B2B and SAP at Work
Automotive Supplier
Company Overview: This Tier 1 Automotive supplier is one of the largest in the industry. They supply all the major OEMs and have nearly 3000 trading partners around the world, including emerging markets such as Brazil, China and Eastern Europe. After being divested from their parent company they needed to establish their own B2B environment as soon as possible.
Business Issues: The company needed to reduce operational costs across their business globally as a result of being divestited and the need to compete in a tough economic environment. To improve operational efficiencies they also wanted to integrate their B2B platform to a new e-payments solution and an SAP based ERP system which was being deployed globally. It was important for the company to have one common view of information as it flowed across their extended enterprise.
SAP/B2B Project Description: This company chose GXS Managed Services to implement over 600 maps and provide connectivity to 3000 trading partners around the world. Following divestiture they had limited internal IT resources and they wanted GXS to provide full integration to SAP to allow the publication of IDOCs. Their IT resources were fully occupied in rolling out their new SAP environment and they needed additional resources in order to maintain the day-to-day management of their B2B environment. GXS in effect became an extension to the company’s own IT department. GXS slo provided a dedicated program manager to look after the Managed Services project ensuring that it was deployed on time and to budget.
Clothing Manufacturer
Company Overview: This company is one of the world’s leading apparel manufacturers. They design, source and manufacture a range of leading clothing brands. Their company consists of six major apparel divisions and their products are distributed and sold via a network of over 200 leading retailers around the world.
Business Issues: The company had limited resources to manage the implementation of a new global SAP environment whilst managing their existing B2B platform. They work with a diverse range of leading global retailers and wanted to improve the integration and efficiency of their global supply chain.
SAP/B2B Project Description: GXS Managed Services helped to integrate their B2B and SAP platforms across the six divisions of their business. The project was complex due to the fact that it was truly global in nature. GXS provided mapping resources to create 280 maps and also converted a number of EDI documents into SAP IDOC format. GXS also implemented AS2 connectivity to the company’s major customers around the world and managed the migration of EDI transactions from their incumbent VAN provider.
Automotive Aftermarket Parts Retailer
Company Overview: This company is a non-franchised retailer of national and own brand automotive products. They operate 200 retail stores in Australia and New Zealand, offering nearly 10,000 products. They have nearly 700 suppliers and ten agents in China representing 300 factories.
Business Issues: They needed to find a cost effective way to manage their ever expanding supply chain and product offerings. They wanted all documents to be transmitted electronically across their supply chain and to improve integration to their SAP based ERP system.
SAP/B2B Project Description: GXS Managed Services was deployed to manage the on-boarding of 700 suppliers and GXS Intelligent Web Forms services was rolled out to their trading partner community to help automate their manual based processes. Integration to their SAP environment allows them to transmit purchase orders and other forms of IDOC documents. The SAP IDOCs are then translated to XML format for transmission to Chinese shipping agents. XML is widely used across Chinese based companies and for their on-boarding project to be a success they had to ensure a seamless interface between their SAP and B2B systems. GXS has not only helped to automate this company’s many manual based processes but has also helped to improve how they work with their Chinese trading partners on a daily basis.