EDITEL Journal EN 1/2022

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EDITORIAL

© Petra Spiola

VIENNA

The many faces of EDI For more than two decades, part of my professional life has revolved around a key technology called EDI. To me, everything EDI is still exciting since no two projects Gerd Marlovits are ever the same. In spite of the CEO standardized nature of this technology, there are many faces to EDI, as evidenced by our clients’ greatly varying specifications. Therefore, every project is one-of-a-kind and so is our customized EDI solution. This includes finding the right point in time for switching from a simple, web-based solution to a fully automated one. Read our latest cover story to learn about three practical examples that explain this in detail.

© ORLEN Unipetrol

EDI also has many faces when it comes to the people working behind the scenes to ensure that our clients’ information logistics works like clockwork. This helps us build trust across industries and national borders.

A long-established company such as Österreichische ­Mensen, the Czech mineral oil company Unipetrol, the innovative company VeggieMeat GmbH and the G ­ erman chocolate manufacturer Delitzscher all have one thing in common: “We trust the customized and p­ersonal ­assistance by our EDITEL team!” To us, this is both praise and an incentive to keep going the extra mile.

LEAVING THE FLOOD OF DOCUMENTS BEHIND

Happy reading!

Gerd Marlovits PS: Have you seen our EDI Blog? Please visit www.editel.eu/edi-blog for periodic information and interesting news from the world of EDI.

The Czech oil processor ORLEN Unipetrol has found just the right solution for its paper invoices. A web-based customer portal by EDITEL allows the company to save money.

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RLEN Unipetrol Group approached its EDI service provider EDITEL with very specific ideas for its plan to digitalize its entire invoicing system: “We wanted our future process to include a web-based portal where our customers can download all relevant tax documents themselves, in addition to invoices. Also, we wanted to be able to track the corresponding flow of documents to our clients,” said Robert Hejkal, Head of Wholesale and Logistics at ORLEN Unipetrol. This is exactly what ORLEN Petrol got from EDITEL. ORLEN Unipetrol‘s clients now have access to a user-friend­

ly interface where they can find all invoice-related documents. “The biggest advantage of this portal is that it has an integrated document archive. This is directly integrated into ORLEN Unipetrol‘s in­ frastructure, meaning that it is available to clients 24/7,” explained Štefan Sádovský, EDITEL CEO CZ & SK.

Straightforward, swift, and environmentally friendly More than anything, this solution stands out for its straightforward implementation. There is nothing

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eb-based customer portal for ORLEN Unipetrol W Paperless and sustainable In brief Other news from the EDITEL Group

eb-based customer portal for ORLEN Unipetrol – continued 2 WEfficient and sustainable Meatless and paperless at VeggieMeat EDI and ERP system integration itting the sweet spot 3 HDelitzscher introduces EDI processes Polish tradition and forward-thinking mindset A winning combination at Tradycja i Jakość

IN BRIEF eXite®: More than just data exchange! www.editel.eu/exite-more-than-just-data-exchange

Take the efficiency of your supply chain to the next level www.editel.eu/edi-solutions/edi-integration

Reducing costs by switching to EDI www.editel.eu/reducing-costs-by-switching-to-edi

Highlights of the Odette International Conference www.editel.eu/odette-international-conference

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ARTICLES IN THIS ISSUE

Do you speak ‘American’ EDI?” 4 “Shawmut was looking for a solution to communicate with the USA

The EDITEL JOURNAL is published as a supplement to GS1 Information in a total of 13,000 copies. It is available in German, English as well as in Czech, Slovak, Hungarian and Croatian for our international clients. To download the Journal as an epaper, please visit www.editel.eu/ editel-journal. If you have any suggestions, please contact us at info@editel.at

editelJOURNAL Corporate Magazine of the EDITEL Group

ABOUT ORLEN ­UNIPETROL The refining and petrochemical group ORLEN Unipetrol is an important player in the Czech industrial sector. It is the only petroleum processor in the Czech Republic, one of the major producers of plastics, and the owner of the largest network of Benzina ORLEN gas stations. The company is also well established in the field of refinery and petrochemical production in Central and Eastern Europe.

Since 2005, the company has been part of the PKN ORLEN Refining and Petrochemicals Group.

that clients need to install. All they need are an Internet browser and their login information. Communication between the customer portal and the company‘s ERP system is automated and happens in the background, with all data synchronized at regular intervals. Once a client has downloaded an invoice, ORLEN Unipetrol will auto-

matically receive a corresponding confirmation. This not only saves an enormous amount of time, but also has a positive impact on the environment, as it eliminates all paper documents that used to go around the company during the invoicing process, which added up to quite a flood of documents. Another positive effect is the cost savings, as postage for sending paper invoices becomes obsolete.

© ORLEN Unipetrol

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Guaranteed flexibility A very flexible solution was also found for despatch advices, where paper doc­ uments are still standard practice because of the required signature: these are scanned by the financial account­ ing department and then electronically attached to the tax document as a PDF file. “This allows us to process ­several hundred documents per day,” said Robert Hejkal. According to ­Štefan Sádovský, the successful implementation of this project is “mainly a

result of the intensive exchange of information with our client ORLEN Unipetrol. This gives us flexibility for responding to specific requirements and developing solutions that are in line with internal processes.”

In addition to the flexible approach, security was another priority for ­ ­EDITEL. For example, there are periodic security audits for the user portal to ensure a maximum level of security

for available documents. The client was clearly happy with the result: “Thanks to EDITEL‘s professional support, we can now offer our clients a top-of-the-line product for in­­ voic­ ing, which is one the most ­important business processes at any company,” said Robert Hejkal. n

unipetrol.cz

NO MEAT + NO PAPER = NO PROBLEM This is the formula for success at VeggieMeat GmbH, a company that relies on paperless ­communication via EDI for the distribution of its innovative meat substitutes.

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eat made of peas? Is that even possible? It is, and this is the recipe for success at VeggieMeat ­ GmbH. Under the brand name ­“vegini,” the company has been selling innovative meat and fish substitutes made of pea protein since 2015. Sustainability and the responsible use of

eployment of an EDI solution that integrates D into the BMD ERP system Assistance and technical support by EDITEL during the entire project cycle In-depth collaboration and coordination among all involved parties: VeggieMeat, BMD, and EDITEL as well as SPAR, the first retail client Data conversion and transfer for orders (ORDERS), despatch advices (DESADV), and invoices (INVOIC) via the EDI platform eXite Assistance for trading partner onboarding

ABOUT VEGGIEMEAT GMBH Established in St. Georgen am Ybbsfelde in Lower Austria in 2015, the company produces innovative meat and fish substitutes from pea protein. Products are sold in several European countries under the brand name ”vegini“.

Production processes were specifically developed to allow VeggieMeat to offer products without preservatives and flavor enhancers that consumers love for their meatlike texture, high protein content, and flexible use.

© VeggieMeat

IN BRIEF

resources are VeggieMeat‘s priorities for the production of its 100% natural and vegan products, says Andreas Gebhart, the CEO, who used to man­ age his parents’ butcher shop. When working with retailers and business partners, VeggieMeat also uses a responsible and resource-friendly ­ approach. “Easy and transparent processes are key for us,” Mr. Gebhart pointed out. Last year, the company headquartered in Lower Austria quite fittingly received the “GS1 Sync Star Award” for its exemplary use of data.

When it comes to exchanging data, VeggieMeat has a similar mindset:

since early 2022, the company has been relying on EDI for the fully automated processing of orders ­ (ORDERS), ­ dispatch advices ­(DESADV), and invoices (INVOIC).

This was made possible by an ­EDITEL-provided solution that was integrated directly into the BMD ERP system to ensure smooth communication processes with retailers.

According to Tanja Wippl, who is r­ ­ esponsible for accounting and ­reporting at VeggieMeat, the project implemention was smooth: “The interplay between EDITEL, BDM, ­ and us was just perfect!” What Ms. Wippl found particularly helpful was

“the long-standing experience and great contacts between EDITEL and SPAR”. The latter was also the first retail partner with whom EDI operations were successfully introduced last year. The client is highly satisfied with the result: “While we used to enter orders manually, this is now a fully automated process. The time saving is huge,” said Tanja Wippl.

Andreas Gebhart agrees, stating that he is “positive that we have taken an important and correct step towards the way we want to work in the future.” n vegini.at

editelJOURNAL Corporate Magazine of the EDITEL Group

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© Delitzscher, © apomares – iStockphoto.com

ABOUT DELITZSCHER SCHOKOLADENFABRIK GMBH

HITTING THE SWEET SPOT The products by German chocolate maker Delitzscher certainly hit the sweet spot, and its newly introduced EDI processes are just as sweet.

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ave you ever heard of “Halloren chocolates”? They were considered the “people‘s chocolate of the German Democratic Republic.” Filled with delicious cream and covered in tasty chocolate, they soon attracted a Germany-wide cult following after the country‘s reunification. These chocolates are just one of many signature products by Delitzscher Schokoladenfabrik. In addition, Delitzscher primar­ ily produces a large variety of choco­

late-based products for retailers and industrial manufacturers. For its business transactions with its partners, Delitzscher has been using EDI for ­ many years, even though, as Angela Waßmuth, the deputy in-house sales director and SAP officer at Delitzscher, put it: “The old EDI solution was showing its age and was giving us ­ plenty of headaches.”

Luckily, this is no longer the case. ­Delitzscher first heard about EDITEL

during the company’s collaboration with ADEG Austria and the EDI connection that was needed for it. ­Earlier this year, the chocolate maker entrusted EDITEL with the entire transition and onboarding process with ADEG and REWE. The client was very happy with the result, especially the “professional and personalized approach used by EDITEL during the entire project,” said Angela Waßmuth.

She found the “weekly meetings and

Established in 1894 and named after the company‘s headquarters in Germany, Delitzscher Schokoladenfabrik’s corporate history dates back more than 100 years. An expert in all things chocolate and confectionery, the company has a long-standing corporate tradition and focuses on the business areas of private labels, co-manufacturing, and corporate brands. In addition to a selected portfolio of in-house brands, Delitzscher primarily produces high-quality products for retailers and industrial manufacturers.

periodic coordination prior to the project” particularly helpful. “This ­ allowed us to identify any potential ­ challenges early on,” Ms. Waßmuth explained and went on to say that the next logical step is for ­ EDITEL to handle any future EDI connections at Delitzscher: “After all, whenever there is an issue, EDITEL’s response times are unparalleled. This level of personal assistance is worth so much more than any ticketing system,” she said. It sure looks like EDITEL has hit the sweet spot. n delitzscher.de

SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTATION OF ELECTRONIC DATA ­INTERCHANGE AT TRADYCJA I JAKOŚĆ The introduction of EDI Tradycja i Jakość sp. z o.o. shows that small companies are increasingly interested in the benefits of EDI. The system was deployed three years ago with the assistance of EDISON SA. was to incorporate documents into the IT system. At the same time, support for documents delivered by the operator, i.e. EDISON, was launched. EDISON trained the staff, reviewed XML files previously created

by T&J, created the connection, and carried out a pilot project with five selected clients. The ultimate goal was to eliminate all potential problems in the flow of communication.

Traditional yet modern

EDI service implementation

While it took merely a week to implement EDI and launch the SAFE invoice archiving system, T&J spent

Phasing out paper documents

© andresr – – iStockphoto.com

Tradycja i Jakość Sp. z o. o. (T&J) is a Polish company with an interesting history. It was founded in Wrocław in 1989 under the name of Społem Powszechna Spółdzielnia Spożywców Północ. Following a restructuring in 2015, it currently has a sales network with 13 retail outlets. One of the most prestigious outlets is T&J Delicatessen in Pasaż Grunwaldzki. T&J is a company that is deeply rooted in the Polish trading tradition while having a forward-looking and for­ ward-thinking mindset. In 2019, the company started working with EDISON SA and since then has ­ ­consistently been implementing EDI communication as its first choice for exchanging business documents with its business partners.

about four months preparing for the project. The EDI technology was implemented in stages. The first step was the automated processing of e-mail attachments. These were an addition to hard copies, and the goal

After the pilot phase was completed, T&J went through a list of companies that had previously expressed their willingness to exchange documents in EDI format and these clients were then connected to the system. In 2019, another rollout was implemented specifically for companies that did not use EDI. The project included e-invoices, orders, automatic matching and validation of invoices and corrective invoices with delivery notes and returns as well as APERAK message

BENEFITS The main benefit of EDI is that it eliminates most of the manual work required for document processing. Even though Tradycja i Jakość operates on a much smaller scale than larger retailers, the automation of more than 100,000 documents greatly reduces the time and effort required for processing. While the manual process used to take roughly a week, this is now done in a matter of minutes. Also, thanks to EDI, the paper archive is now much smaller and lost invoices are a thing of the past, which speeds up the entire process. Additionally, and very importantly, errors have been largely eliminated. Another benefit is that T&J has become more attractive for large suppliers. With the support of EDI messages, retail chains can negotiate better purchase prices, which makes life easier for suppliers.

exchange, which is the EDI confirmation for invoice delivery. Since ­EDISON had introduced an electronic communication channel with most vendors, paper documents gradually became obsolete. n tradycjaijakosc.com.pl

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editelJOURNAL Corporate Magazine of the EDITEL Group

“DO YOU SPEAK ‘AMERICAN’ EDI?” The automotive supplier Shawmut was looking for a solution to communicate with their IT department in the USA.

© gerenme – iStockphoto.com

ABOUT SHAWMUT

T

his was the question that the Editel CZ team got from Shawmut, one of the world‘s leading au­ tomotive suppliers headquartered in Prague, last year. Since Shawmut was looking for a solution to communicate with their central IT department in the USA, the question was not merely a figurative one. After all, standard protocols and formats used in EDI communication in the USA are completely different from those used in Europe. For example, the AS2 protocol is used instead of the OFTP2 protocol which is commonly used in Austria. In addition, the format of transmitted doc­ uments does not correspond to European standards either. ODETTE standards used in Europe typically include VDA and EDIFACT, while Americans generally use the ANSI X.12 format (American National Standards Institute).

Creating connections

The right technology

According to Radek Mašek, Jomar administrator at Shawmut ČR, the reason why Shawmut chose to turn to EDITEL CZ with this request was “that most US companies were unable to establish EDI connections between systems that use US and EU standards. In addition, when it comes to communication with our Czech subsidiary, it made sense for us to have an EDI partner based in the Czech Republic, especially in view of the language and time zone.” Ultimately, Shawmut entrust­ ed EDITEL with creating centralized OFTP2 communication processes that would allow Shawmut to send and receive EDI documents through a single point of access.

The specification was for documents to be sent via OFTP2 either directly to Shawmut‘s partners or through the company‘s VAN.

For the technical implementation of this project, EDITEL used a converter solution called “EDIREX connector.”

This ensures that all data is “convert­ ed” to have a common denominator.

This gives all participating parties centralized access in the form of a shared folder for receiving and sending messages. An encrypted channel ensures that data exchange is a secure process. The client was very happy with this solution, especially regarding “the extremely professional approach to this project, which clearly exceeds the traditional standard.” Radek Mašek also emphasized the “massive time savings we achieved thanks to EDITEL‘s direct interaction with our clients.” n

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Shawmut

Windows Connector

EDITEL MAILBOX OFTP 2

X12 856

EDIFACT DELFOR

X12 830

EDIFACT DESADV

shawmutcorporation.com

Trading Partner Trading Partner‘s VAN

Shawmut C.R. s.r.o., headquartered in Prague, Czech Republic, is part of Shawmut Corporation, the leading supplier of flexible, multilayer materials for automotive, medical, and other applications. Founded in 1916, this fourth-generation family-run business operates worldwide and is considered the largest laminator of technical fabrics in the United States.

The company focuses on developing and manufacturing engineered material solutions as well as ­customer-specific lamination solutions. Shawmut employs more than 700 people worldwide and operates ten manufacturing facilities and seven offices in North America, Europe, and Asia.

IMPRINT ISSUE 1/2022 Owner and publisher: EDITEL Austria GmbH 1040 Vienna, Brahmsplatz 3; T: +43 (0)1/505 86 02; email: info@editel.at www.editel.eu EDITEL Austria GmbH is a wholly-owned subsidiary of GS1 Austria GmbH. The corporate objective of EDITEL Austria GmbH is the electronic data exchange between business partners, the sale of the required software and support services.

Management and responsible for the content: Gerd Marlovits Editorial staff: Isabella Rath, Anja Jung Proofreading: Dagmar Jenner, www.texterei.com Translations: German: Gerhard Böhm Czech and Slovak: Martina Pokorná, Dagmar Krajčovičová Hungarian: Adrienn Horváth, Bettina Hernádi-Szekeres Croatian: Marija Lunjek Layout: www.creativedirector.cc Disclosure pursuant to Austrian Media Law as amended in March 2009: the purpose of this newsletter is the promotion and support of EDITEL Austria‘s business activities.