Logistics technology: SPS Commerce upgrades online EDI platform

Jeff Berman, Senior Editor -- Logistics Management, 11/2/2007

MINNEAPOLIS—SPS Commerce, a provider of software-as-a-service Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) technology, recently announced it has rolled out several upgrades to its Web-based B2B integration platform, SPSCommerce.net.

The company said that these changes center on easing the exchange of information between third party or remote factories and warehouses. It added that based on packing rules defined by a supplier, these different locations can receive accurate packing and shipping instructions online, print and affix barcode labels on site and send a completed shipping notice on behalf of the vendor to a retailer. SPS also said that by enabling these tasks to be conducted at a manufacturing location—rather than at its offices—vendors can reduce days or weeks from its supply chain cycle.

SPS Commerce Chief Strategy Office Jim Frome told Logistics Management these enhancements are a direct result of market demand.

“What we see today is companies doing more of two things: outsourcing fulfillment tasks to…3PLs, sourcing companies, factories in Asia, expeditors, consolidators, freight forwarders, product Q&A, and factories,” said Frome. “[The other thing] is globalization. Increasingly, the tasks listed above are also being done in Asia—particularly China.”

And the subsequent result of outsourcing and globalization has created challenges for consumer package goods (CPG) companies, in terms of keeping everybody involved in fulfilling orders to their customers and being on the same page for a given order, added Frome. He added that outsourcing and globalization has created challenges around empowering the organization that is best able to send the electronic visibility signal to a CPG company’s customers associated with the related fulfillment task.

“In most cases, the 3PL is the best firm to send an advanced shipping notice (ASN) and/or print and affix a bar code since they are the ones most closely associated with the tasks of picking, packaging, and selecting carriers,” said Frome.

The typical end users for SPSCommerce.net, noted Frome, are those directly involved in documenting the shipments once put together and selecting the carriers. 

“Rather than documenting and then sending it off the their CPG customer so they could use the information to product, the ASN and labels that need to be sent to the retailer,” he said.  “They are provided direct, but controlled access to the CPG firm's B2B integration or EDI system to produce the ASN and labels on behalf of the CPG firm.”

Aside from time savings, Frome explained that there are other benefits to the platform’s upgrade.

“Because it is delivered via a SaaS model, [this platform] reduces the challenge of implementing a solution that involves many players, in many locations across many geographies,” said Frome.  “Separate "footprints" of an application are no[t] needed.” 

And he also pointed out that the platform is architected using a "multi-tenant" approach, which is common among SaaS offerings, expalining it is much easier to ensure reliability of the information, as well as “guarantee one single version of the truth,” because everything is automatically synchronized.

“In many ways, the daily improvements realized by shippers and end users will be an improved set of assumptions, data and information to operate from, as well as a more efficient way to perform the integration task associated with the physical fulfillment task on behalf of their CPG customers,” said Frome.