Supply Chain

SuiteWorld, NetSuite & Sweet Integration Success

GraceBlood has been stalking the SuiteWorld NetSuite conference this week taking place at the Caesar’s Forum in Las Vegas.  Oracle’s NetSuite is a cloud-based ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) solution with roughly 28,000 current customers.  NetSuite offers such functionality as Accounting, Order Management, Inventory Management and Customer Relationship Management (CRM).  Good…
READ

EDI & Supply Chain Performance: Don’t Be Reactive

One of your largest customers or suppliers has mandated that to continue doing business with them, you have to be EDI compliant.  So, rather than risk losing the business, you search “EDI compliant” in your browser and are immediately presented with a dizzying number of potential suitors.  You select one…
READ

Supply Chain Lessons at RVCF

This fall’s RVCF Conference (the first in-person event since the pandemic) was held recently at the JW Marriott Camelback in Scottsdale, Arizona.  RVCF and the Marriott both did a great job with enhanced sanitization and social distancing for those in attendance and GraceBlood was there to mingle and learn!  The…
READ

The 3 Rs of 2020: Musings of a B2B Survivor

Review Some will say that 2020 was an absolute dumpster fire, but I say that it was a valuable learning experience. What I saw and learned is companies that lead do so by action, thinking outside the box, and leveraging technology to automate, connect, and transform.  Successful companies didn’t wait…
READ

Who Survives to Fight Another Day? And Who Survives to Thrive in a New Way?

Photo credit: Olgierd Rudak. The ability for your business to pivot, be flexible and adaptable with your business model, and embrace technology will be keys not only to surviving the current crisis, but for thriving in the future and crisis-proofing your business. Brick-and-mortar companies whose model is showing-up-to-shop, showing-up-to-eat, or…
READ

SBA Assistance

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash. Originally published by and reprinted with permission by our friends at Loren Data. Loren Data Corp. recognizes that many businesses are affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.  Federal, State and Local governments are coordinating their responses and more information is available daily.  To that end, we…
READ

Blockchain in the Supply Chain: Starting Blocks for Success

Photo appears courtesy of Scott Robinson. You’ve seen the increasing drumbeat of sensational headlines about supply chain blockchain, for example: A senior reporter at Computer World proclaimed in January of this year Blockchain will be the Killer App for Supply Chain Management in 2018. An article published by Forbes in February…
READ

Comparing ROI for Integrated Electronic Trading

Picture appears courtesy of GotCredit.Most retailers and e-tailers, and an increasing number of other businesses, will only purchase from suppliers who will do business via EDI or some other B2B electronic trading platform.  Not to worry:  this mandate can have tangible benefits for your company too. These benefits are both strategic…
READ

The Back-to-School Supply Chain

Photo appears courtesy of Lyn Lomasi. Ever wonder how all those school supplies make it into the extremely crowded “back to school” area of Walmart?  The process involves a tightly connected network of buyers, suppliers, EDI providers, teachers and 29 million households.  The “back to school” supply chain probably starts sometime…
READ

Electronic Trading Profiles for Profit and Fun

  You have a website, perhaps a line card, business cards, other collateral for your business, yes? And you have or soon will have the capability to exchange business documents with customers, suppliers or other trading partners via EDI or other ways that significantly reduce the time spent by your…
READ

How EDI Helped Santa Deliver Presents this Christmas

This past year, for the first time ever, online sales in the U.S. surpassed in-store purchases. An annual survey byanalytics firm comScore and UPS found that U.S. consumers are buying more things online than in stores. The survey, now in its fifth year, polled more than 5,000 consumers who made at…
READ

Purchase Order Confirmation Rates: Navigating Amazon’s New Chargebacks

Photo appears courtesy of Wendy. Amazon recently announced a new type of chargeback that will initially impact Hardlines’ Vendor Central suppliers. While this might not seem to apply to you or your other trading relationships today, Amazon more and more (like Walmart in the past) is a bellwether when it…
READ

RFID in Football – What Does This Have to do with EDI?

  Photo appears courtesy of Jonathan Holmes. RFID (radio frequency ID), a cousin to the EDI 856 ASN document, which is used to track shipment cartons along the supply chain all the way to the distribution center has a new, wider adoption in NFL football. What?!  With the Super Bowl and entertaining (and…
READ

Looking at 3PLs? Nine Questions to Ask

Photo appears courtesy of www.GlynLowe.com. Many companies are moving in the direction of having 3PL warehouses manage their inventory and order fulfillment processes as well as provide value-added services if they aren’t already. This is enabling these companies to reduce their space requirements and become more streamlined. Another result of…
READ

What Do Smooth Jazz and Efficient EDI Systems Have in Common?

Photo appears courtesy of Elena Gatti. Here at GraceBlood we’re all about jazz-based business. Really! Smooth jazz that is, where clients’ supply and fulfillment transactions flow seamlessly and melodically over integrated EDI & other B2B systems. Smooth jazz, building a downtempo of humming business activity that leaves the key players…
READ