National Business Furniture EDI Connected Vendors Triple with SPS Fulfillment, Community

Growing Across the Decades and Evolving Beyond Legacy Systems

Since 1975, National Business Furniture (NBF) has single-mindedly focused on delivering “Beautiful Offices at Affordable Prices” to its customers. With more than 150,000 orders annually through its eCommerce site and product catalogs, NBF offers a wide assortment of furniture items often shipped within 24 hours via a streamlined supply chain and a network of drop ship vendors. The company has served over 300,000 businesses, including 477 of the Fortune 500, 93 of the largest universities, the White House and Pentagon.

“National Business Furniture wanted to more than triple the number of vendors doing EDI with us by early 2017,” said Brady Seiberlich, Director of Application Development at NBF. “In addition, we wanted to adopt more transactions to provide better inventory visibility and customer service. Our existing solution was simply too cumbersome and couldn’t onboard vendors quickly, so we changed course and partnered with SPS Commerce in 2016.”

National Business Furniture EDI Connections Added Using Proven Methods

With a goal of 90 percent of NBF orders managed by the new fulfillment solution, the Community team at SPS Commerce went to work. The dedicated professionals listened to NBF to identify and understand its vendor community, proposed communications based on proven best practices, and provided program updates as they engaged directly with NBF’s vendors. “SPS Commerce created a unique win-win solution for NBF and our retail trading partners,” said Seiberlich.

“They provided a highly professional team that took the time to understand the nuances of our business and the sensitivities of our trading partners. Overall, our vendors had a positive experience and we reached our goal.”

Aligning with Customer Expectations

With the SPS Commerce Fulfillment solution, NBF can provide inventory and shipment details from its suppliers to the NBF customer service team. Up-to-date inventory information from its drop ship suppliers allows NBF to provide only available items to its customers, minimizing the risk of backorders and stock outs.

Given the nature of their large products, it is critical for the company to proactively communicate with the customer to ensure delivery times are convenient and the office space is cleared for delivery. For example, by receiving the Advance Ship Notice (ASN) via EDI from its vendors, NBF representatives can alert customers when orders will arrive and if the furniture will be shipped in one or multiple shipments.

The next phase of growth for NBF is to onboard its carriers onto the SPS Commerce solution, thus eliminating the maintenance and use of a handful of custom EDI solutions into a single system. These logistics trading partners are a pivotal part of NBF’s supply chain success and commitment to the customer.