Accredo has completed a key piece of business-to-business software integration that allows customers who supply products to Foodstuffs’ supermarkets to automate ordering and significantly reduce their paper processing.

Accredo Channel Manager, Kevin Carberry, says the integration allows Foodstuffs’ suppliers to link Accredo’s order processing and invoicing with the new Foodstuffs electronic ordering system, Exchange.

“Foodstuffs now require all their suppliers to exchange order and invoice documentation electronically. Over the last few months we have worked in conjunction with some of our key resellers to develop these features, and, as a result, we now have several customers automatically transferring order information with Foodstuffs.”

He says Foodstuffs’ change to a centralised order processing system has reduced the duplication of work for customers and the Accredo product integration has automated key ordering and invoicing activities.

“Prior to this, suppliers had to print out invoices and manually send them to each individual store. The whole ordering process was paper-intensive and time-consuming.”

Accredo can now receive product orders from Foodstuffs directly, entering them as purchase orders into the system. An email is then sent back verifying quantities and confirming that the order can be delivered.

“The integration also means we no longer have to physically send out a packing slip. We now capture that information on a shipping notice, which is sent electronically to the particular supermarket. It tells them the order has been received, that the quantity is available and that it will be heading their way shortly.”

Printing individual invoices is a thing of the past, says Carberry. “Accredo turns the order into an invoice and that automatically triggers an event in our program scripts which exports the invoice to Foodstuffs – either by email or electronic data interchange.”

The impact of the changes to system users is minimal says Carberry. “All the necessary document creation and exchange occurs behind the scenes. We have made it easy for customers to install this functionality and we have got a unified data validation script that ensures the customer’s implementation matches the requirements Foodstuffs’ demands.”

For more information about the Foodstuffs’ software integration please contact your Accredo QSP.

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