Optimising the Procure-to-Pay Process

GXS Active Orders automates the procure-to-pay process for companies interacting with a global and diverse supplier community. Active Orders makes it easy to quickly and col-laboratively answer questions such as: “Was my order accepted?”, “Which version of the order are you shipping against?”, “Will the order ship on time?” and “What is the status of my invoice?” Buying organisations can cost-effectively gain a powerful, unified view into data from their various ERP instances and securely extend this view to their supplier communities.

Active Orders consists of three business process modules: Order Planning and Execution, Shipping and Receiving, and Invoicing and Payment. It provides support for both tradi-tional order management and vendor managed inventory procurement methodologies. As an on-demand SaaS application, Active Orders offers implementation flexibility and empowers buyers and sellers with actionable visibility into their extended supply chains.

Order Planning and Execution

Efficiency in order planning and execution is a key performance driver in the procure-to-pay process. Despite the significant adoption of EDI and XML by larger companies, many small- and medium-sized businesses continue to rely on faxes, email and phone calls for order receipt and acknowledgement.

Active Orders provides a dashboard that offers visibility to the progression of purchase orders through each step in the lifecycle. The following activities are managed through the order Planning and Execution module:

GXS ActiveSM Orders

www.gxs.co.uk

BusinEssEs using gXs ActivE OrdErs hAvE rEAlisEd significAnt BEnEfits:

•Upto25%improvementinpurchaseorderissuancebyautomatingtheprocessoftransmittingtosuppliersandtrackingtheacknowl-edgement

•Advancedshipmentnoticesandbarcodelabelsreduceinboundwarehousereceivingtimebyupto75%

•Safetystockoptimisationbyupto15%throughbettervisibilitytoinboundshipment

•Upto80%errorreductionthroughautoidentificationtechnologysuchasweb-basedbarcodelabeling

•Automatedthree-waydocumentmatchingenablesacceleratedinvoiceapprovaltherebycreatingtheop-portunitytonegotiateearlypaymentdiscounts

Event SignalEvent Signal

DeliverySchedule

Order

GoodsReceipt

Inventory

Payment

ShipNotice

OrderResponse

Invoice

Order Lifecycle Management

Visi

bilit

y

Supplier Managem

ent

Event Monitoring

BUYERSSUPPLIERS

• Order tracking and history—Active Orders provides a real-time view into purchase orders and associated changes. All orders generated by the buyer’s ERP application are communicated to suppliers via EDI, XML or a web interface.

• Order response and commitments—Upon reviewing the details of the order, suppliers can accept, reject or propose changes to the order through comprehensive order acknowl-edgment capabilities. Buyers can configure Active Orders for suppliers to acknowledge the entire order or individual line items. With order acknowledgements, suppliers can also provide detailed ship schedules and quantity commitments.

• Purchase Order changes—As buyers initiate order changes, Active Orders automates de-livery of updates to the order and maintains a history of order revisions at the line level. By tracking PO changes electronically, buyers and suppliers can significantly reduce the frequency of exceptions in the order fulfillment process.

• vendor Managed inventory (vMi)—Buyers indicate their VMI calculation preferences and provide item master data and inventory reports to their suppliers. Suppliers then evaluate the replenishment plan proposed by the Active Orders VMI engine and can sub-sequently return sales orders or shipping schedules to the buyer to ensure maintenance of appropriate stock levels.

• Email notification—Suppliers have the option to receive automated email alerts when a new or changed order arrives. Notifications can be sent to end users responsible for order fulfillment, customer service and sales functions. Auto notification enables users to iden-tify changes to order contents, quantities and delivery dates that the supplier might not be able to achieve.

The benefits of automated order planning and execution can be substantial. Businesses using Active Orders have been able to improve buyer and supplier productivity by up to 25% by removing paper from communications and minimising the use of costly and error-prone manual interactions. Automation frees up time for more strategic activities such as negotiating price and terms, undertaking spend analysis, and optimising supplier selection.

2 • GXS ActiveSM Orders

BUYEROrder Response

Purchase Order

SUPPLIER

Traditional Order Management

BUYERSales Order/Shipping Schedule

Master Data/Inventory Report

SUPPLIER

Vendor Management Inventory

shipping and receiving

The Shipping and Receiving module can significantly improve supply chain efficiency by automating warehouse receiving and digitising documentation flows. Common shipping and receiving challenges include: • Poorvisibilitytoinboundmaterials,shipments,andin-transitinventory

• Incompleteandinaccurateshipmentinformationduetopoordataquality

• Difficultyinplanningwarehouseordistributioncentrelabourschedulesduetolackofdata on inbound shipments

• Inability to institute cross docking without visibility to inbound materials and shipments

Active Orders simplifies the shipping and receiving processes for both buyers and suppliers.

• Advance shipment notification (Asn) creation—Suppliers can generate ASNs specifying the details of the contents, arrival date and transportation carrier for an upcoming deliv-ery. ASN fields can be pre-populated from the original purchase order via a “turnaround” thereby reducing the likelihood of data errors.

• data Quality—Over 100 configurable data quality rules can be adjusted to ensure the buyer always receives an accurate and complete ASN. Business rules allow buyers to control whether multiple purchase orders can be consolidated into a single shipment (or ASN) and to ensure a single ASN is not split across multiple destinations.

• Warehouse Management system (WMs) integration—Ship notices are then directly transmitted into the buyer’s WMS. Active Orders supports interfaces to leading WMS solutions from Oracle, SAP, Red Prairie, i2, JDA, Manhattan Associates and others.

• Barcode labeling—Active Orders enables suppliers to create and print barcode labels to be affixed to the physical shipment containers. When a shipment arrives at a warehouse, the barcode label can be matched against the corresponding ASN in the WMS to facili-tate rapid check-in.

• goods receipt—An electronic goods receipt can be sent by the buyer to the supplier. The proof of delivery (POD) can be used as a trigger for billing or a closed loop signal to track shipment status.

The use of Active Orders with ASNs and barcode labels has been shown to reduce receiv-ing time by up to 75% and reduce receiving errors by 80%.

Businesses also benefit from improved inventory management. With Active Orders, buyers and suppliers have visibility to inventory in-transit and on-order as well as expected arrival timeframes. When there is an urgent need for materials, parts or finished product, buyers can confidently assess whether the inbound inventory will arrive in time or whether an expedited shipment is necessary. Thus buyers and suppliers can optimise their use of safety

3 • GXS ActiveSM Orders

BUYERShip Notice

Goods Receipt

SUPPLIER

stock and benefit from lowered transportation costs through a decrease in the reliance on expedited freight.

GXS Active Orders can facilitate complex scenarios such as direct store delivery, distri-bution centre bulk pack or mark-for-end-location shipments, and supplier drop ship or direct-to-consumer deliveries.

invoicing and Payment

The Invoicing and Payment module within the Active Orders application allows suppliers to generate accurate invoices as well as manage the payment status of invoices previously issued. More importantly, buyers can share an accurate, up-to-date view of all outstanding invoices with their supplier community.

Benefits realised through the Invoicing and Payment module of Active Orders include: • increased Accounts Payable Productivity—Suppliers can view the status of their out-

standing invoices through the Active Orders application. Self service eliminates the need for a supplier’s collections staff to phone the buyer’s accounts payable staff about invoices. As a result, the volume of phone calls to your accounts payable centres decreases and your staff productivity increases.

• faster Approvals—Electronic invoicing can automate much of the invoice capture, valida-tion and matching processes thereby reducing the time required for approval. When in-voices are processed in paper format the workflow and approval process takes much longer. Sometimes payments can be delayed resulting in damaged relationships with suppliers.

• supply chain finance—Through automation, invoices can be approved within two to three days after receipt. This enables buyers to negotiate trade discounts with suppliers for early payment. Companies may also choose to route invoices to third-party financial institutions that offer supply chain finance services.

• Access to remittance information—The Active Orders application displays remittance advice from buyers to suppliers, identifying the payment settlement date as well as the payment amount. Additionally, buyers can provide remittance details, including origi-nating bank ID, receiving bank ID, and any applicable invoice adjustment information. Using remittance advices, suppliers’ accounts receivable groups can easily identify which payments are related to which invoices and identify any discounts taken.

• data Quality—Active Orders can eliminate a significant percentage of the manual work required to validate and match invoices by performing buyer-configurable data quality checks and thresholds before the documents are delivered to the buyer’s systems. Exam-ples of this include:

– Population of all mandatory invoice fields (e.g., Purchase Order number, Remit-to-Address or General Ledger Code)

– Invoice price matches purchase order price

4 • GXS ActiveSM Orders

BUYERInvoice/Credit Note

Remittance Advice

SUPPLIER

– Invoice quantity matches actual goods shipped – Invoice quantity matches actual goods received

visibility throughout the Order lifecycle

The GXS Active Orders application allows for efficient order planning and execution between both an organisation’s internal users and its external supplier community. Active Orders pro-vides a central web-based interface that offers a common dashboard for both business partners. Business users can quickly access important new documents and order changes, as well as manage supply chain exceptions, improving supply chain efficiency through ongoing monitor-ing, faster identification of problems and rapid response capabilities.

Why gXs Active Orders?

Improving the efficiency of your supply chain yields immediate and tangible results. Reducing waste, redundancy and cost translates into better supply chain performance and higher levels of customer satisfaction. Users of Active Orders can realise gains from: • saas Application—The Active Orders application is hosted by GXS in a data centre

providing all the necessary maintenance, upgrades and support activities. As a hosted solution, Active Orders provides an overall reduced total cost of ownership (TCO) by leveraging existing supply chain integration systems and investments. SaaS applications enable buyers to avoid the capital cost required by internally licensed software. With Active Orders you can pay as you go and pay only for what you use.

• visibility across ErP Applications—Most global companies have multiple ERP systems for purchasing, invoicing, and supply chain execution. This often results in a lack of enterprise-wide visibility to the supply chain. Each organisation executes transactions dif-ferently resulting in fragmented, inconsistent processes with no internal control over the information. Active Orders acts as an overarching application into all the various ERP systems a business is operating.

GXS has over 40 years of experience in optimising supply chains to improve performance and increase customer satisfaction. Contact us today to learn more about how GXS Active Orders can deliver improved visibility and performance to your B2B program.

5 • GXS ActiveSM Orders

AboutGXSGXSisaleadingB2Bintegrationservicesproviderandoperatestheworld’slargestintegrationcloud,GXSTradingGrid®.Oursoftwareandserviceshelpmorethan550,000businesses,including22ofthetop25supplychains,extendtheirpartnernetworks,automatereceivingprocesses,manageelectronicpayments,andimprovesupplychainvisibility.GXSManagedServices,ouruniqueapproachtoimprovingB2Bintegrationoperations,combinesGXSTradingGrid®withourprocessorchestrationservicesandglobalteamtomanageacompany’smulti-enterpriseprocesses.BasedinGaithersburg,Maryland,GXShasdirectoperationsin20countries,employingmorethan2,800professionals.Tolearnmore,seehttp://www.gxs.co.uk,readourblogathttp://www.gxsblogs.comandfollowusonTwitterathttp://twitter.com/gxs.YoucanalsoaccessourpublicfilingswiththeSecuritiesandExchangeCommissionathttp://www.sec.gov/edgar.shtml.

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