Product category:
EDI data interchange software
News Release from: Freeway Commerce | Subject: Spectrum 3 EDI software
Edited by the Manufacturingtalk Editorial
Team on 26 April 2007
SAP integrated EDI solution for Siemens
With spectrum 3, Siemens receives orders electronically and translates them to EDIFACT format for sending on to the SAP back office system.
Siemens Automation and Drives is a major part of the worldwide Siemens organisation, providing a wide range of industrial control and electrical distribution solutions for manufacturing, process and commercial companies Recent investment has resulted in products incorporating Internet communication, the latest Windows CE technology and links that allow messaging between control systems and mobile phones
This article was originally published on Manufacturingtalk on 25 Apr 2007 at 8.00am (UK)
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Siemens has used EDI for exchanging orders and invoices with its major customers for a number of years and the company has been a client of Freeway Commerce since 2000 when it commissioned its bespoke Siemens Enterprise Server (ES).
The ES system was interfaced with their SAP accounts package.
The Siemens Enterprise Server (ES), developed and maintained by Freeway, had performed as specified but was a victim of its own success.
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Take-up of the system was such that the original capacity was exceeded.
Siemens realised that with the new technologies now available in Spectrum 3, it was possible to upgrade its ES system and develop an e-commerce solution that would satisfy all its future requirements.
In particular, Siemens was looking for a more flexible approach that could accommodate the needs of all its trading partners, both large and small.
With more and more e-commerce trading partners coming on board, a sleeker and more powerful interface was required that could handle very large volumes of messages and users.
Freeway Commerce recommended Spectrum 3.
The new system would remove some of the evolved processes inherent in Siemens existing ES and replace them with more efficient technology based around XML and ASP.Net.
The Spectrum 3 Control Panel is also totally automated and transacts messages transparently.
Additional messages are rapidly available, such as order responses, which can be viewed online as well as customer orders.
Freeway Commerce was able to get the new system in place within a matter of weeks.
The migration was straightforward with minimum impact on customers.
It was simply a matter of getting an output from their back office systems.
This meant only minor changes were required for them to move over to Spectrum 3 and once the transition was made they could appreciate the ease of use and speed of the new system.
Spectrum 3 has a modern look and feel and offers instant messaging.
With Spectrum 3, Siemens now has a future proofed e-commerce system capable of handling high volumes of traffic and virtually unlimited numbers of trading partners.
It is truly scalable and can be expanded and adapted to meet the changing requirements of both Siemens' and its trading partners.
The software can be configured to accept virtually any format.
In use, Spectrum 3 is fast and flexible and combines the capability of Siemens' existing EDI system with the benefits of using new Internet technologies.
Using Freeway's Spectrum 3, Siemens receives orders from customers in electronic format and translates them to EDIFACT format for sending on to the SAP back office system.
Siemens creates an EDIFACT order acknowledgement from its SAP system that Spectrum converts to PDF format and sends to customers by email, or an EDI version that it sends via the internet using FTP (File Transfer protocol).
Siemens' SAP system also creates an EDIFACT Invoice message that Spectrum 3 translates and forwards to EDI customers in their preferred format.
Customers are able to use a new simplified online web portal option requiring no additional translation or communications software, enabling them to sign onto a secure site to monitor progress of orders and download invoices.
Feedback from Siemens' customers has been very positive.
For example one large customer is now able to see a consolidated report sheet for all the orders sent in by all of its branches.
Both Siemens and its trading partners appreciate the benefits of having more time on receipt of orders and reduced input errors caused by re-keying information.
In addition, the software allows audit trails on every transaction and easy access to previous information held on file.
Following the success of Spectrum3, Siemens has since upgraded the software to provide additional functionality.
A review carried out by Freeway has resulted in the Siemens server hardware platform being upgraded to be more resilient and to have disaster recovery capabilities.
In the event of hardware failure there is no disruption in service availability.
Additional processor performance and storage has also been added to enable Siemens to provide an improved service to customers.
It can now handle larger volumes of documents and additional message types to customers.
The recent upgrade improves Siemens EDI system making it more robust and also now allows invoices to be translated into PDF format and sent to customers by email, in addition to the current EDI versions used by those with the capability to receive and process them.
John Goggins of Siemens said: "The recent upgrade has greatly increased the capability of our system.
It is a testament to the success of Freeway Commerce's solution Spectrum 3 so far.
We responded to customer requests and now have greater functionality to enable us to provide a much better service.
"Using Spectrum 3 to send invoices and order acknowledgements electronically also frees up management staff to do more proactive work to provide an improved customer service.
Plus we have an accurate audit trail of all invoices and orders".
In future, Siemens wants to move more of its customers over to electronic trading - some 60% of the company's product business order lines currently come in electronically.
With Spectrum 3, Siemens has an e-commerce solution that can accommodate this requirement because it handles communications using EDI and web forms.
Other companies would also be able to benefit from Spectrum 3's inherent AS2 and XML capabilities.
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