I’ve written about this concept in other sites, but it really needs to be reiterated and covered in all places. The reason it hit the head today and became a topic of thought and discussion was because of some … person … I was behind one day on the commute to work.
I’m behind a nearly brand new Chrysler mini-van. And before you think I’ve got a thing against mini-van drivers, I should tell you that one of the old “daily drivers” was a Chrysler mini-van (the Town & Country) – a 1994 model year All-Wheel Drive version. And there’s still another 1994 Town & Country in the family “fleet”. But the van I was behind was a new one – 2008 model year.
Anyway, if you’re an owner or driver of just about any mini-van on the market, you know that one of the big selling points is the vast number of cup-holders in the mini-van. Of course, nearly every car today has at least a few cup-holders, but mini-vans have probably the most. I even remember reading an article in one of the car magazines about a model of mini-van (I think it was the “previous” generation of the Chrysler mini-vans), but this mini-van in the article had more cup-holders than it had seats! There was something like a dozen cup-holders in a vehicle that can hold seven people!
Even the daily driver I use (a Mazda 3) has a total of 8 places to stash a drink – one in each door and two in the front console and 2 in the rear armrest. Mind you, the door pockets are made more for a water bottle, but it will hold a travel cup or even a regular or small cup from a restaurant.
But I’m getting away from the point with endless detail … again.
So, this … driver … of this mini-van was proceeding to drive down the road (badly, I might add) with one hand holding a travel cup of coffee. Now this … driver … was not drinking from the cup – the person was just holding the cup – like some kind of talisman against the evils of not having a beverage. The other hand was then used to do all of the other aspects of driving: steering the vehicle, using turn signals, whatever. Oh, and the … driver … also had the ability to use the finger with that same hand.
But the point here is that this person had a need – the cup of coffee (or whatever beverage they were consuming) – and had a solution to that need – any one of a dozen cup-holders in the van. But instead, they insisted on holding on to that cup.
You’re wondering – again – what this guy is going on about and what does it have to do with EDI and getting people to use it and trade documents with your company. And I’m getting there, I swear!
Think of that cup-holder in the van as a tool; something that helps you and gets the job done. It holds the cup of coffee while you drive the vehicle down the road. That tool gives you an advantage of not having to hold your cup of coffee while you negotiate the highways and byways of wherever it is that you live. You can put that coffee in the cup-holder and use it when you need to – when you need that hit of caffeine – and then it’s out of the way, the cup-holder tool doing the job of holding your cup of coffee.
Pretty neat, huh?
Well, EDI is also a tool. It’s a way of getting data from one system to another. We know that. It’s a way of Retailer A sending a Purchase Order to Vendor B and getting that order processed. It’s a way of getting shipment data from Vendor B to Retailer A and notifying them about the order that’s on the way. And then there’s the invoice. And any other document you want to consider that is viable.
Real life analogy here – we’re working on implementing the 810 Invoice. The map is in place, the data is flowing, and the reports that can be generated by our AP department meet their needs and look good. That tool is saving them time and effort because they no longer have to open up dozens of envelopes a day and pull out the paper invoices and then manually process them and enter them into the system.
Nope, the nifty and neat-o tool we’ve given them does so much of that for them – automatically – and they just go in and verify the information – and then it’s only if a problem is discovered!
However, our AP department is also still requiring (at least for the time-being) our vendors to also send along paper hard-copy invoices – kind of as a back-up. So that tool – the 810 – is not being utilized to the fullest benefit available.
Same with the mini-van driver and the cup-holder – a great tool that is not being utilized to the fullest benefit available. And it wasn’t just the one driver of the mini-van…. I’ve been behind drivers of all sorts of vehicles, from big pick-up trucks to typical sedans – and many of them are holding the cup aloft, like it’s some kind of sacramental beverage offering to their deity of choice. They’re not drinking from said cup, no… They’re merely holding it high – nearly at eye level – while they drive 2000 pounds (plus) of metal, plastic, rubber, glass and other materials down the road…
They’re holding that cup of coffee like its some talisman or sacred object – that to put it down would be a change to the world order and chaos would reign supreme! It’s a link to “the way it’s always been”..! The paper/hard copy of the invoice is the same thing – a link to the way it’s always been done. We’ve always had bits and pieces of paper around to help us. It’s a shield from change; a talisman.
But back to EDI tools…
We can take this idea and even spread it a step further. Retailer A is buying products from Vendor M. But Vendor M is smaller and they don’t have any kind of EDI system set up. So they’re still processing things the old way and not embracing the wonders of the tool that that could make things so much easier for them. But maybe they don’t want to deal with the cost or complexity of getting EDI. Maybe they’re not willing to “learn” a new way of doing things… I mean, we all know that change is hard and learning is difficult, right? Something about teaching an old dog new tricks and not being able to?
In the realm of EDI – and even in just something simple like Vendor Management – we have a wide selection of tools available to us. Think of all the various documents we can trade – 850s, 860s, 856s, 810s, 832s, 852s and so many others… And think of how much easier it is to transact business when we use the tools that work.
Think of building a house. Years ago, when you wanted to build a house, you used lumber and nails and a hammer to put them all together. Then somebody came up with a better tool – the pneumatic nail gun. Now they could build those houses quicker and easier – with a single “ker-chunk” replacing dozens of “bang-bang-bangs” of the traditional hammer. Now instead of taking hours to frame a wall, it’s done in just minutes by one person.
There are also a number of companies and web-sites out there that may offer you a better way to manage your vendor community. I know that there’s some company – the name escapes at the moment – that offers to keep you up to date on all of the changes made by your trading partners. I’ve never researched it – but I’m guessing it is a subscription based service (aka SaaS) that keeps track of a number of retailer’s documents – EDI docs, routing guides and more – that you can see at a glance that Retailer A has modified their 850 PO and now require something or another in their routing processes.
There are also providers for the Point-Of-Sale data that retailers generate and vendors love to crunch. Instead of you and the trading partner coming up with an EDI document (the 852) that everybody will need to map and (chances are good) will be different for many of your trading partners – the vendor can just send all of their POS data to a 3rd party company and you can subscribe to the data. We use one of these companies. Instead of our buying department having to generate tons of reports, we can just send the data to this 3rd party. Then the company crunches the numbers and provides the reports to their customer base – our vendors – to download and use as they see fit.
These are just a few of the tools available to you – as a retailer or a supplier – to make the job of communicating our data and our information back and forth to each other. Every year, new tools come on the market – some have value and some may not – that can make your life and your job a bit easier. Taking control of those tools – using those tools – and using them properly – can help all to better the work flow or whatever it is we’re doing – from driving a mini-van to building a house to providing a product to a retailer.
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