Retailer Solutions

VersaLex Exchange for Retailers

Many retailers (for example Wal-Mart, Lowes, Target etc.) are eager to reduce or eliminate the high cost of value-added network (VAN) connections for themselves and their suppliers – are rapidly moving from legacy VAN connections to Web-based EDI communications 

As reported in a recent Computerworld article (“Internet EDI Grows Up,” by Robert L. Scheier, January 20, 2003), two developments, in particular, have worked to accelerate the acceptance of Internet EDI

“One is the widespread adoption of AS2, the Electronic Data Interchange Internet (EDIINT) Application Statement 2 protocol. The second is interoperability testing of AS2 products, sponsored by Lawrenceville, N.J.-based Uniform Council Code, Inc. and performed by Fort Worth, Texas-based Drummond Group, Inc.”

AS2 has, in fact, emerged as the new de facto standard for retail EDI communications. In February 2004, Wal-Mart – the world’s largest retailer – switched from a mainframe-based legacy EDI system with traditional bisynchronous supplier-to-host connections to an Internet server requiring AS2-compliant clients. With Wal-Mart’s stamp of approval, the retail industry at large has gained confidence that AS2 will deliver the needed levels of capability and security for effective Internet EDI.

Now, more mid-market companies look to use the experience of retailers such as Wal-Mart to implement their own EDI over the Internet based EDI solutions using products such as the SoftCare/CLEO developed VersaLex Exchange. VL Exchange is targeted at the mid-market (10 to 1,000 trading partner communities). At present, this market is being under-serviced as existing EDI over the Internet Hub solutions are extremely complex “ERP lite” solutions for Fortune 500 companies. On the other side of the market low end “spoke” solutions lack trading partner community management features, which prevent larger users of EDI to effectively manage communications of critical business documents over the Internet.  For the mid-market, VL Exchange provides a robust, easy to use trading partner community management solution with the power to effectively manage and audit the movement of critical business documents over the Internet.

Value Proposition

For Retailers, VL Exchange’s product vision is as a powerful Trading Partner Community Management product designed for retailers to manage the electronic transfer of business documents between themselves and their trading community. It lets a company manage the secure transfer of business documents internally and externally over the Internet, VANs or other specialized TCP/IP networks.

The Benefits

The benefits to implementing VL Exchange for a Retailer are:

• Eliminate monthly VAN fees currently being paid  by both parties of the transaction (sender/receiver) generating an immediate cost savings and hard ROI.
• Automate and manage business processes by enabling dynamic data interchange, generating substantial efficiency gains for retailers and their trading partner community.  
• Reduce Error rates associated with EDI communications using public telephone lines and antiquated communications protocols. 
• Guaranteed “proof of delivery” notification generated by communications using AS2’s Message Delivery Notification specifications. This eliminates disputes on “lost” transactions which affect the bottom line for senders and receivers.  
• Reduce costs to track the movement of business documents from a retailer’s back-end systems to their trading partner community using VL Exchange’s single consolidated “operations dashboard”.