SPS Commerce, a vendor of Software as a Service EDI products, has announced a new industry-specific application for manufacturers who need supply chain management visibility. Built using the NetSuite (News - Alert) Business Operating System from NetSuite, this Supply Chain add-on for NetSuite uses SPS Commerce's multi-tenant trading partner network to build an application targeting companies in need of EDI services.

 

It "allows for end-to-end visibility and automation in one system when working with trading partners," according to the SPSers.

 

The new product uses the NS-BOS platform, including the SaaS (News - Alert) infrastructure, SuiteFlex, and the core NetSuite application. End-to-end visibility within the supply chain is particularly important for manufacturers, who tend not to like delayed shipments from trading partners, late orders for customers or costly production flow management.

 

The combined SPS and NetSuite product provides a B2B business exchange with EDI capabilities layered on top of the CRM, Accounting / ERP and E-commerce core of NetSuite.

 

Earlier this month B2BGateway, a product of Shannon Systems, and an integration product partner of NetSuite Inc. since 2001, announced the release of the B2BGateway client portal.

 

With the B2BGateway client portal, NetSuite users can use the client portal to initiate new trading partner relationships, review data transmitted, schedule transaction imports/exports and to cross reference data, B2B Gateway (News - Alert) officials say.

 

B2BGateway has provided NetSuite users with EDI connectivity in North America to Wal-Mart, Home Depot, General Motors (News - Alert) and over 700 other organizations. In the European Union, NetSuite users use B2BGateway to connect to ASDA, Argos, Tesco, Carrefour, and many others.

 

Any NetSuite user who intends to sell products to these large organizations is required to use EDI.

 

Before 1999, when B2BGateway started providing fully managed EDI products, the industry process of receiving electronic purchase orders and sending electronic invoices could be difficult, costly and prone to errors. B2BGateway's idea was to connect to trading partners through a central hub. Consequently, all of the data translation required in EDI takes place in a central location.

 

In early February EBS-RAD announced that it had extended NetSuite's One System Architecture with new capabilities for the maritime industry market. The company develops products such as Harbour Mastery, which provides services to the Tampa Port Authority. It has received greater interest from potential customers since becoming a partner of NetSuite's SuiteFlex Developer Program.