L.I.T.TOOLKIT
‹ CONTINUED FROM PAGE 179
ative. As a “cooperative franchise,” her business operates the stores under the Johnstone name, and purchases most of its inventory from the co-op, but Kalmbach owns and runs her business independently. Kalmbach started working with Transcepta not to accommodate a large customer, but to make her own opera- tion more efficient. That desire gained special urgency this year as the busi- ness expanded from two stores to four. “We hope the main store can con- tinue to provide support functions for the two new stores, and my goal is to accomplish that with as few hires as possible,” Kalmbach says. She originally considered developing electronic invoicing capability in- house. “But I never tackled that project because it involved software enhance- ments I didn’t have time to undertake,” she says. Instead, Kalmbach began using Transcepta’s Electronic Invoicing Community in March 2007. It was worth a try because the relation- ship came with no strings. “It did not involve a contract and I did not have to pay any up-front fees,” she explains. EDI NOT FOR EVERYONE Transcepta designed its Electronic Invoicing Community for buyers and sellers such as Johnstone Supply that can’t benefit from either electronic data interchange (EDI) or Web-based invoicing systems. For large trading partners, EDI offers a viable way to exchange invoices. But many compa- nies find that technology too difficult and expensive. Some buyers use e-invoicing solu- tions to establish online portals where small suppliers submit invoices. That’s fine for vendors that send out only a few invoices per month. But for com- panies sending hundreds or thousands of invoices, it is not practical to key all those billing details into a Web page, Haq says.
On the buyer side of its Electronic Invoicing Community, Transcepta often works with one of several third-party firms that sell accounts payable work- flow software. That partner determines which data format the buyer’s ERP sys- tem needs, and decides which electronic transmission method Transcepta should use to deliver that data. SEALING THE DEAL Once the format is settled, Transcepta begins signing the buyer’s suppliers onto the network – a sales effort on its part. One incentive Transcepta employs
buyer – in whatever format the buyer specifies – via file transfer protocol or another transmission method. To bill the customer, vendors use their regular software–a sophisticated ERP system or simple Quickbooks, Excel, or Word files – to produce invoices just as they always have. But instead of sending those invoices to a physi- cal printer, vendors select the virtual printer to send them to Transcepta. Besides making the process easy for vendors, Transcepta sweetens the pot by offering value-added services. For example, although Transcepta might first approach a vendor on behalf of one of its major customers, that ven- dor might want to automate the invoicing process for other customers as well. Some of its customers likely cannot receive invoices via direct elec- tronic transmission. But they might be happy to receive them via e-mail or fax, while others continue to insist on postal delivery. For the vendor, keeping those preferences straight could entail a good deal of work. Transcepta helps vendors avoid that confusion. Vendors hit “print” and transmit their entire invoice stream to Transcepta. It then determines which buyers should receive their invoices via direct electronic transmission, e-mail, fax, or postal services. It uses a mailing house to deliver paper copies. GETTING THEIR FEET WET Many vendors get their feet wet with the service by outsourcing to Transcepta the delivery of hard-copy invoices. That service first attracted Kalmbach and her Johnstone Supply stores. Soon, though, Transcepta started to approach Johnstone’s customers about converting invoice transmission to e-mail or fax. Kalmbach sent her first invoices through Transcepta at the end of March, and soon after, Transcepta started the campaign to wean customers from postal delivery. The company worked with Kalmbach to switch almost 50
Transcepta’s technology lets it
to seal the deal is to make implementa- tion as painless as possible. “Our technology allows us to install vendors over the phone and over the Web,” Haq says. “We don’t have to go on-site and install software; we typi- cally have vendors up and running in about one hour.” Vendors agreeing to use the service simply download a driver for what Transcepta calls a “virtual printer” and use it to transmit a sample invoice. Transcepta then configures an elec- tronic version of that invoice, which provides the information it needs to deliver invoices electronically to the install vendors over the phone or Web. It doesn’t have to go on-site to install software; and vendors usually are up and running in about one hour.
180 Inbound Logistics • July 2007
Powered by FlippingBook