The most efficient method of selling to SMBs

Companies that sell products to multiple distributors have to rely on Internet based buying solutions that are inefficient for both the Enterprise and the buyer. Where customers are also Enterprises, existing trading standards such as EDI can be effectively implemented. However, once customers fall into the SMB category, they don’t have sufficient resources to implement these standards, forcing sellers to maintain call centre and order entry functions to deal with email, fax and phone orders or queries. Netfira Seller for Enterprise has been developed to simplify connectivity between inventory systems used by buyers and sellers of all sizes to provide real-time visibility, access and transactional capabilities.

Netfira Seller for Enterprise benefits and features

• integrates with virtually any ERP inventory application that sellers use
• integrates with buyers’ inventory/accounting system
• real-time reverse query of buyers’ inventory levels
• AES encryption for all communications and AS2 compliancy
• creates a community solution for buyers
• comprehensive data aggregation for data mining and statistical reporting

For buyers, Netfira Commerce links into their own system to access purchase orders and inventory lists. Its rich interface allows buyers to group and access multiple sellers, supports drag & drop functionality and has its own printer driver to capture output from any application. For example, a Bill of Materials contained in any spreadsheet can be printed to the ‘Netfira’ printer and automatically sent to any seller.

Case Study

Electrolux Australia recognised the efficiencies of Netfira Commerce as a means of dramatically reducing the volumes of transactions that it processes with its SMB distributors. With Netfira Commerce, Electrolux has virtually eliminated the cost of entering orders and phone call queries, while providing a solution that integrates with each distributor’s accounting system. Netfira Commerce provides the real-time price and availability required in this typical JIT supply chain environment. The benefits to Electrolux and its distributors include:

• connection to distributors’ and Electrolux’ back end systems
• real-time inventory, catalog, product, price and availability, discovery and then ordering
• custom access for different types of clients
• over 1.2 million line items placed electronically in 2008
• 300,000 plus electronic queries in 2008