increase and customer needs and expectations change, so too does the frequency and severity of supply chain disruptions.

Causes Leading to Supply Chain Disruptions

Here are some causes of supply chain disruptions:

• Unexpected business interruptions
• Raw material and labor shortages
• Transportation network disruptions
• Natural or environmental disasters
• Geopolitical instability
• Telecommunication or electric infrastructure failures
• Cyber-attacks and other disruptions to IT infrastructure and services

The differences between local and global supply chain disruptions can no longer be measured in mere degrees. As your business, like thousands of others, is more interconnected and dependent on trading partners than ever before, global disruptions affect a wide range of business functions and require innovative solutions.

Disruptions Due to the Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc across world economies and the impact was felt by every business, both on the supply and demand side. Factory output slowed or stopped entirely, warehouses and transportation companies operated far below capacity or closed down, and productivity dipped, mirroring a shallow drop in consumer demand.

Some estimates indicated a 20% decline in consumer demand and recovery is expected to take months.

Below, we highlight a few examples of how different business teams were affected by the most recent global supply chain disruptions.

• Suppliers – You need carriers and trucks to get your products to the market. These carriers need to be integrated with your enterprise systems to receive messages such as load tenders. Suddenly your connection is disrupted and getting them re-connected takes time with your present EDI solution – time that you don’t have.
• Retailers – Your stores have been closed and you need 3PL providers to ship your products directly to customers. You have no experience with direct-to-consumer shipments and have no idea where to begin integrating. Everyone you talk to is an expert with their own solution.  But you need to sort this out and integrate several shipments with the factor of time working against you.
• Logistic Services – Your services are in high demand and customers are interested in doing business with you. Your team has been integrating customers one at a time for years without a problem. Now you face an onslaught of new customers. Your team is currently working from home and is unable to integrate them quickly enough.
• Food Service – Restaurants are closed for dine-in and your sales have been impaired. You know that orders are being distributed directly to customers through telephonic ordering and 3PLs. Going direct-to-consumer will work, but you need to get there first.

Consequences of Supply Chain Disruptions

Decrease in Profitability

Supply chain disruptions are more likely than ever to adversely affect the short- and long-term profitability of your business with losses in market share and sales. Are you prepared to capitalize on market demand outside of your normal business operations?

Loss of Productivity

Supply chain disruptions also negatively impact the productivity and utilization of assets. The firm may end up with excess inventory for some products and experience stock-outs and backorders for others. Equipment over-utilization and under-utilization is likely, which could lead to poor asset and inventory performance.

Retailers are taking the brunt of it. With numerous big retail companies closing down their stores, they are struggling to sell out overstocked inventories.  Are you ready to trade quickly with new partners?

Diminishing Customer Loyalty

When customers are unable to get what they want and when they want it, they will go elsewhere. This is exactly what you did when you changed shops to get the goods that you needed for your family. As an outcome, your loyalties may have changed. Different brands, different stores, and different locations have all become part of your normal routine.

Much the same can be said of your customers. Have you been able to provide them with the same level of products and services? Could you scale up to provide new goods and services and gain new customers? If not, what stopped you?

Increase in Costs

Disruptions can increase the costs associated with expediting, premium freight, obsolete inventory, additional transactions, storage and moving, selling, and penalties paid to the customer. Also, the loss of reputation and credibility associated with disruptions may require firms to increase their marketing expenses to reinstate their credibility and reputation. Additionally, raising capital can be more expensive as investors ask for a higher premium to lend to firms whose credibility and reputation is questionable.

Factors Exacerbating the Effects of Global Supply Chain Disruptions

Inefficient Communication

Supply chains change and so do trading partners. So as a product moves from origin to destination, it is increasingly important for all stakeholders to have a digital supply chain connectivity solution that knows where the product is and who has interacted with it.

It becomes increasingly difficult to stay on the same page without a well-planned communication channel. How else would businesses know that best practices and important policies are being followed?

Poor communication leads to untimely deliveries, or worse, deliveries that cannot be made. This leads to a slowdown in other activities, further impacting your customers and your business. The associated costs run far beyond poor customer experience and negative brand recognition and reputation.

Electronic communication through EDI is particularly efficient. Sending load tenders to your carriers faster than your competitor ensures getting your products to market and attending to tomorrow’s pickup. EDI processes automatically create, transform, and transmit transactions as they occur – this is far more efficient than old manual processes involving phone calls and emails, and a walk next door to accommodate.

Slow Response to Technology

In an age where you can order from Amazon, receive an instant response, and get a package the same day, are your processes taking all day? E2E visibility, transparency, and agility all add up to drive a lean and responsive supply stream.

Technological innovations like Big Data and Internet of Things are reported to be crucial to a company’s success story. Do you still rely on error-prone manual processes and is your business slow to respond to rapid technological advancements? Are you facing rising labor costs, retiring workers, older technologies, inefficient service delivery, and reduced transparency?

Consider the case of the frozen food industry in the US. Restocking of frozen food requires refrigerated transport containers called REFERs. When frozen food were flying off the shelves, retailers sought to restock them and in short order. The result was a shortage of refrigerated containers, which impacted the supply chains of other refrigerated products like milk, cheese, and meat. When there are no refrigerated containers available to bring the produce to markets, the supply chain is impacted and so are customers.

EDI is the Answer

Supply chain disruption means (1) you cannot operate at peak efficiency when you interact with your trading partners, and (2) you are unable to act quickly to seize an opportunity or overcome an obstacle when that time comes.

So how can EDI help your supply chain and boost recovery?

Think of it in terms of an off-season transfer by recruiting a new player for your team. A unified supply chain solution helps you address local disruptions as well as widespread ones like that following the COVID-19 outbreak. EDI provides visibility into what your customers want, what your suppliers have to offer, and where your goods are in the middle of uncertainty.

Exchanging business data with trading partners and organizations does not have to be expensive or technically challenging. Many EDI solutions charge by transaction, discouraging smaller partners from establishing critical lines of communication. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

If your current EDI solution fails to scale, has trouble with high volumes, or is becoming sluggish under peak loads, there is another way.

PartnerLinQ: A Unified Supply Chain Solution

PartnerLinQ’s digital supply chain connectivity solution helps you overcome all your challenges related to supply chain disruptions. With the following key features, it is the perfect tool for B2B communication for your EDI and non-EDI trading partners alike:

• Pre-installed and easy to use and maintain
• Simplifies onboarding process with easy configuration and business rules
• Supports robust, multi-user, ‘log in anywhere’ access
• Maintains a wide variety of standards and formats
• Increases throughput by scaling to thousands of transactions per hour
• Supports real-time error detection and ‘fix on the fly‘ remediation
• Provides built-in access to leverage various transport protocols
• Keeps users informed with a real-time dashboard and detailed reports
• Includes an AS2 solution

With PartnerLinQ, it’s all included; there’s nothing else to buy.

Conclusion

When your supply chain runs at peak efficiency, your business operates better and is more likely to overcome supply chain disruptions. An easy-to-use, easy-to-deploy, reliable, secure, and unified supply chain solution will help your supply chain prepare for the next disruption and make sure that you come out on top.

Discover PartnerLinQ and PartnerLinQ will help you discover the value of frictionless EDI. Talk with our experts and see it for yourself.

Managing an organization is a constant juggling act across finance, sales, operations, HR, and other departments. ERP systems help keep important business data in one place, ensuring it’s safe, organized, and accessible.

Time is Running Out for Businesses that Still Use Dynamics AX

Dynamics AX is a legacy ERP solution that was offered by Microsoft for mid-sized to large organizations beginning in 2008. Mainstream support for Dynamics AX 2009, 2012, and 2012 R2 ended in 2018, while mainstream support for Dynamics AX 2012 R3 will end in 2021.

Beyond October 2021 Microsoft will no longer accept support tickets or release feature updates. And once extended support ends in 2023, Microsoft will no longer release bug fixes or security patches! In this scenario, upgrading to Microsoft Dynamics 365 appears to be the best course of action for businesses that still use Dynamics AX.

How does such a change affect supply chain connectivity for your organization? Continue reading to find out how Dynamics 365 stands in comparison to Dynamics AX, and how PartnerLinQ can help your organization avoid business disruption as you transition to a modern ERP platform.

Key Advantages of Microsoft Dynamics 365

As a cloud-based platform, Microsoft Dynamics 365 offers a simpler way to access your information anywhere, from any device. With an on-premises Dynamics AX, providing global access to business information wasn’t as straightforward.

For example, users situated thousands of miles from your Dynamics AX datacenter could experience performance issues. Dynamics 365 is hosted on Microsoft Azure Cloud datacenters across the globe and isn’t affected by large distances or disparate workgroups accessing the same system.

PartnerLinQ and Microsoft Dynamics

PartnerLinQ is a robust, scalable, and complete EDI integration solution that bridges the gap between modern and traditional EDI. As a fully managed cloud solution, it operates seamlessly with Dynamics 365 to consolidate data from disparate endpoints, perform data validation, and provide error alerts in a single management console.

PartnerLinQ provides flexible, secure, and cost-effective data interchange, freeing businesses from legacy systems that suffer from multiple limitations. It also allows you to connect with multiple ERP systems right out of the box; so while transitioning from Dynamics AX to Microsoft Dynamics 365, you can connect with both during the transition.

With native support for multiple AS2, VAN, and direct-to-partner data formats and standards, prebuilt API connectivity with leading ecommerce providers, and an extensive business rule library, PartnerLinQ can reduce your partner onboarding time by as much as 75%.  It can be deployed as an on-premises or SaaS cloud solution depending on your operations, current ERP platform, and business requirements.

Working with Microsoft Dynamics, PartnerLinQ provides a single, real-time view of transaction volume, errors, and other statistics for all inbound and outbound transactions. These real-time analytics help your organization identify issues, pinpoint their root cause, and prevent chargebacks that can severely impact operating margins.

PartnerLinQ makes it easy to drill down and view details for a specific trading partner or transaction error and make corrections. It also allows users to generate custom reports using a wide range of metrics and performance indicators.

Should I Migrate from Dynamics AX to Dynamics 365 to Use PartnerLinQ?

While upgrading to Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a smart digital investment for most businesses, upgrades can take several months. But you can benefit from PartnerLinQ while you’re still using Dynamics AX.

For businesses that use either Dynamics 365 or Dynamics AX, PartnerLinQ works out of the box in most EDI integration scenarios. It can integrate simultaneously with both versions, which helps ensure continuity of EDI operations during an upgrade of your ERP system. Since you can use a single PartnerLinQ license with both Dynamics AX and Dynamics 365 at the same time, you don’t have to worry about licensing when you upgrade.

So you need not wait until after your ERP upgrade to address your supply chain connectivity needs. Start using PartnerLinQ today and then migrate to Microsoft Dynamics 365. Our solution helps you transition to your new platform seamlessly.

Conclusion

Many organizations across retail, ecommerce, wholesale, distribution, and other industries are already using PartnerLinQ, which has become a cornerstone for many operations across their modern B2B architecture. Whether you’ve already upgraded or are just beginning your transition planning, there’s no need to wait. Enhance your global partner communication capabilities today with PartnerLinQ. Get in touch with our experts to begin your journey.