The Fishin’ Company

The Fishin’ Company Partners with TrueCommerce to Meet Evolving Business Needs and Gain a Competitive Edge

The Challenge:

Improve business efficiency and meet the demands of major grocery retailers by automating manual order processing tasks with a best-in-class, web-based EDI integration for Microsoft Dynamics NAV ERP

The Solution:

Partner with TrueCommerce to recognize the benefits of integrated EDI through a feature-rich solution that meets today’s needs while positioning the company for ongoing competitive advantage and cost savings

The Results:

• Auto-verified order processing supports management by exception, accelerates the order-to-cash cycle and empowers service excellence
• Improved efficiency enabled significant business growth without hiring additional staff
• Rapid, growing ROI quickly outpaced the cost of EDI

“Our number one ROI from EDI has been the ability to move more and more towards exception management. I can position my resources to correct problems as opposed to processing normal orders.  Our EDI solution absolutely pays for itself.” Heath England, Chief Operating Officer, The Fishin’ Company

Background

The Fishin’ Company is one of the world’s largest frozen seafood importers, distributors and service providers. With offices and processing sites worldwide, this fast-growing seafood supplier serves retailers, wholesalers and food service companies throughout the US. Their customers include some of the world’s largest grocery retailers, such as Walmart, Aldi, Delhaize and SuperValu.

Like many suppliers, The Fishin’ Company moved to EDI because major customers began mandating it. But they soon realized that integrating TrueCommerce EDI with their Microsoft Dynamics NAV ERP system could be not a business cost, but a benefit.

“Once we engaged with TrueCommerce, we began to understand that we’d gain efficiencies from EDI that would more than pay for the system,” says Heath England, Chief Operating Officer. “And that’s absolutely been the case.”

A True Partnership

“We do business with many, many suppliers and vendors,” Mr. England continues. “We are always looking for partners that take the time to understand our business so we can work together to build a great solution. That’s what TrueCommerce has delivered—they are a true partner.”

That partnership orientation has been the foundation for creating business value on multiple fronts.

“Driving efficiencies, allowing us to manage by exception, supporting growth—all that and more has been possible because we have that partnership level of communication and support,” explains Mr. England. “When TrueCommerce gives us a suggestion or answers a question, they understand what will work best for our business. They’re always looking to give us an edge.”

“Like Having an Expert EDI Consultant on Speed Dial”

TrueCommerce focuses on understanding customers’ business models, processes, and goals, which makes it easy to provide targeted support and guidance. As a result, partners like The Fishin’ Co feel comfortable reaching out when they need help.

“During our onboarding process we had a dedicated team who took the time to really understand what we were trying to accomplish with EDI, and help us create and execute a plan to do it,” describes Mr. England. “When we’d call with an issue we didn’t need to explain what was going on to someone who didn’t know our company.”

TrueCommerce was also willing to go beyond the basics to maximize EDI’s value for The Fishin’ Company.

“TrueCommerce was able to take their base solution and adapt it for our business,” Mr. England relates. “As we’ve gone along they’ve been right there to guide us and give us the best recommendations, and that’s been fantastic. It’s almost like having an expert EDI consultant on speed dial.”

Making Business Easier—And Cheaper

Many retailers and wholesalers require EDI for their suppliers because of its significant cost savings for procurement.

“From our customers’ perspective, EDI allows us to receive POs and send invoices through a unified, one-size fits-all system,” Mr. England offers. “That makes us easier to do business with, which gives us a competitive advantage over a company that doesn’t do EDI.”

EDI also helps to reduce hard costs associated with using paper forms.

“EDI eliminates the need to send and receive giant packages of paper invoices. Just in paper, printing, storage and mail costs alone that’s a great savings—not to mention it’s easier and less wasteful,” observes Mr. England.

Driving Efficiency Gains

Integrated EDI offers enhanced efficiency from automation, which can reduce labor costs. At the same time, key staff like analysts and managers are able to spend less time at their keyboards and more time on high priority business tasks.

“EDI saves us a lot of time because we’re not manually entering data,” Mr. England confirms. “We’ve actually been able to grow our business considerably without adding additional people just to push paper and process orders, thanks to EDI.”

The Fishin’ Company’s EDI integration streamlines their order-to-cash cycle and improves supply chain visibility.

“EDI is helping us get much closer to real-time—which is so important to a business like ours. We’re extremely high-volume, so to run efficiently we need to know where exactly in the supply chain everything is,” points out Mr. England.

Proactive Management By Exception

The Fishin’ Company’s partnership with TrueCommerce drives comprehensive order processing automation that eliminates manual effort and errors. Now staff can proactively focus on reported exceptions.

“I’m really big on exception management,” asserts Mr. England. “We have great people and I don’t want them spending time on something repetitive that a machine can do.”

EDI further reduces exceptions by strengthening The Fishin’ Company’s relationships with its 3PL warehouses. The company also plans to transact EDI with key trucking partners.

“We’re pushing to roll out EDI to our 3PLs because it makes those connections stronger and more responsive, and allows us to hold our 3PLs more accountable,” Mr. England indicates. “When there’s an electronic record in both our systems of every request and its status, there’s no argument about what happened, and no issues like somebody missing an email.”

Sharper Analytics

Integrating EDI with Microsoft Dynamics NAV enhances data analytics, so companies can gain deeper insights into their supply chains. For the Fishin’ Company, automated 3PL invoicing also facilitates lot-level cost analyses that provides a competitive edge when dealing with meticulous customers.

“Many of our customers are starting to ask detailed questions about the cost of a particular item,” Mr. England notes. “Data is king—if you can answer those kinds of questions and your competitor cannot, then you’re much more likely to build trust and eventually get the sale.”

By applying 3PL charges to individual lots, The Fishin’ Company gets a more accurate picture of the cost of goods sold and their gross margin. And because EDI automation can process volumes of data in real time, The Fishin’ Company can quickly and accurately understand the status of any transaction exchanged across their supply chain partners.

“Knowing lot-level costs tells us more about product-level profitability,” Mr. England clarifies. “EDI data allows us to break those costs down into different components, like ocean freight or cold storage or drayage.”

Rapid, Sustained ROI

According to Mr. England, the total return on its EDI investment has exceeded The Fishin’ Company’s high expectations.

“Our number one ROI from EDI has been the ability to move more and more towards exception management,” emphasizes Mr. England. “I can position my resources to correct problems as opposed to processing normal orders. Our EDI solution absolutely pays for itself.”

The promised value was successfully realized throughout the project.

“A major reason we chose TrueCommerce was for the perceived value of the solution—what we would get for what we paid,” summarizes Mr. England. “I’m very happy to say that that value is being realized. TrueCommerce is exactly what we look for in a partner. I would highly recommend them to anybody else in the industry.”

Heath England
Chief Operating Officer
The Fishin’ Company