Boosting Efficiency, Saving Time – The Benefits of EDI Explained

With an annual turnover of £100 million and products available in more than 70 countries, JML is a global market leader in consumer products. Although experienced in EDI, JML’s previous set-up was outdated and no longer fit for purpose. JML made the decision to outsource its EDI requirements to TrueCommerce for a reliable and easy to use solution that would provide scalability for future growth.

BACKGROUND & CHALLENGES
Founded in 1986, JML has grown into a household name, one of the nation’s favourite brands and a world leader in retail screen promotions and TV home shopping over the last two decades. With ambitious plans for further rapid growth, JML’s diverse range of products are found on virtually every high street and in many of the biggest retailers throughout the UK and Ireland.
With over twenty years’ experience of supplying the retail sector, JML had a myriad of EDI solutions, using both web portals and on-premise solutions to trade electronically with its customers. Whilst this set-up enabled JML to meet its customers’ EDI requirements, some of the solutions were unstable, while others were outdated versions that were unsupported, exposing the company to risk. When a new EDI requirement involved invoicing in Euros, something that was not possible with the company’s existing solutions, JML decided to look for a new provider.
“Our unique business model, which combines focused multichannel sales with integrated marketing, media, ecommerce and distribution, has transformed a small family-run enterprise into an international household brand,” said Wayne Crick, Systems Development Manager at JML. “Our previous EDI set up had evolved over many years and due to the age of some of the solutions it was not without its problems. We recognised that as we continued to grow we needed a more reliable and scalable solution that would enable us to consolidate all EDI on to one platform and integrate with our back office system.”

THE SOLUTION
JML had previous experience of the TrueCommerce network through its trading relationship with one of its customers and were impressed with the TrueCommerce solution and service. Following some research into other providers, JML made the decision to consolidate all EDI on the TrueCommerce network.
“Moving all of our EDI requirements to TrueCommerce felt like a natural progression, due to the positive experience we’d had previously. They connected to all of our customers, which did not appear to be the case with some of the other providers we researched, and could handle all the necessary file formats,” said Wayne Crick. “The only additional requirement we had was that we needed to be able to integrate with both our current ERP system, Sage, and our new ERP system, Dynamics 365.”
JML are now exchanging orders, invoices, ASNs, remittances and debits with ten of their key customers, including Asda, Argos and Boots and TrueCommerce are in the process of on-boarding a further ten customers.
“The transition to TrueCommerce has been very smooth,” said Wayne Crick. “We’d expected it to be a painful process; however TrueCommerce’s implementation and onboarding team looked after the majority of the work, which has made it easy for us.”

BENEFITS
Outsourcing EDI to TrueCommerce has provided JML with a reliable and fully automated end-to-end solution for the electronic exchange of documents with its key customers. TrueCommerce’s first class infrastructure and trading partner platform, supported by its leading managed service, gives JML the peace of mind that system issues and errors will not affect its operations.
“We no longer worry about things going wrong, however if we do need assistance the TrueCommerce team are available to help. We receive a consistently high level of support, as opposed to logging a ticket and hoping for the best as was the case previously.” said Caroline Youssefi, Systems Functional Consultant at JML.
JML now benefit from TrueCommerce’s dedicated managed service team who pro-actively monitor the platform to ensure that message validation errors do not affect JML and its customers. The company no longer receives penalties for the late processing of orders, which has consequently led to improved customer relations.
“We also benefit from quicker payments as previously there were delays in receiving payment if there were any issues with our invoices, such as incorrect information or even at a basic level the format of the files,” said Caroline Youssefi. “The TrueCommerce solution now validates that invoices are correct before they are sent to our customers, which has resulted in fewer invoice queries and quicker payments.”
The TrueCommerce managed service delivery model has seen an increase in efficiency and productivity for JML, as staff do not have to spend time resolving issues and can instead focus on their core roles.
“The simple user interface of the TrueComerrce solution has made EDI processing much quicker and easier for the team,” said Wayne Crick. “Previously it could take up to an hour to send a batch of invoices, whereas now it’s completed in a matter of minutes and we can focus on higher priority tasks.”
FUTURE PLANS
As a growing global company JML are likely to receive additional EDI requests as they continue to win new business. As a fully scalable solution, JML can add new trading partners on to the TrueCommerce network quickly and easily. The TrueCommerce team will manage the onboarding process, ensuring all customer deadlines are met, without distracting JML’s IT department from other projects.
JML are keen to maximise the use of EDI to further streamline its supply chain, maximise efficiency and remove paper-based processes entirely. There are plans to reach out to customers who have not requested that they trade electronically to see if they are EDI enabled.

Benefits call out box
• Increased productivity with the elimination of system errors
• Reduced risk with a robust and reliable, outsourced solution
• Reduced IT complexity with a single provider for all EDI requirements
• Increased speed and accuracy leading to improved customer service

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