Our Sales Director and I had a meeting yesterday with a client that has used our service for over six years. The purpose of the meeting was two fold. Firstly the client has intimated that they want to increase the number of trading partners they exchange Electronic Documents with and secondly we just wanted to understand how their business was going in these trying times.
Great news, their business is doing just fine. Yes, they will see some downturn because they are suppliers to the construction industry, but they had anticipated it and already had a plan to keep costs under control and had a strategy that offers more than just material supply.
The reason they wanted to meet with us, and our first reason for the meeting, was the expansion of EDI. They see this as a major cost saving and have identified the next set of suppliers they wish to bring on board. Our clients estimate of savings so far are in the region of £57,000.00 per annum. They believe that by adding the extra suppliers, plus more customers sending them orders electronically thy can increase these savings to £250,000.00.
The rally nice thing about this client's view though is that when considering the suppliers, they want the suppliers to see major benefits as well. So they want to encourage suppliers to receive electronic purchase orders so that the costs of doing business with our client are improved. Too many organisations just concentrate on the benefits to themselves, our client reckons that the supply chain is an integrated entity and so benefits for their suppliers benefit our client, which in turn benefits their clients.Everyone wins, perfect EDI.
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