The Perils Of Non-Compliance In The Commerce Supply Chain

Non-compliance refers to the failure to act in accordance with a wish or demand. Although this doesn’t infer a repercussion, in business terms, failure to comply with customers EDI requirements can often result in loss of business, damaged relationships and chargebacks.

In stark contrast to the saying ‘ignorance is bliss,’ companies who trade electronically without complete insight into their customers trading requirements run the risk of failing to fulfil orders, losing business and incurring penalty charges. The Mail on Sunday reported that as much as a third of supermarket profits are made up of penalty charges and whilst supplying a supermarket is often seen as the pinnacle of retail trade, each comes with its own challenges. To lower their bottom line and improve profitability many retailers mandate their own set of electronic trading standards which are configured to their needs and which suppliers are subsequently evaluated against. Failure to comply with these rules can represent a serious threat to a suppliers company and in the most extreme cases, terminate contracts.

TrueCommerce’s Fully Managed Service team take ownership of our client’s electronic trading requirements and utilise our extensive experience in connecting both suppliers and customers when meeting each companies Service Level Agreements. Numerous validation rules can be applied to documents such as invoices and can be matched against pre-agreed business rules to ensure that formats and calculations, amongst other things, are correct before they are sent.