DESADV on a new path

“We would like to receive the despatch advice ahead of time or as soon as possible.” This was, in a nutshell, what Coca-Cola HBC Austria clients who took a GfK-run survey revealed in their responses. According to Sabine Puwein, who was the responsible project manager at Coca-Cola HBC Austria at the time, “accommodating our business partners and clients is a top priority for us,” which is why this suggestion was promptly implemented.

A presentation by EDI partner EDITEL about e-invoices at Coca-Cola kicked off the implementation process. “Why not send the despatch advice as a PDF document as well?” Sabine Puwein had wondered. Said and done! EDITEL was entrusted with the implementation of this project and in early June, the first client received despatch advices in PDF format during a test run. The PDFs are sent via a simple e-mail with a link. Other clients are being added gradually. “Our clients are highly interested in this service,” said Sabine Puwein, who is now proactively offering this service to all clients. This is a huge plus, especially for clients based in western provinces to which trucks oftentimes travel up to two days. They will see if products are not available or products that might have been entered incorrectly well ahead of the actual delivery, which allows these clients to react faster than ever. For Coca-Cola itself, this is a seamless process without any system inconsistencies because all data leaves the company in the EDIFACT format, the same used by all other EDI partners. EDITEL efficiently converts this data to PDFs and sends the documents.

A weekly report sent to Coca-Cola allows them to see at a glance which clients have not yet picked up their despatch advices. Sabine Puwein then actively asks these clients for feedback. “After all, we strive to continuously improve our services,” she said. To Ms. Puwein, EDITEL, the EDI partner of many years, was the obvious choice for implementing this project. “If you are about to do something new, it is important to have a partner who knows what you want. EDITEL speaks our language and is always very accommodating when it comes to meeting our needs,” she explained. This is a compelling example of the many solutions inherent to EDI, even beyond fully integrated solutions.