Sanitec Kolo, the largest Polish manufacturer of bathroom equipment, will use electronic data interchange (EDI) solutions to exchange data with business partners. The integration project of Sanitec SAP R/3 system with the information systems of customers and suppliers is managed by BCC.
Electronic messages are going to replace the flow of paper documents (e.g. sales order, confirmation, shipping notification), in order to accelerate the information exchange, reduce the workload and eliminate the possibility of introducing errors during manual data entry. The subsequent stages of the project will introduce closer integration of SAP R/3 with the systems of the trading partners to enable innovative business processes, such as vendor managed inventory (VMI).
The productive start of electronic data interchange with the first customers is planned for September 2001.
Depending on the preferences and capabilities of business partners, messages will be transferred in XML or EDIFACT formats. To complement the EDI infrastructure, interactive web pages will be implemented, allowing e.g. the tracking of the order status. Thanks to the state-of-the-art system architecture based on SAP Business Connector, all data formats and connection types (EDI and dialog mode) can be handled by a single communication server.
The maintenance and development of B2B solutions at Sanitec are fully outsourced; SAP BC server is going to be located in BCC server room. According to Krzysztof Ptak, Sanitec project manager – "Outsourcing was the only rational way to introduce the new system. Constant monthly fee for system maintenance ensures complete transparency and predictability of the costs. It is also important that our IT department does not need to search for another system administrator to handle the new technology."
