SPS Commerce & Korpack: A Success Story
When a company lands a new customer that increases its revenue by 25 percent, it’s time to celebrate. However, signing with larger retail customers also comes with some strict trading requirements, often including EDI compliance. In 2017, Korpack found itself in this thrilling, but challenging, situation. They knew they would need EDI at some point, and that time had arrived.
Partnering with SPS Commerce, the packaging supplier quickly became EDI-compliant and received its first order in less than two weeks. By outsourcing their EDI operations, Korpack freed itself to focus on other aspects of supporting its customers and launching further sales initiatives to secure more large customers.
- Customer Type:
Supplier - Industry:
Packaging - Headquarters:
Bloomingdale, IL - Partner:
SWK Technologies
- SPS Product:
Fulfillment for Acumatica - ERP:
Acumatica - Customer Since:
2017
New Big Box Customer Demands EDI Compliance
In 2017, Korpack signed the company’s largest customer, a big box retailer with more than 500 stores. This new customer would represent approximately 25 percent of its sales, and more than 1,200 orders in the first six months of 2018. This account was five times the size of Korpack’s next largest customer.
“We celebrated the signing of this new customer as a significant milestone for Korpack,” said Adam Ferguson, IS Manager at Korpack. “However, compliance with the retailer’s EDI requirements was a must. We knew that we’d need EDI at some point, but hadn’t yet done so as none of our other customers had asked for it. Without an ROI component, we were holding off on EDI. We now had a big financial reason to adopt EDI and needed to move quickly.”
Choosing an EDI Partner, Not Just a Technology
Korpack immediately issued a request for quote (RFQ) to providers of EDI solutions with proven expertise in the integration of order, shipping and invoicing transactions into Korpack’s Acumatica ERP system using MAPADOC.
“We reached out to SPS Commerce and their partner, SWK Technologies, with our RFQ and found they were the outsourced solution we needed,” said Ferguson. “SPS Commerce Fulfillment for Acumatica offers the cloud-to-cloud integration to our ERP, but more so they became our EDI department taking on the staffing, best practices, and troubleshooting so that we didn’t have to. As a young organization, handing off our EDI to SPS freed us from the complexities of EDI and the need for in-house expertise.”
SPS Commerce Fulfillment for Acumatica significantly reduces manual entry requirements and increases EDI processing speed. It provides rapid trading partner compliance for Korpack and a lower total cost of ownership than in-house EDI departments.
“Our big box customer has a working relationship with SPS Commerce,” said Ferguson. “With that partnership already in place, SPS could cut through much of the red tape to speed up our compliance and deliver our first order faster. Their knowledge of the retailer’s trading requirements had us using the correct EDI formats, labeling and more from the onset.”
Today, Korpack is shipping its packaging products to more than 500 retail stores and distribution centers nationwide on behalf of this new retail customer.
Poised for More New Customers
Success breeds success, and Korpack’s entrepreneurial drive is positioning the company to become a leader in the packaging industry. Through its social media and other marketing campaigns, the manufacturer is touting its EDI capabilities to other retailers and is poised for growth.
“We want other retailers to know that we are EDI-capable and ready to meet their requirements,” said Ferguson. “And, it is all thanks to SPS Commerce.”
The Interviewee:
Adam Ferguson, IS Manager
The Challenge:
Meet the trading requirements of a new customer mandating EDI.
The Solution:
Outsource EDI operations to cut through the red tape for rapid compliance.
The Results:
Received first EDI order in less than two weeks.
