Success Stories

Activant Trading Partner Connect Helps Streamline Processes for Distributor

By Robert Rolfe

Systems Administrator for General Pacific, Inc.

(Based on an unsolicited posting on www.P21list.com)

Most of us have heard of Trading Partner Connect, but do you know what it is? Is it worth the money? I'll try to give you the answers...

What is Trading Partner Connect?

Trading Partner Connect is basically an Internet network of distributors and manufacturers built and managed by Activant. It allows you to get a number of price quotes and lead times for a number of products from other distributors, right from your pricing and availability or ordering screens. This works by using what Activant calls "Item Rationalization." Item Rationalization is the process in which Activant takes a list of products by vendor (you specify which vendors to rationalize) and matches them to other distributors' items using a huge database of UPC numbers and part/catalog numbers from the manufacturer's catalog. This is the process of matching your item A to my item C. Another thing that makes Trading Partner Connect interesting is the fact that you can post your dead stock on it and make it available for all the other distributors on Trading Partner Connect to see even if you don't have a relationship with them. You administer all of your relationships, dead stock, and item rationalizations from the Trading Partner Connect Web site

How does it work?

Exactly how Trading Partner Connect works is probably very complicated to explain, but I will tell you what I know. Basically what I have figured out is that Activant keeps a nice big database of info with everyone's item rationalizations and relationships. When a user goes into a pricing and availability (P&A) screen and looks up a part, right there on the screen it says "***Available on Trading Partner Connect***." The user can hit "F6" for power drill and select "Trading Partner Connect Pricing and Availability." The user is then prompted for the quantity they need and presses enter. Now in the background what happens is your computer sends a request to Activant and says "who do I have relationships for this item with?" then Activant's computer says "company1, company2, and company3." So Activant's computer then tells all of the companies to send you pricing and availability on the item and all the info displays on the user's screen. The same process can be done at order entry time and if you're doing it from order entry and choose one of the company's then it changes the vendor and cost for the item on your order. Most of the requests seem to take from 5-45 seconds to get a response from all of the trading partners, depending on the speed of both companies' Internet connections. That is the basics on Trading Partner Connect ordering and P&A. You can also get order acknowledgements, invoices, and generate payables through Trading Partner Connect for material you have purchased or bought through the network.

How many people are on Trading Partner Connect?

As of March 5, 2002, about 125 distributors were members of Trading Partner Connect. There are also some manufacturers on Trading Partner Connect as well. The number of distributors is actually growing quite rapidly, since when my company joined Trading Partner Connect in December there were only 90 other distributors as members.

The Main Question: Is it worth the money?

It always seems to come down to "How much?" This is a question that each company has to decide on their own. Everyone knows I am not the biggest Activant fan, but they have come up with a good idea here. If you're going to actively use it and get as many items as you can rationalized then YES, it is worth the money. However if you're not going to actively use it, then maybe you should save your money. However pricing for this is different for each company, and if you're using a so I can't give you a price right here on how much it would actually cost you, however, if you're using a current version of Activant Prophet 21 or Acclaim and have a permanent internet connection like DSL or a T1 I wouldn't think that it would be too overwhelming of a price.

Likes and Dislikes...

Some of the nice things that I like about Trading Partner Connect are: Dead stock reduction. P&A responses from multiple companies in less then a minute. Sending and Receiving POs and other documents through Trading Partner Connect is EASY. No more EDI-Modems! Great support from the Trading Partner Connect support team. Installation was quick and simple.

I would include the following dislikes: The initial price can be a little high if you don't have all the hardware you need to set it up. Needed training for the new router from Activant for Trading Partner Connect. Not many electrical distributors, however this is changing and there seems to be A LOT of industrial distributors to setup relationships with. Seems as if a lot of distributors are signed up but not many are ACTIVELY using it everyday.

So those are my main likes, dislikes, and comments on Trading Partner Connect. It seems Activant has come up with a GREAT idea and product. It actually gives a solution to the distributors on some of the biggest problems we have including:

1. Dead stock.
2. Finding P&A info on non-stock and stock items besides from the manufacturer.
3. Getting access to a number of other distributors inventories when you need it

Now the biggest problem I have is: How to get rid of that stupid EDI modem!

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