Perceptant Promotes Sustainable Distribution: EDI Messaging can Play a Vital Role in the Supply Chain!

Sustainable distribution has created opportunities and challenges for today’s logisticians: previous restrictions on collaboration and ways of working are up for discussion, new technologies that revolutionise visibility are entering the marketplace; but in a world where industry leaders want to make progress there are a wealth of process related barriers to overcome. Modern day Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and data exchange hubs such as that provided by Perceptant have an important role to play in taking down some of these barriers.

Within the logistics market, EDI connectivity has been a standard way of exchanging data between warehouses and their customers for many years. The cost and complexity of traditional EDI has delayed the integration of transport data flows where contracts are typically shorter, IT resource scarcer and the number of suppliers higher. Perceptant is working to bring down these barriers through its innovative way of bringing affordable EDI to the logistics market.

Does EDI have a role in enabling sustainable distribution? Normally justified through savings on administrative staff, EDI also speeds up the transmission of data between partners. Most sustainable distribution initiatives are dependent on successful transport planning activities to deliver their full potential. Currently too many transport planning activities are squeezed through lack of time – therefore speeding up data transmission by having direct EDI interfaces with your customers or suppliers has a direct impact on the effectiveness of this vital planning process. Perceptant now offer EDI of transport orders on a monthly charge basis: ideal for hauliers worried about contract length.

The second sustainable distribution opportunity where EDI plays a role is in the area of collaborative partnerships: these could be between two shippers or even between a lead haulier and a potential sub-contractor. In both case putting the most efficient transport operation on a particular route or area of the country can save empty running. However all collaboration and sub-contracting requires data to be transferred between the collaborating parties. Without a robust EDI solution, real time visibility of the load and efficient transmission of delivery data will be compromised.

Satellite tracking is a typical area where these problems are encountered. The technology is used by the best transport companies to give real time feedback into the planning process. Geo-fence triggered event reporting and up to date vehicle positioning allows transport planners to refine and improve vehicle routing during the day to optimise vehicle fill. However such visibility is often lost when working with sub-contractor fleets or when collaborating with customers or other partners; this creates a tension in sustainable distribution initiatives as such relationships are vital for improving vehicle utilisation.

The solution to this lies in affordable, quick to implement interfacing between the main systems in the market: although potential transport partners are almost infinite the system platforms on which they operate are not. Over time therefore we are likely to see emerging communities of hauliers with pre-built interfaces that are kept current; a parallel of what has happened in the pallet distribution markets. Affordable EDI technology such as that provided by Perceptant (http://www.perceptant.com) will be critical to making this happen.

Perceptant’s business model is geared to a world where companies are exchanging data with a large number of companies, sometimes for a short period of time. . Sustainable distribution may be talked about less while companies focus on cost saving, but as improving vehicle fill delivers on both criteria, the world of interfacing with a single provider is coming to an end. For logistics service providers and their customers developing a capability to build interfaces quickly and affordable is a competitive edge today but a necessity tomorrow.

About Perceptant

Perceptant is acknowledged as a leading provider of business-to-business integration applications and patent-pending supply chain management software.

Perceptant SCMaaS (Supply Chain Management as a Service), enables companies to aggressively improve both competitiveness and profitability. Perceptant leverages the Internet and emerging software technologies such as XML to automate shared business interactions throughout entire value chains of companies – including customers, suppliers, distributors, contract manufacturers and third-party logistics providers – that comprise today’s extended enterprise.

On the front-end, Perceptant SCMaaS creates and manages mission-critical collaborative business processes such as vendor managed inventory, collaborative planning and engineering, channel assembly and much more. On the back end, iHUB breaks down the barriers of diversity by integrating disparate enterprise applications that often exist between businesses.

For additional information about Perceptant and the Supply Chain, Open EDI and Business Activity Monitoring suite of business-to-business integration software, visit Perceptant’s website at www.perceptant.com or contact them directly at +44 (0)1246 291759.

Perceptant Limited
Dunston Innovation Centre
Dunston
Chesterfield
S41 8NG
United Kingdom

Tel: +44 1246 291759
Email: info@perceptant.com
Web: http://www.perceptant.com

This release was published on openPR.