Electrical Supply Chain Management

Connecting-up the electrical supply chain

The electrical supply chain is a highly integrated supply chain with many complexities which drive constant change and adaptation. Adaptation to standards, technological change, material availability and trends. Each step of the buying and selling process therefore has it’s challenges to keep on top of

Specials

Electrical wholesalers hold hundreds of thousands of products, however they also need to buy products they do not stock or have arrangements for based on their sales approach. These purchases become ‘specials’ and may not reside within their product master files and are added for short periods of time when they need to be purchased. Therefore, items must be added, margins managed, and stock movements updated to account for special purchases which has it's complexities.

The long tail

With the diversity of products within the electrical supply chain, larger wholesalers can be dealing with thousands of suppliers. They might deal with some of these suppliers hundreds of times per day and deal with others more sporadically. With highly specialised products, some suppliers will only trade very few documents with a wholesaler, or in the industry.

Specifiers and builders

The electrical wholesale industry delivers into many new-build and building environments where specifiers and builders specify specific brands of products which meet market, local regulations and taste. These need to be managed by wholesalers who do not necessarily always hold stock of these goods.

Customer complexity

Many of the electrical wholesaler's base are also small 'man in van' businesses, who are installers, administrators and accountants all in their own right. This means automation in this area can be limited and credit departments are reliant on manual processes to manage these accounts.

Complicated products

Many electrical products are bought in a specific way, but they may also be sold in another. Light fittings and cables are two such product groups with potential complications. Buyers and sellers must be able to interpret and adapt to the procure-to pay-processes and need to manage these complications.

Supplier channels

Many electrical suppliers will also supply retailers and do so through many other channels beyond the traditional wholesaler model, with increasing complexity. This means that suppliers will often need to supply 'home branded' goods for these channels, leading to stock duplication and a need for greater degrees of management.

Solutions for the electrical industry

EDI

B2BE has over 20+ years experience delivering EDI solutions into the electrical industry supply chain. The EDI solutions means suppliers can trade with their customers and all the documents currently used in the electrical industry are supported. B2BE’s validation and enrichment processes also mean that issues with the way buyer’s buy and seller’s sell in such areas as cable and lighting can be managed so documents can be integrated. B2BE’s workflows also help both the buyer and supplier ensure they’re getting the right information to ensure there are no hold-ups in the supply chain, particularly with purchase orders for quoted stock or specials.

Accounts Payable

With B2BE automating electrical wholesaler’s accounts payable three-way matching , organisations’ accounting will benefit from improved productivity, efficiency, and accuracy. The solution can manage invoice receipt processes to receive all supplier invoices electronically through fully outsourced solutions that can be configured to meet the specific needs and the solution in the electrical wholesale market. The solution has achieved over 95% first-time match rates, the solution can manage specials and the unique buying within the industry as well.

B2BE can also handle expense invoices, their GL coding and approval so there’s no lost invoices and suppliers are paid correctly and on-time.

Sales Order Automation

Using B2BE’s Sales Order Automation solution, electrical wholesalers and suppliers can better automate their customer’s purchase orders which are received as PDF documents.

Using an OCR approach purchase orders data is captured and then treated as an EDI file which means enrichment and validation and workflows can be applied to the data to ensure what is integrated is accurate and ensures goods are shipped correctly and processes are more accurate and visible.

Document Distribution

When your organisation is able to distribute all your documents, particularly invoices, electronically no matter how the end customer needs them this gives your organisation greater levels of flexibility. Whatever the route B2BE can automate this for you so you don’t need to worry and you have the flexibility to change method quickly and easily which is greater for a supplier’s wholesaler, customer or for a wholesaler’s ‘man in van’ customers.

Web Portal

B2BE provide Web Portal solutions to assist with overall visibility within the electrical supply chain. Organisations access the Web Portal using a secure login with user authentication. This gives you and your trading partners and branches access to all B2BE products and services through a single interface. B2BE’s Web Portal solution helps electrical organisations with document search and workflow, enable them to handle and rout documents while accessing a range of other Purchase to Pay and Order to Cash supply chain solutions. The solution is great way to manage self on-boarding and self fulfillment.

Helping your electrical supply chain thrive

Electrical
workflows

B2BE's workflows have been deployed across the electrical wholesale industry to help many areas associated with Purchase to Pay and Order to Cash. Electrical wholesalers are now better able to collaborate with their branch network and with suppliers.

Network of wholesalers and suppliers

B2BE's experience in the industry means that B2BE has already integrated many suppliers to their customers and this means as a wholesaler you can easily leverage from B2BE's current supplier integration. Likewise, as a supplier if you need to trade with your customer, wholesalers and retailers, we already have you covered.

EDI
on-boarding

To better leverage your integration solutions, B2BE has helped many electrical wholesalers and their suppliers onboard one another to be able to trade electronically and facilitate supply chain automation in the electrical industry.

Visibility

Using B2BE’s collaborative Web Portal, electrical supply chains can expect greater data accuracy throughout and visibility. Being able to view all partners on a single platform enables greater transparency across the board. With changes updated in real-time, organisations can respond to their supply chain partners quickly and easily and which has already helped many electrical buyers and sellers trade more easily.

100% document management

B2BE has delivered numerous document management solutions into the electrical industry to allow wholesalers deal with their customer and meet their document management requirements, similarly with suppliers. Whether it's an EDI, Web EDI, email, print management, OCR or digitization solution, B2BE can get you trading 100% of your documents electronically on either side of your supply chain.