Transparent supply chain - Put on track

To find information about their shipments, customers of a high-tech distributor (specialty retailer) had to log into its system and start a shipment search.

However, the results could not be displayed here, but referred to the websites of the parcel service providers. The time-consuming search resulted in a high volume of inquiries to the distributor's customer service.

The One Track transport management solution links the distributor's SAP system and its ordering system for specialist dealers with the logistics service providers (LDL) used.

One Track serves as a central cloud where all information from the SAP system, the ordering system and the systems of the logistics service providers converge.

Shipment status and "Proofs of Delivery" (PODs) are obtained by One Track through the connection to the LDL. This information is passed on in real time to the ordering system, which dealers can also view. One Track receives order and purchase order data from the ordering system.

Unified language

Once an order has been entered, the ordering system communicates with SAP, where consignments are formed, logistics service providers are assigned and the unique number of the shipping unit is allocated.

Via One Track, the selected LDL receives the transport data relevant to it. Since One Track ensures a uniform mapping, the distributor receives the transit times of the logistics service providers uniformly delivered to his SAP system without having to adjust the information there.

He can therefore use and measure the data of all service providers used directly in SAP. The advantage for retailers: thanks to the harmonization of shipment statuses, there is a uniform language, regardless of which service provider is used to transport the goods.

By integrating the track & trace solution into the ordering system, the distributor can provide retailers with real-time shipment tracking that allows them to view their shipment status independently.

This results in the following advantages: The centrally visible transparency over the entire transport process enables retailers to optimize resource planning. In addition, they can promptly trigger invoicing for direct deliveries.

With active notification, retailers are informed of shipment progress by e-mail on request. Problems can thus be identified at an early stage and enable rapid action to be taken. Thanks to independent shipment tracking, call center inquiries have been reduced by 80 percent.

This eliminates 15 hours of additional effort per day in customer support. Another aspect is that with One Track, the distributor has a tool for evaluating the performance of logistics service providers.

The evaluation is possible worldwide and can be broken down to zip code areas. Initially, the SAP and ordering system was connected to One Track.

The data was made available from SAP to the One-Track services via the CSV format. The SAP IDoc format appeared to be too complex due to the short time in the conversion. In principle, however, both the connection via SAP IDoc (e.g. SHPMNT) and via Edifact IFTMIN make sense for the data formats.

The feedback of the status data of the logistics service providers can also be done via both ways (Edifact IFTSTA). The basic data was integrated from the SAP system via sftp into the cloud. The data feedback to the SAP system takes place via an XML file.

The logistics service providers were integrated with the existing cloud services (private/public) via agent technologies. When connecting the LDL to the cloud, a standard Edifact IFTMIN can basically be used for the transmission of transport orders and notifications. The shipment data exchange can be realized with an Edifact IFTSTA.