NetSuite and EDI: A Natural Choice for Organic Food Companies

As the leading ERP for food and beverage companies, NetSuite’s Food ERP software provides a new level of automation. For the supply chain, NetSuite’s Food ERP goes a long way in providing more control and visibility. But most food companies want the extended visibility of what happens to their orders beyond their walls. This is where EDI can help. Adding an EDI integration solution for NetSuite provides the capabilities natural food companies truly need, without leaving the NetSuite solution.

Using EDI integration for NetSuite, organic food companies can:

• Improve order accuracy
• Provide lot traceability
• Cut costs to protect margins
• Grow with confidence

Companies of all sizes use EDI to support their Sales Order process in NetSuite but finding the right EDI partner is the first step toward success.

As organic food companies grow, so do their needs. Jonny Pops, a frozen treat supplier, went from a few pushcarts to the global distribution of its products in a few years. To manage this growth, they use NetSuite’s Food & Beverage Edition and SPS Commerce to provide EDI integration for NetSuite.

With growth, came choices for Jonny Pops. Businesses must choose what skills they need in-house and which functions are not core competencies. These are outsourced or managed by a trusted partner. EDI wasn’t something that the Jonny Pops team wanted to staff internally, but it was essential for growth. They needed a solution consisting of easy-to-use technology backed by a team that was constantly monitoring their data and was accessible at any time. They needed full-service EDI Integration for NetSuite from SPS Commerce.

“We essentially think of SPS as our EDI department, and so it is absolutely not just the technology,” said Connor Wray, Co-Founder, and CFO of Jonny Pops. “It is also the people who help us onboard new retailers, who help us troubleshoot problems, and who help us think about ways that we can use the technology to add even more value into our internal business processes or into those relationships with the retailers.”

The grocery industry has its own way of doing things, and EDI is no different. Food and beverage companies use specific EDI transactions that are tailored for the grocery industry. For example, instead of the generic purchase order document (EDI 850), food businesses typically use the Grocery Product Purchase Order (EDI 875). The grocery version of this transaction includes only those details that grocers and food distributors care about.

Natural food products suppliers should look for EDI providers that know their NetSuite system, but also have on-staff experts in grocery EDI. And, they should have satisfied customers in the food and beverage industry. Fortunately, this is where a full-service provider, like SPS, excels. SPS has staff who have worked in the food business and have thousands of food businesses happily using our solutions. We connect vendors via EDI with grocery retailers and distributors including Kroger, Safeway, Shamrock Foods, Sprouts Farmers Market, Target, Thrive Markets, Trader Joe’s, UNFI, Walmart and Whole Foods, and keep our integrations compliant with each and every one.

Our NetSuite customers share many of the same traits. One of the most common things I hear is that they don’t want to devote time to understand every retailer’s unique trading requirements, or, keep up with them as they change over time (like adding ecommerce). It’s not surprising as these guidelines are very detailed and lengthy. Full-service providers supply the technology, understanding of trading partner requirements, and experts to take on the activities needed to keep food orders flowing.

By partnering with a proven NetSuite EDI provider, food businesses will jumpstart the benefits of doing EDI. By automating the flow of order data, human errors from data entry are in the past. (NetSuite can also help fuel your company’s digital transformation.) Orders are accurate and timely, saving money from the chargebacks and inefficiencies driven by these mistakes. Order entry staff can be freed from this task and reassigned to other areas of the business.

Food businesses also find that EDI provides them with the data needed to support recalls. EDI documents contain the lot numbers within each order, making finding the data needed to track any potentially contaminated products easily accessible.

These are only a few of the benefits that natural food companies experience when adding EDI to their NetSuite ERP. Learn more about NetSuite EDI integration and full-service EDI from SPS by watching our 3-minute video today.

Emily Curran, Senior Product Manager

Emily is a product manager at SPS Commerce specializing in creating efficiencies for our Oracle + NetSuite customers. Her understanding of the demand for increased supply chain optimization, intimate knowledge of our customers’ business problems, and close partner alignment with Oracle + NetSuite ensure our product roadmap adds the most value for our customers.