Balance Bar
Founded in 1992, Balance Bar is one of the originators of energy bars and the nutrition bar category. The company was part of Kraft Foods until November 2009 when it was acquired by a private equity firm. With the transfer of ownership, Balance Bar needed to rapidly transform its supply chain to accept, fulfill and invoice orders directly from grocery and retail customers by May 2010.
Balance Bar needed to quickly find an EDI solution to connect with approximately 70 trading partners and integrate with its Microsoft Dynamics NAV solution. In addition, the deadline to cutover from Kraft Foods in May 2010 was not flexible.
Proven Dynamics NAV Solution
Like most suppliers, Balance Bar has a lean IT staff that is tasked with many other responsibilities related to a growing business and transfer of ownership. The company wanted an EDI provider that already had mappings to its trading partners, EDI and supply chain expertise to understand its business, and the capability to manage EDI on an outsourced basis.
In late 2009, Balance Bar contacted SPS Commerce based on its reputation for proven and reliable EDI services.
“After a few discussions with SPS Commerce, I knew that they could manage our complex EDI requirements, and after evaluating their adapter for Dynamics NAV, the choice was easy,” said Byron Ramirez, Controller at Balance Bar. “It was clear that SPS could deliver what we needed.”
Rapid Transition to SPSCommerce.net
SPS Commerce and the Balance Bar team quickly identified how to implement SPSCommerce.net to meet the deadline and provide a strong foundation for supply chain excellence moving forward.
Balance Bar’s major retail customers would be integrated with the Dynamics NAV solution to automate their order cycle, while lower volume customers would be managed using the WebForms service. SPSCommerce.net provided both an easy-to-use web solution and a proven integration adapter for Dynamics NAV to make implementation easier and faster.
“With SPS Commerce’s technology and team of experts, Balance Bar and our trading partners experienced a smooth transition and met our deadline,” said Dennis Tortora, Chief Financial Officer at Balance Bar. “By leveraging SPS’ expertise and solution, we were able to focus our attention on other areas of the business, while knowing this important operation was in good hands. We are delighted to partner with an EDI service provider that can scale to support our growth.”
Today, the company is continuing to expand its use of SPSCommerce.net, adding new trading partners as needed to support their retail and grocery customers.
Integrating Grocers, Retailers, a 3PL and 3PW
Balance Bar’s supply chain included numerous trading partners that needed to be fully integrated to ensure smooth order fulfillment, namely 70 retail customers, a third-party logistics provider (3PL) and a third-party warehouse (3PW).
Today, Balance Bar’s retail customers including Costco, Kroger, Safeway, Supervalu, Target, Trader Joe’s and Wal-Mart, among others, are integrated with Balance Bar using SPS Commerce’s SaaS EDI Service for Microsoft Dynamics NAV.
In addition, the solution automatically sends all warehouse shipping orders (EDI 940) to the company’s 3PL and 3PW to fulfill and ship orders to customers throughout North America, with these organizations sending Balance Bar a warehouse shipping advice (EDI 945) to complete the order cycle and update the Dynamics NAV system.
About SPS Commerce
SPS Commerce is a leading provider of on-demand supply chain management solutions, providing integration, collaboration, connectivity, visibility and data analytics to thousands of customers worldwide. We deliver our solutions over the Internet using a Software-as-a-Service model to improve the way suppliers, retailers, distributors and other customers manage and fulfill orders. Our SPSCommerce.net platform features pre-built integrations used by current and new customers alike, spanning 3,000 order management models across 1,500 retailers, grocers and distributors, as well as integrations to over 100 accounting, warehouse management, enterprise resource planning, and packing and shipping applications. More than 38,000 customers across more than 40 countries have used SPSCommerce.net, making it one of the largest trading partner integration centers. SPS Commerce has 41 consecutive quarters of increased revenues and is headquartered in Minneapolis. For additional information, please contact SPS Commerce at 866-245-8100 or visit www.spscommerce.com.
SPS Commerce is a registered trademark of SPS Commerce, Inc. SPSCommerce.net and the SPS Commerce logo are the property of SPS Commerce, Inc. All other names and trademarks are the property of their respective holders.
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