Trading Network

Over the past 10 years, distributors have been pressured from two directions: manufacturers/suppliers increase costs, and customers demand lower prices and extra services.

The question that arises from this conflict is: As a distributor, how can you provide value-added services and reduce transaction costs?

The answer is: B2B Gateway. B2B Gateway, a component of Trading Partner Connect, allows a distributor to link his enterprise software solution to his customers' systems for a reliable and inexpensive flow of information. B2B Gateway also supplies a channel for distributors to integrate with online marketplaces like Ariba and Covisint and reduces costs associated with traditional Value Added Networks (VANs).

Trading Partner Connect, Activant's Internet trading network, streamlines the commerce process between distributors, their manufacturers/suppliers, and end-users, thereby increasing sales and improving customer service while reducing operating costs. 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.

A Few Extra Hours a Day

B2B Gateway unlocks the constraints of normal business hours and traditional methods of conducting transactions. Because B2B Gateway allows your customers' software solutions to directly connect to yours, your customers can view your inventory, check the status of their orders, and have their orders flow directly from their system to yours on their time. They only key the information once and it flows from their system into yours. They never need to pick up the phone; B2B Gateway provides the technology they need to find all of the answers themselves.

Keeping Ahead of the Curve

Now more than ever, industrial goods buyers are requiring distributors to participate in VAN communities. B2B Gateway allows distributors to cost-effectively connect to their trading partners - both customers and suppliers - through an EDI VAN, regardless of whether or not they are members of Trading Partner Connect. This same connectivity allows distributors to electronically market and sell their inventory to a new audience of buyers by connecting them to thousands of other distributors and end-users in search of millions of products. Additionally, B2B Gateway sends and receives all EDI business documents in real time with Trading Partner Connect acting as the VAN - eliminating time-consuming batch processing.

Activant and AutoCrib

Activant has integrated Trading Partner Connect with AutoCrib. With B2B Gateway, orders for restocking are automatically and directly sent from the AutoCrib vending machine on your customer's shop floor to your enterprise software solution. You can also use B2B Gateway to connect to CribMaster, another managed inventory solution. This cuts the time your customers spend collecting and calling in orders - and eliminates the time your customer service representatives spend taking those orders.

The Power of One

B2B Gateway streamlines and centralizes the communications processes with online marketplaces like Ariba, Covisint and CommerceOne. Without Trading Partner Connect and B2B Gateway, you would need separate connections to these e-marketplaces. Additionally, B2B Gateway allows distributors to communicate across diverse hardware platforms and marketplaces. It supports a variety of processes for real-time document exchange, including EDI and XML.

Gain the connectivity you need to remain competitive in the world of distribution with Trading Partner Connect B2B Gateway.

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

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