Sage 100 — Cordova Safety Products

Objective

Streamline the fulfillment process by replacing a standalone, legacy EDI system with an easy-to-use EDI solution that integrates with Sage 100 (formerly Sage ERP MAS 90 and 200).

Solution

Implement TrueCommerce Transaction Manager for Sage 100.

Benefits

Made it quick, easy and cost-effective to meet the EDI requirements of major new customers
Completely eliminated a longstanding, two-to-three month invoicing backlog on the day the TrueCommerce EDI solution became operational
Eliminated the need to backup PC-based data, and to purchase and manually update trading partner maps
Made it effortless to track and report on invoicing history

“We’re one of America’s fastest-growing private companies and we recently obtained the licensing rights for Stanley® and Dickies® branded safety products. We wouldn’t be able to keep up with our continued growth without our TrueCommerce EDI solution.”

Printice Kincade
IT Director
Cordova Safety Products

Background

A standalone, legacy EDI system severely hampered invoicing efficiency, wasting time and money while restricting business growth. Cordova Safety Products, a division of International Sourcing Company, is a leading provider of personal protective equipment to major retailers. A service-driven organization that thrives on strong partnerships with its customers, Cordova Safety Products is proud of its proven ability to consistently deliver the diverse, competitively priced merchandise its customers require. Named one of the fastest-growing private companies in the US by Inc. Magazine in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011, Cordova Safety Products is the largest minority wholesale supplier in the hand protection industry.

A lack of integration between its legacy EDI solution and its Sage 100 ERP business system meant that invoicing required considerable manual effort. With more and more partners mandating EDI, Cordova was running two to three months behind on invoicing despite having an employee working full-time to re-key the data.

Driven to Switch

An EDI solution that offered seamless integration with Sage 100 ERP was required to handle the growing volume of EDI transactions and meet the requirements of new EDI customers.

Prior to implementing TrueCommerce Transaction Manager for Sage 100 ERP in 2010, Cordova Safety Products’ invoice posting process required that data for each invoice be entered manually, one field at a time. Each EDI partner had its own invoice template, with little consistency between partners. Data items like SKU numbers and UPC codes appeared in different places on different templates, making the re-keying process even slower, more laborious and more error-prone.

Maintenance of the legacy EDI system also required many manual steps. For example, each time a partner upgraded its EDI template, Cordova’s IT staff had to purchase, install and test it, and then retrain users. Further, the system ran on a single PC, which necessitated a special backup process and increased the risk of downtime.

As the company added more and more EDI trading partners, meeting their requirements became increasingly difficult. “We had to find another EDI solution,” recalls Printice Kincade, IT Director.

A business partner recommended TrueCommerce, whose Professional Services team conducted a live demonstration so Cordova’s team could see first-hand how the integration worked. On that basis, the decision was made to implement TrueCommerce Transaction Manager for Sage 100 ERP.

Cordova’s installation and training process went very smoothly. “The TrueCommerce support team has always been really responsive and impressed us right from the start,” Mr. Kincade adds. “For example, they helped us enhance our purchase order reports and our invoicing in ways we didn’t even know were possible when we bought the solution – that added a lot of value.”

A Complete Transformation

Moving to TrueCommerce EDI immediately eliminated Cordova’s longstanding invoicing backlog and greatly simplified using and maintaining EDI. Mr. Kincade continues: “We went from being sixty to ninety days behind on our invoicing to being 100% up-to-date the first day we began using the TrueCommerce EDI system. With the old solution it took twenty minutes to process an invoice. Now we can do all of them in less than five minutes. We currently average thirty to forty EDI invoices per day, but we could handle hundreds just as quickly.”

The TrueCommerce system is also much more user-friendly. “It’s easy to train someone on it because the screens are logical and very similar between partners,” relates Andrea Wise, Operations and Purchasing Manager. “It’s also simple to track invoicing history if our Accounts Receivable department needs to check on something.”

The new EDI solution is also straightforward to manage and maintain. Cordova uses the on-premise version of TrueCommerce Transaction Manager for Sage 100 ERP, which runs on the ERP server, so a special backup process is no longer required. EDI client software can be installed on users’ desktops as needed, with no company EDI data being stored on PCs.

The TrueCommerce EDI solution is highly reliable as well. “In the time we’ve had the TrueCommerce system we’ve had no downtime issues, ever,” states Mr. Kincade. The TrueCommerce solution also makes it much easier to stay current with trading partner updates. “I get an e-mail from TrueCommerce every three or four days letting me know that one of our partners is updating a form,” Mr. Kincade adds. “Our TrueCommerce Professional Services team does these updates seamlessly, in the background – all as part of our free annual support. That’s a huge time-saver.”

Safely Covered…Now and in the Future

TrueCommerce is a trusted partner that is committed to ensuring success. The Cordova Safety Products team is confident that TrueCommerce can continue to meet their EDI needs as the company grows and relies more and more on its EDI solution as a gateway to its most valued customers. “When one of our salespeople calls me and says, ‘We have a new EDI customer,’ I know without a doubt that TrueCommerce can provide whatever we need,” states Mr. Kincade.

“I can’t express how much easier and better our lives are for changing over to TrueCommerce,” concludes Mr. Kincade.