Launching Universal EDI and Integrated Supply Chain Procurement on SQUIZZ.com - Apr 2018

Released: 12th April 2018

Prelude

If you haven’t heard, SQUIZZ.com has been 12 years in development, released for private Beta use in 2016 and has now processed over 20,000 sales transactions without a hitch.  The platform is active in Australia with NZ, UK, Cananda, USA and France scheduled for launch later in the year.

 

The Basics

So what does SQUIZZ.com do?  The short answer is lots but fundamentally the platform connects people and businesses together in a highly secure encrypted relationship framework.  We call it the IoR.  You can learn the basics and see what’s possible in this video.

 

The One Minute Value Proposition

SQUIZZ.com lets businesses get on with what they do best.  Buy and sell with each other accurately and efficiently.

Once Organisations have their ERPs integrated, it can take as little as 1 minute for companies to establish new commercial connections on SQUIZZ.com and start trading with each other.  This dramatically knocks out the months that companies wait for IT teams on both sides to figure out how to implement EDI linkages and rules plus the onerous hours of testing.

 

The Core Problem That SQUIZZ.com Solves

Our inspiration for this platform came from developing B2B eCommerce websites over the past 17 years (see www.totecs.com ).  We noticed a really clunky and annoying workflow that plagues every B2B distributor. Either the customer or supplier needs to key an order twice.  Here’s the problem...

1. Customers use their suppliers website to research products and raise/key a Purchase Order (PO) in their ERP system. They then email the PO to the supplier leaving them to key it into their ERP system.  OR

 

2. Customers raise a web order in the suppliers’ eCommerce website and then key a corresponding PO in their system once it is submitted.  The issue here is that the PO number is not linked into the Sales Order on the supplier side.

 

Either way, someone does the job of keying the order twice.  For businesses processing thousands of orders, this time racks up over the course of a year not to mention the costly errors caused by keying mistakes and out of date information.

Furthermore, customers want to browse real time fully priced supplier catalogues.  Often they need to login to multiple websites and extract information in various formats.  SQUIZZ.com provides one place for customers to browse or connect their systems into their suppliers catalogues for real time querying.

The present industry solution to this dilemma is eCommerce Punchout and/or EDI.  The snag with these approaches has been that every supplier-customer relationship needs to be specified and configured by IT teams on both sides and/or through middleware software products such as SPS Commerce.

This outdated approach introduces BIG complications:

• Security: Often CSV or XML files are FTPd over an unsecured connections between multiple parties

 

• Coupling: Changes to ERP software on either side risks breaking the integrated links which costs loads of time to fix

 

• Alignment: Information on both sides needs to align within document formats (Ie, XML field names or CSV columns).  Ie, Product codes and units of measures often don’t match up

 

• Workflow: Customers lack a real-time window into the suppliers catalogue to make informed smart buying decisions

SQUIZZ.com does away with all this.  Companies of any size using any ERP software can connect once and trade with everyone that is connected.  Once a business integrates their ERP, they are ready to search for other businesses and establish connected relationships.  Once approved, both sides link their respective Creditor and Debtor codes to the connected relationship and they are ready to start transacting.

 

Procurement Workflows Supported

There are 5 procurement methods as follows:

 

1. Retrieve and Procure (the customer retrieves unprocessed Purchase Order/s keyed into their ERP and procures them in SQUIZZ.com which posts Sales Orders through to the supplier and their respective ERP System)

 

2. Direct Query / Push (Business Software / ERP vendors use the SQUIZZ.com API to query catalogue data or push Purchase Order/s through to the supplier and their respective ERP System)

 

3. In Platform Ordering (Customers can search personally priced supplier catalogues in SQUIZZ.com, maintain multiple shopping carts and submit orders that trigger a PO in their ERP system and post a Sales Order through to the suppliers ERP system)

 

4. Supplier Web Shop to PO ( the customer logs onto the suppliers eCommerce website and submits an online Order upon which they can choose to use SQUIZZ.com pull back a PO into their ERP System – SQUIZZ.com will cross link the PO number in the Sales Order)

 

5. Customer Web Shop to Dropship PO (A customer who is a reseller can link their eCommerce website to their supplier relationship on SQUIZZ.com and uses the API to sync inventory, pricing and stock levels.  Once an online order is submitted, their website can automatically post the Sales Order to the Supplier through SQUIZZ.com and nominate the goods to be drop-shipped to the end user)

 

Getting On The Platform

So how does a company get on and start trading.  It’s easy...

1. An authorised person logs on and registers their Organisation on the platform
2. If they are a supplier, they must follow the procedure to Become Trusted and pay [INVALID FORM VAR]10,000 per sales order.  The % rate drops to as low as 0.35% based on being an early adopter who has acquired a Golden Ticket for their Organisation in the platform.  There are minor fees to cover Organisations becoming trusted and Data API calls such as requesting a suppliers stock level to regulate demand. 

    

   Get Started

   Customers and Suppliers

   For businesses considering implementing yet another Punchout eCommerce / EDI link, commit that complicated specification document to the trash and get on SQUIZZ.com today.  Lobby your customers and suppliers to get on board and ask your ERP Vendor to assist with integration or start developing a plugin.

    

   Business Software and ERP Vendors

   Take a look at our Integration and API docs today and download the pre-built .Net, php or Java libraries from the Apps page to get a head start.

    

   Other Possibilities?

   Universal EDI and Integrated Supply Chain are just one of the many workflows that can be harnessed using the SQUIZZ.com IoR.  Other features such as Conversations aims to eliminate email and spam, public and private Feeds makes it much cleaner to broadcast topical messages and marketplaces help businesses connect with each other.  Account Enquiry for live account related information such as current account balance, outstanding invoices etc.  Blockchain and banking services are on the horizon and the Internet Of Things? Well... stay tuned!