SPS Commerce & Vaxcel International: A Network Success Story

SPS Commerce Fulfillment, with its pre-built, embedded connection powered by zedSuite, provided an integrated EDI solution to replace Vaxcel’s manual order processes, added the new trading documents desired by its retail customers and increased its order volumes by 20 percent without adding new staff. The newly automated process has resulted in fewer errors and improved relationships with its retail customers. The company was recently awarded an A+ rating by its retail partners for supply chain excellence, a clear sign that Vaxcel is leading its industry.

Overhauling systems

Vaxcel has more than three decades of experience in providing innovative lighting and ceiling fan products for today’s consumer. Today the company offers more than 1,500 products, sold primarily through online retailers and delivered direct-to-consumer, or drop-ship. In 2015, the supplier sought to upgrade its supply chain systems, with particular emphasis on upgrading efficiency of order entry and the addition of a warehouse management system (WMS). After selecting SAP Business One for its ERP and WMS, Vaxcel ultimately chose SPS Commerce’s cloud-based EDI offering, SPS Commerce Fulfillment, and its proven connector to SAP Business One.

SPS Commerce Fulfillment is a pre-built solution that makes it easy to integrate electronic order transactions from retailers with a supplier’s SAP Business One solution. As an integrated offering, suppliers can significantly reduce or eliminate manual entry of orders and other documents, improve ship timeliness, and connect with existing trading partners including retailers, 3PLs, and warehouses.

Simultaneously deploying its new systems from SAP and SPS in late 2015, Vaxcel realized impressive improvements in the efficiency of order processing versus its legacy system. “It was a brand-new world for Vaxcel,” stated Donald Brown, vice president of operations at Vaxcel. “SAP and SPS provided the integrated solution to scale our business and manage the ever-increasing demands of dropship orders from our online retail partners. Today we are managing 20 percent more orders with fewer errors, and reallocated our Customer Service resources to provide more proactive one-on-one customer support.”

It’s a dropship world

With the majority of its orders shipping directly from Vaxcel to the consumer on the retailer’s behalf, providing timely and accurate shipping details to its retail customers is expected and critical to meeting consumers’ expectations. To achieve this, Vaxcel has added shipping notices and credits to its EDI trading relationships since deploying SPS Fulfillment. In the coming months, the supplier will also begin delivering inventory details via EDI to communicate its stock levels to its retail customers more effectively. “Our advances haven’t gone unnoticed by our retail customers,” said Tim Sokolowski, operations manager at Vaxcel. “They recently honored us with an A+ grade for compliance and supply chain excellence. It’s all thanks to the efficiencies delivered with our integrated solution from SAP and SPS Commerce.”

Leaving EDI to the experts

As consumers’ needs expand and order cycles become more complex, especially with 95 percent of its orders fulfilled via drop ship, Vaxcel was eager to partner with a provider that offered the technology and expertise to manage its EDI operations on their behalf. “Our IT staff is needed for other internal initiatives, and by choosing SPS, we could reallocate them to these projects,” said Brown. “We know a lot about distribution, but not about EDI. SPS educated us on how it benefited our trading relationships and is our first line of contact for any issues or onboarding with new retail customers. They monitor our transactions, proactively update our retail integrations, and watch our document usage to keep us within our subscription. They are truly all-stars.”