Service: Community Outreach

Community Outreach: Objectives

• Definition: The methodology SPS Commerce uses to shepherd Customer’s community through a defined process resulting in a predictable outcome of the community’s adoption of a partner’s requirements.
• Goal: Maximize adoption while minimizing disruption.

Community Outreach: Solution Description

SPS Commerce will:

Create and implement a Community Enablement Program including the following:

• Specifications: SPS will provide sample documents and guidance on creating customer’s specifications.
• Messaging: SPS will provide customer with sample communications to set expectations about customer’s initiative to customer’s community.
• Trading Partner Guide: SPS will review your existing trading partner guide and make best practice recommendations where appropriate to ensure your existing and future trading partners obtain clear and consistent communications regarding your supply chain requirements.
• Buyer Education: Education of customer’s buyers for the purpose of sharing details and answering any questions related to the initiative.
• Community Webcast: SPS will host and present a webcast for your trading partner community in order to formally introduce the initiative and answer common questions. This webcast will be recorded and a link to the recording will be place on a website dedicated to the initiative.
• Community Outreach: SPS Commerce will work with customer to define the outreach process. SPS’s contact process involves a minimum of four contacts (1 per week) with each trading partner to identify the most appropriate solution to fit your requirements.
• Community Reporting: SPS will assign a named Program Manager to customer who will provide regular status updates relative to the progress of the outreach and implementation activity.

Create a unique website which will provide customer’s trading partners with general information on:

• Program information
• Message from the customer’s executive sponsor
• Technical specifications
• Customer’s trading partner guide (if provided)
• Descriptions of the solution options
• Recording of the webcast

Provide trading partners an engagement that verifies their ability to send and receive correct EDI data and return a functional acknowledgement (997) based on your EDI guidelines as described below.

Data from the trading partner is checked against the appropriate ANSI X12 version of your EDI guidelines. Trading partners are provided instant access to up-to-date technical guidelines; support and a 24×7-testing platform to certify their solution will work correctly with your back-end system.

In addition to syntax checking according to ANSI X12 specifications, the Testing and Certification service ensures that your trading partners are:

• Sending only valid EDI qualifiers as defined in your EDI guidelines.
• Sending valid character types and field lengths as defined in your EDI guidelines.

If you require your trading partners to return specific data from a source (i.e. PO) document in the subsequent documents (i.e. ASN or Invoice), the service can provide the following:

• Data content checking for up to 10 data fields. Examples are: Vendor ID, Vendors Item Number, Vendor SKU, UPC Code, Ship To, SDQ Location, Release Number, PO Number.
• SPS will test that the Purchase Order data content fields are contained in the appropriate ASN & Invoice fields.

Provide ongoing solutions beyond the initial outreach for all new trading partners with customer.

NOTE: The trading partner solutions mentioned above may include a one-time trading partner setup fee along with monthly minimum service fees to be paid by the trading partner to SPS pursuant to a separate, direct agreement between SPS and the trading partner. Similarly, the testing service mentioned above includes a one-time fee for the testing to be paid by the trading partner to SPS pursuant to a separate, direct agreement between SPS and the trading partner.

Community Outreach: Project Assumptions

Customer will:

Provide your organization’s standard EDI guidelines and making an EDI resource available for possible questions or further detail.

Work with SPS Program Management

• Create and implement an onboarding plan specific to customer’s messaging, timeframes, and goals.
• Respond to trading partner inquiries weekly.
• Send scheduled program communications to community.

Implement a mutually agreed upon trading partner guide communicating your desired supply chain requirements.

Direct all trading partner onboarding activity through SPS.

Provide an available resource to answer project related questions.