IBM Case Studies IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services: A Game Changer for Bonnie Plants

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	IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services: A Game Changer for Bonnie Plants IBM

IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services: A Game Changer for Bonnie Plants

IBM

Technology Category	Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Middleware, SDKs & Libraries
Applicable Industries	Consumer Goods Retail
Applicable Functions	Sales & Marketing
Use Cases	Retail Store Automation Supply Chain Visibility
Services	System Integration
Challenge	Bonnie Plants, a national plant wholesaler based in Alabama, was grappling with the challenges of manual data processing which made them vulnerable to human errors and long delays. The company was using IBM Sterling's Gentran:Director® for EDI and Sterling Collaboration NetworkSM for their VAN services since 1994. However, the sales data took up to three days to process, leading to a feeling of being overwhelmed with data. The processing of sales orders could take an entire day and was subject to human error. After pulling information across a dial-up modem, Bonnie often discovered the data was incomplete. The company was continuously facing the challenges of trading electronically with little visibility. Moreover, 70 percent of their business occurred between the months of March and May, which required a scalable solution that could handle a large influx of data during a short period of time. Read More
About Customer	Bonnie Plants began in 1918 in a backyard and has grown to include 68 growing stations around the country. The company currently has 450 sales representatives servicing more than 13,000 accounts. As a national plant wholesaler based in Alabama, Bonnie is dedicated to supplying retail stores throughout the United States and Canada with the best herb, flower, and vegetable plants available. As part of Alabama Farmers Cooperative (AFC), a regionally federated supply and marketing agricultural cooperative, Bonnie has brought top-quality plants to gardeners across the country throughout the company’s history. AFC acquired its most profitable division, Bonnie in 1975. Read More
Solution	In 2007, Bonnie Plants recognized that Sterling B2B Integration Services would allow them to remain competitive while reducing their overall costs. The implementation process began in September, and by December, all trading partners were moved. The solution was deployed in phases to ensure Bonnie’s business would not be interrupted during implementation. Sterling B2B Integration Services now enables Bonnie to connect people, processes, and technology across boundaries. Each time a Bonnie product is scanned at a retail store, the information is collected, put into a common layout, and then processed immediately. This real-time visibility allows salesmen to drop off new plants where and when they are needed. Sterling B2B Integration Services processes invoices, adjustments, payment orders, remittance advice, purchase orders, product activity data, and customer text messages for Bonnie. Bonnie now processes, on average, 90,000 documents per month, with around six million transactions during their peak season of March through May. Read More Log in to view content
Contents

Technology Category

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration

Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Middleware, SDKs & Libraries

Applicable Industries

Consumer Goods

Retail

Applicable Functions

Sales & Marketing

Use Cases

Retail Store Automation

Supply Chain Visibility

Services

System Integration

Challenge

Bonnie Plants, a national plant wholesaler based in Alabama, was grappling with the challenges of manual data processing which made them vulnerable to human errors and long delays. The company was using IBM Sterling's Gentran:Director® for EDI and Sterling Collaboration NetworkSM for their VAN services since 1994. However, the sales data took up to three days to process, leading to a feeling of being overwhelmed with data. The processing of sales orders could take an entire day and was subject to human error. After pulling information across a dial-up modem, Bonnie often discovered the data was incomplete. The company was continuously facing the challenges of trading electronically with little visibility. Moreover, 70 percent of their business occurred between the months of March and May, which required a scalable solution that could handle a large influx of data during a short period of time.

About Customer

Bonnie Plants began in 1918 in a backyard and has grown to include 68 growing stations around the country. The company currently has 450 sales representatives servicing more than 13,000 accounts. As a national plant wholesaler based in Alabama, Bonnie is dedicated to supplying retail stores throughout the United States and Canada with the best herb, flower, and vegetable plants available. As part of Alabama Farmers Cooperative (AFC), a regionally federated supply and marketing agricultural cooperative, Bonnie has brought top-quality plants to gardeners across the country throughout the company’s history. AFC acquired its most profitable division, Bonnie in 1975.

Solution

In 2007, Bonnie Plants recognized that Sterling B2B Integration Services would allow them to remain competitive while reducing their overall costs. The implementation process began in September, and by December, all trading partners were moved. The solution was deployed in phases to ensure Bonnie’s business would not be interrupted during implementation. Sterling B2B Integration Services now enables Bonnie to connect people, processes, and technology across boundaries. Each time a Bonnie product is scanned at a retail store, the information is collected, put into a common layout, and then processed immediately. This real-time visibility allows salesmen to drop off new plants where and when they are needed. Sterling B2B Integration Services processes invoices, adjustments, payment orders, remittance advice, purchase orders, product activity data, and customer text messages for Bonnie. Bonnie now processes, on average, 90,000 documents per month, with around six million transactions during their peak season of March through May.

Impact #1	The implementation of Sterling B2B Integration Services has brought about significant operational improvements for Bonnie Plants. The company now has the technical ability to meet their customers’ requirements pertaining to data translation. They have been able to increase profitability by reducing costs and increasing reliability of their B2B operations. The onboarding of new trading partners, which was once a daunting task, has now become faster and more accurate. The company also uses Sterling B2B Integration Services to ensure business critical documents are processed on-time, which allows for better service and faster sales turnarounds. The ease of implementation ensured that their business was not affected during the implementation process. A high degree of proactive support through a single-point-of-contact for all business issues, escalations, and questions, as well as an assigned customer service representative, ensured a smooth delivery of the solution without interruption to their business.

Impact #1

The implementation of Sterling B2B Integration Services has brought about significant operational improvements for Bonnie Plants. The company now has the technical ability to meet their customers’ requirements pertaining to data translation. They have been able to increase profitability by reducing costs and increasing reliability of their B2B operations. The onboarding of new trading partners, which was once a daunting task, has now become faster and more accurate. The company also uses Sterling B2B Integration Services to ensure business critical documents are processed on-time, which allows for better service and faster sales turnarounds. The ease of implementation ensured that their business was not affected during the implementation process. A high degree of proactive support through a single-point-of-contact for all business issues, escalations, and questions, as well as an assigned customer service representative, ensured a smooth delivery of the solution without interruption to their business.

Benefit #1	Bonnie now processes, on average, 90,000 documents per month, with around six million transactions during their peak season of March through May.
Benefit #2	Bonnie has gained real-time, end-to-end visibility and control over their business processes internally and external trading partners.
Benefit #3	Bonnie adds customers faster and more accurately.

Benefit #1

Bonnie now processes, on average, 90,000 documents per month, with around six million transactions during their peak season of March through May.

Benefit #2

Bonnie has gained real-time, end-to-end visibility and control over their business processes internally and external trading partners.

Benefit #3

Bonnie adds customers faster and more accurately.

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Overview

IBM Sterling B2B Integration Services: A Game Changer for Bonnie Plants

Operational Impact

Quantitative Benefit