B2B Alliance

Features
Related Links
Capabilities:
  • Allows distributor partners to communicate and interact using their own part numbers and business solutions
  • Automatically matches out-of-stock and non-stock product requests to available inventory of trading partners
  • Reduces the length of time it takes to source non-stock or out-of-stock items
  • Identifies dead stock in your warehouse and matches you with distributors who are actively selling that stock
  • Allows distributors to compete on a larger scale
Benefits:
  • Streamlined integrated supply
  • Cuts costs and time associated with searching for out-of-stock and non-stock items
  • Decreased dead stock levels driving down inventory carrying cost
  • Increased customer service and sales

When you need to source an out-of-stock item for a customer, what steps do you take? Does it take a lot of time to call several other distributors to find one specially sized saw blade? And, when you finally get back to your customer, have you ever discovered that you've lost the sale because, in the meantime, they've found their saw blade someplace else?

With Activant Trading Partner Connect B2B Alliance, this nightmarish sequence of events is a thing of the past. With B2B Alliance, distributors have the power to form alliances with other distributors via the Internet to take advantage of sales opportunities.

B2B Alliance is just one component of Trading Partner Connect, Activant's Internet trading network. Trading Partner Connect streamlines the commerce process between distributors, their manufacturers/suppliers, and end-users, thereby increasing sales and improving customer service while reducing operating costs. As a distributor, you benefit from dead stock reduction, lower EDI/VAN costs, and access to millions of items, enabling you to compete on a larger scale and improve customer service.

Just the Facts

B2B Alliance is designed to facilitate collaboration between you and other distributors. It leverages the power of Trading Partner Connect to enable you to communicate, transact, and interact in real-time, with other distributors that are using their own part numbers and back-office systems. It enables you to connect to other distributors for the purpose of combining inventories and engaging in commerce transactions. With B2B Alliance, you can let your customers know immediately, through your enterprise software solution, whether you or one of your trading partners has a particular item in stock, increasing you inventory depth and breath with out the added inventory investment while saving valuable time that would have been previously spent sourcing that item.

Dead Stock No More

In the past, when dead stock started to pile up in your warehouse, you only had a few options. You could keep it and let it take up valuable space and resources - which translated into thousands of dollars in carrying costs; you could donate it to charity for a tax write-off; or, you could sell it back to the manufacturer for a fraction of what you paid for it. And, there was always the fire sale - where you were practically paying customers to take it off your hands.

Now, you have a new option: B2B Alliance. B2B Alliance helps you identify dead stock and matches you with distributors who are actively selling the same items. For example, have you ever had glut of stock because a regular customer closed or merged with another business? Think about it: What became dead stock to you might not be dead stock to another distributor in a different territory. With B2B Alliance, you can offer that dead stock, via Trading Partner Connect, to that distributor at selling prices never dreamed of at a fire sale. Not only will B2B Alliance let you know who has a need for your dead inventory, but it will also let your trading partners know you have it available before they buy it from their normal supplier.

A Buyer's Dream

Trading Partner Connect B2B Alliance is proof that one distributor's dead stock may be another distributor's gold. With B2B Alliance, distributors have the opportunity to buy other distributors' dead stock at a fraction of what they would normally pay their manufacturers/suppliers. For example, in July and August, a roofing supply distributor in Maine or Massachusetts might buy excess stock from a distributor in the southeastern portion of the United States - where distributors experience bloated inventories at that time of year because very few roofing projects are completed during the hot summer months.

Find an Ally

With B2B Alliance, you can form strategic alliances with other distributors to offer integrated supply to your customers. For example, if you're a plumbing distributor, you might have a contractor who constantly buys showerheads and faucets - but who also occasionally needs a lighting fixture or two for his customers. With B2B Alliance, you have the ability to expand your offerings to include those lighting fixtures without taking up precious warehouse space. With B2B Alliance, you have access to millions of items in other distributors' inventories - and the ability to please your customers just a bit more.

The Power of Choice

With B2B Alliance, you choose which distributors you want to trade with, elect what items in your stock are available to them, and determine how much they pay for your products. If you don't want a direct competitor to view your inventory levels, you can decide not to form a partnership with them and keep your stock invisible and unavailable to that competitor. Also, you have the power to offer a trading partner better prices than you would to a competitor down the street.

Enjoy better customer service, reduced inventory and increased sales with Trading Partner Connect B2B Alliance.

For more information on Activant's enterprise software solutions, please fill out our Web Contact Form.

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