Inovis Case Study: Samsung SDSE

C a s e S t u d y

About Samsung SDS

Samsung SDS, established in 1985, is one of the largestproviders of integrated IT Services, including IToutsourcing, system integration and IT infrastructuresolutions. As a subsidiary of the global Samsung brand,Samsung SDS is a thought leadership-based IT serviceprovider, delivering solutions with a real understanding ofits clients needs.

The business challenge

One of its biggest customers is Samsung ElectronicsCorporation (SEC), a world class manufacturer ofconsumer electronics, including mobile phones, televisions,DVD players and microwave ovens.

SEC relies heavily on Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)to communicate effectively with its partners, suppliersand retailers, and to manage its global supply chainefficiently. In Europe Samsung SDSE provides a whollymanaged EDI service to SEC, so it needs to ensure thatit understands its entire EDI environment, as well assolutions that can optimise its supply chain operations.

Samsung SDSE began connecting SEC’s Europeanpartners to its previous Value Added Network (VAN)solution over seven years ago to enable the efficientprocessing of invoices and purchase orders. However, asignificant increase in suppliers and partners highlighteda number of problems with Samsung SDSE’s VANsolution, such as a complex pricing structure that madebudgeting difficult.

In addition to concerns about pricing, the nature of SEC’ssupplier and partner relationships took on an added levelof complexity, with demands for the exchange of dataother than invoices and purchase orders via EDI on theVAN. Specifically, an increase in customers ‘continualplanning forecasting replenishment’ process required theorganisation to trade detailed supplier information, suchas ‘sell-out data’ and ‘sales forecasting’ data. Due to thepricing of its previous solution, the amount of data

transfer involved in SEC’s everyday communication wasincreasing exponentially.

SEC’s commitment to its suppliers, partners and severalhundred retailers throughout Europe meant it requiredSamsung SDSE to provide a best-of-breed EDI solution,and a services provider with a straightforward pricingstructure capable of supporting an implementationacross SEC’s European operations.

“Our previous EDI system met our basic data exchangerequirements; however, with the rising number ofpartners being added to our VAN, and the volume ofdata transferred increasing, we needed a solution withmore functionality that was easy to use and had a clearpricing structure,” said Mike Bennett, EDI Manager,Samsung SDSE.“The chosen EDI provider also had to beable to deliver round-the-clock support to ensure anyproblems on the VAN would be resolved quickly andefficiently so that orders from our suppliers could beprocessed as soon as they were received.”

SOLUTION SNAPSHOT:

• Industry:IT services and systems

• Challenge:To implement a cost-effective and reliable EDIsolution to send and receiveincreasingly complex datawith trading partners

• Solution:Inovis Value AddedNetwork, Inovisworks™

Inovis Managed Services

BENEFITS :

• 20% cost reduction onprevious VAN EDI solution

• Transparent flat-rate pricing structure

• User-friendly web-basedinterface

• Scalable solution and future-proof EDI platform

“ For Samsung SDSE, the most important aspect ofthe Inovisworks solution is that it provides us witha best-of-breed EDI solution with a clear pricingstructure.With Inovis, we are charged per partneradded to the network, rather than per message orthe volume of data we send.This enables us toproactively monitor our EDI costs and budgetmore efficiently,” said Bennett.“Additionally,Inovisworks provides a user-friendly web interfacethrough which we can easily add partners to thenetwork, and also allow non-technically orientatedusers access to the system to track invoices andother supply information.”

Mike Bennett EDI Manager, Samsung SDSE

Inovis Case Study: Samsung SDSE

www.inovis.com

The solution

Samsung SDSE decided that Inovisworks™, the valueadded network service from Inovis, provided the levels offunctionality required to send and receive complexpartner data in addition to a predictable pricing structure.

“For Samsung SDSE, the most important aspect of theInovisworks solution is that it provides us with a best-of-breed EDI solution with a transparent pricing structure.With Inovis, we are charged for each partner that isadded to the network, rather than per message or thevolume of data we send. This enables us to proactivelymonitor our EDI costs and budget more efficiently andeffectively,” said Bennett. “Additionally, Inovisworksprovides a user-friendly web interface through which wecan easily add partners to the network, and also allownon-technically orientated users access to the system totrack invoices and other supply information.”

Inovisworks is one of the largest VANs in the world withnearly 1.5 billion transactions processed per year.Inovisworks provides leading-edge web-basedmanagement and monitoring facilities for real-timevisibility into the entire supply chain process so retailersand suppliers can make informed, on-demand decisionsfor maximum business benefit.

Inovis Managed Services monitors the supply chain withan end-to-end process, from providing network servicesat the core platform level through to offering hosted datasynchronisation to ensure that critical productinformation is updated and maintained between alltrading partners.This also includes managing the full datalifecycle, from entrance onto the service to delivery tothe recipient. In addition, Inovis provides actionableintelligence services, through which Inovis’ customers areable to analyse real-time traffic on the service to identifyany problems before they happen.

The results and benefits

With the implementation of Inovisworks, Samsung SDSEhas cut its EDI VAN costs by 20 percent. Additionally, dueto Inovisworks flat-rate pricing, Samsung SDSE has beenable to increase the volume of data transmitted andreceived without also increasing its budget.

Additional benefits include:

• With Inovisworks, Samsung SDSE has a user-friendlyweb-based platform used by over eight employeesacross Europe. The ‘non-green-screen’ interface allowsSamsung SDSE to provide non-technical users withaccess to supplier and partner information whichdelivers real value at all levels of the organisation.

• With 24/7 support provided by Inovis, Samsung SDSE isconfident that its EDI communications will remain upand running, and any problems will be resolved byInovis’ dedicated support team.

• Samsung SDSE can easily add new trading partners toits network, regardless of data format or networkconnectivity standards used by the partner.With a clearpricing structure, Samsung SDSE can effectively budgetfor the growth of its trading community.

• Inovisworks provides Samsung SDSE with exceptionalreliability, as it operates on the Inovis MultienterpriseExpert Services Hub (MESH) platform, a fullyredundant platform designed to deliver 100 percentavailability and a data centre designed to deliver 99.995percent availability.

About Inovis

Inovis is a leading provider of on-demand BusinessCommunity Management solutions that empowercompanies to transact, collaborate and optimizecommunications with their entire trading community. Bystandardizing and automating mission-critical businessinteractions, companies can dramatically reduce thecomplexity and cost of supply chain communication.Thisfoundation of high-quality, reliable and secure connectivityprovides real-time visibility across the order-to-paymentlifecycle.The resulting actionable intelligence enables usersto proactively address supply chain issues before theyimpact profitability, shortening cycle times, improvingproductivity and increasing customer satisfaction.

With more than 20 years of expertise, Inovis delivers itsproducts and services to more than 20,000 companiesover a wide range of industries and markets across the globe.

For more information, visit www.inovis.co.uk

Inovis Managed Servicesmonitors the supply chainwith an end-to-end process,from providing networkservices at the core platformlevel through to offeringhosted data synchronisationto ensure that criticalproduct information isupdated and maintainedbetween all trading partners.

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