Tenor’s EDI onboarding service celebrates its 10th anniversary!
06 November 2023
06 November 2023
Tenor’s EDI supplier deployment solution was created in 2013.
In 2013, based on its long experience in EDI onboarding, Tenor realized that large industrial companies often find it very difficult to manage EDI deployment with their suppliers. The main obstacles include deployment follow-up, reminders and the poor quality of EDI messages received. A poor EDI deployment will undoubtedly lead to numerous malfunctions during production start-up.
To address this problem, Tenor decided to create a turnkey EDI supplier deployment offer. To this end, Tenor has developed the EQP (Exchange Quality Platform), an innovative collaborative tool that enables all parties to follow onboarding stages according to a pre-established scenario. The EQP platform also includes a tool for automatic analysis and validation of EDI messages and related documents (labels, BLs, etc.), as well as a complete traceability tool for exchanges between players.
The Stellantis Group (formerly PSA) was quickly won over by this solution, and entrusted Tenor with the EDI onboarding of all its suppliers worldwide.
Over the last ten years, more than 6,000 suppliers have been deployed using EQP. Every year, more than 4,000 users connect to the platform.
A dedicated Tenor team works with the customer to define the deployment process and identify the suppliers involved. Tenor experts then set up customized validation scenarios on the EQP platform, based on the customer’s logistics processes.
Tenor’s project managers contact and qualify each supplier individually, then support them through to the implementation of a functional EDI solution for each of them, based on the EQP platform.
EQP generates and sends test EDI messages to suppliers, and checks the messages and documents received. In the event of non-compliance, the supplier receives a message detailing the causes of the non-compliance and the steps to be taken to resolve it.
Suppliers and principals can access all information at any time via a web interface. The supplier can track its tests, the client follows the deployment and Tenor supervises the whole process. Suppliers also have access to the customer’s standards and documentation.
EQP is operational regardless of the EDI solution chosen, and can be used to validate any type of supplier deployment.
The project manager plays an essential role in Tenor’s EDI onboarding team. Both a logistics and technical expert, he supports the supplier on a daily basis, training him in the customer’s logistics standards and guiding him through each stage of technical deployment: Telecom connections, EDI standards used, etc.
Even with a tool as powerful as EQP, Tenor’s EDI onboarding team faces many challenges on a daily basis, due to the wide variety of suppliers to be onboarded. Project managers deal both with large companies, who already use EDI on a daily basis, and with SMEs who have never used EDI before. They also work with companies located in every time zone on the planet, which implies cultural and linguistic differences.
Over the past 10 years, Tenor’s EQP solution, has played a crucial role in simplifying and improving the EDI onboarding process. While EDI remains an essential element of the modern supply chain, we hope that this unique and innovative solution will continue to offer many companies the opportunity to achieve fast, high-quality EDI onboarding with their suppliers.