Build a seamless supply chain now. So you can handle growth later.
When you launch a company and you’re working around the clock to grow, it can be difficult to imagine a time when order volume will place serious demands on your processes. Building a seamless supply chain is not usually a high priority.
But if you believe in yourself and your product, you know success will eventually happen. And when it does, you don’t want to find yourself unable to manage orders efficiently. Talk about frustrating — all the effort you put in to build your company is undermined because you’re not built to handle a large bump in sales.
That’s why it makes sense to establish the foundation pieces of a seamless supply chain from the outset — before you find yourself overwhelmed and possibly losing customers because you were unable to deliver according to the standards of today’s demanding consumers.
An EDI and order management provider that can grow with you is a critical first step.
It’s an omnichannel world. Make sure your order management provider can handle it.
The road to success is different for every supplier. Today, many start with sales from an eCommerce store or online marketplaces. Others will see their brand truly launch after receiving a large order from a major national retailer. A few more lucky ones will see every sales channel explode after a video goes viral or a product placement garners an unusual amount of attention. For most, of course, the path is slow but steady — years of hard work pays off with continuous gains and increased revenue.
No matter what road to success your company follows, it’s probably going to involve sales from all kinds of channels. You may not always see growth coming but you do want to be ready when it arrives.
Get EDI solved.
Let’s say your revenue currently comes largely from sales to a few major retailers — you’ll definitely want a capable EDI provider who can help you stay compliant and avoid costly chargebacks. You want EDI to be handled efficiently and data managed automatically to keep the time your employees are focused on it to a minimum. Instead of dealing with the details of orders, you want everyone working on growing your business.
But make sure your EDI provider can do more.
Okay, so you have a solid EDI provider in place. But what happens when growth continues to expand into more and more online channels? With online marketplaces and eCommerce stores, transactions aren’t driven by EDI. That’s when you want to have an EDI provider with broader capabilities.
Once things are cooking, you don’t want to have to slow down to find another company to manage your online orders and maybe yet another company to merge all the data. That’s why you need to start working — sooner rather than later — with a company that has the tools to handle online order information and EDI.
And not just handle them. When growth hits, what you really want to do is keep all your processes as uncomplicated as possible. You’ll want a company that can bring it all together.
For some companies, that may mean software that easily handles both EDI and online transactions. Others will want something bigger — integration with the ERP that powers their business, integration with accounting software like QuickBooks, integration with a WMS or a 3PL. Whatever it may be, what’s important is you have a partnership with a provider that will allow you and your employees to work the way you want to work. If you choose your first EDI or your first online order management provider based solely on getting a rock bottom price, you will find yourself scrambling when all the hard work you put into growing your business starts to pay off.
Automate. Validate. Integrate.
The right EDI and order management provider helps you create a frictionless supply chain with transactions handled seamlessly, automatically, and without errors. As your business expands, you want to spend your time managing that growth — it’s exciting, after all — and not find yourself bogged down in the details
Choosing the right provider when you launch can make the difference. Select one based on the organization you would like to be one day — not the company you are right now.
