Case Ahlsell

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Profitable for supplier as well as customer

Ahlsell supplies products to a large number of Symbrio customers in Sweden and Norway, and more are continuously being added. “Our goal is to be extremely flexible towards our customers, and the use of e-business is an important part of this”, says Sven Öhman, e-business manager at Ahlsell.

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“Admittedly, price competition between suppliers is increased as e-business makes it easier for the customers to compare prices, but the fact that we eliminate non-value-adding processes creates a cost benefit for both parties. For us, an integrated order and invoicing processes cuts costs in sales and administration. In addition, it makes us and our customer understand each other’s business processes better”, says Öhman.

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One of Scandinavia’s most extensive flows of EDI transactions

As an example, some 400 000 EDI messages are sent between one of Symbrio’s customers, Bravida, and Ahlsell each year. This makes it one of the largest EDI relations in Scandinavia in terms of transaction volume. “An advantage with Symbrio is that the flow contains all relevant message types; order, order response, dispatch advice and invoice. Other competing systems often only support order and invoice ”, Öhman says. “Another advantage with Symbrio is that they run solid integration projects, which are well prepared and structured. They have succeeded in streamlining the process of integrating customer and supplier to enable e-business”.

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