© 2010 DiCentral Corporation. All Rights Reserved. All other products, company names or logos are trademarks and/or service marks of their respective owners. v1-10 /10

119 9 N ASA Park way < Houston, Texas 770 5 8 < te l : 281.4 8 0.1121 < fax : 281.218 .4 810 < par tners@dicentra l .com < w w w.d icentra l .com

c a s e s t u d y

Company profile:

Founded in 1977, this US manufacturing company fabricates parts for the automotive industry, as well as a number of other industries, including lawn and garden, electronics, construction, marine, and HVAC. The company specializes in stamping, fabricating, welding, engineering, tooling, and assembly.

The Challenge:

The manufacturer was experiencing problems with the EDI system they were using. They were receiving duplicate automotive orders and spending a great deal of time sorting through them. Also taking their valuable time was the task of manual order entry into Macola, their ERP system.

inaCCuraTe orders = poTenTial problems

The manufacturer was using an EDI system from a widely known EDI company that did not have the capability to accurately process automotive releases. Duplicate orders were becoming a huge problem, a problem that the previous EDI company could not handle.

“It was a disaster,” stated the information systems specialist and solution user for the manufacturing company.

The manufacturer’s biggest customer sends approximately 190 orders a week, and over 200 changes to current orders. The previous EDI provider could not adequately handle these frequent order changes. The company needed a system that could accurately handle the orders and updates. Duplicate orders would cause wrong orders to be shipped. With every wrong order shipped, the company would be forced to hustle to ship the correct order, resulting in late shipments, chargebacks, and unhappy customers.

manual enTry is a WasTe of Time

Along with hundreds of orders received every week and dealing with duplicates, the company was burdened with manually entering orders into their ERP system, Macola. This task was taking approximately 15 hours to complete every week. This overwhelming amount of manual data entry was not only time consuming, but it carried the risk of human error. A snowball effect of wrong data entered and wrong invoice amounts could lead to costly complications and further dissatisfied customers.

In order to scale with new business and continue supplying orders with the high standards for which they are known, the manufacturer needed to reevaluate its EDI system.

Manufacturer achieves eDi accuracy anD Macola integration with Base2 eDi

© 2010 DiCentral Corporation. All Rights Reserved. All other products, company names or logos are trademarks and/or service marks of their respective owners. v1-10 /10

119 9 N ASA Park way < Houston, Texas 770 5 8 < te l : 281.4 8 0.1121 < fax : 281.218 .4 810 < par tners@dicentra l .com < w w w.d icentra l .com

The soluTion:

The manufacturer chose Base2’s Automotive EDI which provides a completely automated EDI process, integration to Macola ERP, and a reputation of excellent customer support.

aCCuraCy and auTomaTion delivered

With the capability to extract firm orders from incoming documents and add them to data files, while also allowing for viewing of orders, Base2’s solution delivers increased order accuracy and automation. The solution also has built-in update capabilities for order changes and notifications of any discrepancies.

“Before, the order process was complicated, but now the process is far more streamlined and accurate,” states the solution user. “Our shipping team and production team all have experienced the benefits of Base2 software.”

Base2’s EDI software package provides accurate and efficient communication for the manufacturer’s order processing. The manufacturer leverages AutoDial, a subsystem that automatically receives orders based on the company’s schedule. For the manufacturer, the orders are ready and waiting before personnel arrive at work. “We have Autodial set up to receive our orders at 3:00 am. We don’t have to do anything.”

Autodial is easy to install and schedules can be configured for each trading partner, creating an automated environment.

“Shipping schedules now look better than ever before. In the past, orders would be sent back or were duplicated, but now those problems have been solved and each of our trading partners has been customized so that the schedules are more accurate than ever. Thanks to Base2, our accuracy level is now 99.9%!”

auTomaTiC inTegraTion To maCola

The company takes advantage of MacLink, Base2’s subsystem that allows easy integration with Exact Macola ERP. The interface directly populates Macola Order Entry files. It uses the information in Macola to assign order numbers to the new orders Base2 creates. Updates to existing Macola orders are also possible, using the information stored in Base2’s software.

Instead of 15 hours a week spent manually entering order data, it now takes only 30 minutes to complete their customers’ orders: “The process is so easy; you simply tell the Base2 software the name of the customer in Macola.”

CusTomer supporT When The Company needs iT mosT

When the manufacturing company implemented Base2 EDI, they also received support from Base2’s solution specialists to guide them through set-up.

According to the manufacturer, “We had an influx of trading partners that needed to be connected, six to be exact. Base2’s customer support had the partners connected within a few days.”

The manufacturer also utilizes Base2 support for any EDI issues that arise. “Unlike many other EDI service providers, Base2 does not have an automated phone system. Every time we contacted customer support, we were connected to a support member that had the answers to our problems.”