L’Oréal: EDI Case Study

The world’s largest manufacturer of beauty products, L’Oréal, is in constant growth. The group’s Nordic company therefore simplifies electronic communication with customers, suppliers and business partners in cooperation with TrueCommerce. This is done by implementing VLTrader, which is a flexible piece of technology for ensuring secure communication. VLTrader makes life easier for both the IT department and the users, and it frees resources that can be used for tasks that are more productive.

VLTrader is a solution for safe transmission of all types of documents via the Internet. The solution is based on the AS3 and AS2 standards, but VLTrader also supports a wide range of other forms of communication. The technology has been adjusted for large businesses exchanging large volumes of business documents with business partners.

“We had the need to clean up and simplify our IT-based communication with our customers, suppliers and business partners in order to free resources in the IT department for more productive tasks,” says Anders Juhl Nielsen, SAP Basis Administrator. He makes no secret of his enthusiasm for VLTrader.

“VLTrader is a pleasure to work with. The solution provides an overview of all of the files that we exchange with partners, while giving us a high level of security and, not least, great flexibility”.

Anders Juhl Nielsen highlights the following benefits of VLTrader:

• Security for the transfer of business documents via the Internet.
• Flexibility because it is easy to configure – also for employees without deep knowledge of programming.
• Interface used internally in our organisation is user friendly and easy to customise.
• Easy to document the management, customers and others who has received what and when – All transmissions come with a receipt and the traceability via the underlying database is excellent.
• Easy to integrate into the ERP system – in L’Oréal’s case, SAP.
• The solution is scalable and future-proof.
• Disasters are not a major problem with VLTrader – the solution is Java-based and thus easy to move or recover. Anders Juhl Nielsen has experienced a complete reinstallation in less than 30 minutes.
• When L’Oréal needs to connect new business partners to VLTrader, the company sends a questionnaire which, when completed, provides all of the information that the IT department needs. On the basis of the questionnaire, L’Oréal can very quickly set up a new business partner on VLTrader.

According to Anders Juhl Nielsen, VLTrader represents a balance between a standard solution and a 100% customised solution.

It is not difficult to make adaptations and configurations in VLTrader, but the standard solution is so well thought-out and flexible, that there is no need for major adjustments. This is important so that the IT department does not have to continuously use resources on various adjustments.

It took less than two weeks to go from entering into the contract with TrueCommerce to have the first part of the solution implemented.

At the time of implementation, L’Oréal wanted to have a few adjustments made, and as Anders Juhl Nielsen says, they were made quickly.

L’Oréal plans to use VLTrader as the standard for all communication with external business partners in the future.

“At the moment, we are in the process of outsourcing a major distribution center in Belgium, and we recommend that our outsourcing partner uses VLTrader for communicating with us. The traceability via the underlying database is excellent, and it will be a big advantage for both the outsourcing partner and us if VLTrader becomes the communication standard,” says Anders Juhl Nielsen.