Joerns Healthcare Inc., a leading provider of advanced healthcare products and services for the long-term care industry, has completed the implementation of a new SAP (ECC 6.0) enterprise software system concurrently with the EZConnect EDI-XML B2B mapping and translation software from ACOM Solutions, Inc. for electronic document exchange with trading partners, it was announced today by Partha Biswas, Joerns CIO and Sam Mikhail, ACOM vice president.
Prior to the SAP implementation, Joerns utilized IBM AS/400-resident BPCS ERP system and Gentran EDI software. Both the SAP and the EZConnect solutions reside on Dell Servers running Microsoft Windows 2003.
"Faced with the need to acquire (a) new enterprise solution that future-proofs our technology investment, management decided to go for the best, choosing SAP," said Business Solutions Engineer Jonathan Haese, who shepherds the EDI initiative. "EZConnect provided an excellent trading partner solution because it integrates easily and efficiently with SAP, is almost infinitely scalable, and represents an extremely favorable price-performance value."
The EZConnect EDI solution accepts inbound ANSI X.12 documents from Joerns' customers and transforms them into the iDocs XML format that the SAP software requires. For outbound documents, the process is simply reversed.
Currently, Joerns has 16 active trading partners implemented for EDI, primarily wholesalers and distributors, with eight more pending. The initial documents in use are the purchase order, outbound invoice and purchase order acknowledgement. EDI documents soon to follow are the Product Transfer (844), Trace Sales (867), and the Advance Ship Notice/ASN (856).
"Once these documents are mapped to XML they are applicable to any trading partner," Haese said. "The process is quick and simple and it takes only about an hour to map the set of two or three documents we need to exchange documents with a customer. The XML maps are extremely flexible, allowing us to make modifications in C# programming language virtually on the fly."
While Joerns has hundreds of customers, the trading partners currently implemented are primarily those that the company conducted business with electronically in the past. According to Haese, expansion of the EDI initiative at this time is still customer-driven since the concurrent SAP-EZConnect implementation has only been operational since mid-summer 2008. Vendors will be brought into the electronic trading partner environment sometime next year and customers will continue to be added.
Currently, the eB2B trading partners are typified by volume, order complexity and by dealer-distributor demand for the speed, accuracy and error-avoidance that hands-free electronic transactions can provide, Haese said.
"Dealers and distributors have their own business challenges, and our electronic trading partner environment supports their expectations for fast invoicing, order accuracy and error-free delivery," Haese said. "EZConnect helps get orders into the system and filled quickly; and expedited invoicing supports better cash flow on both ends of the transaction."
About Joerns Healthcare Inc.
Based in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, Joerns Healthcare is a specialist in the manufacture and distribution of innovative beds, furnishings and patient handling equipment for the hospital, medical and long-term care fields. The company originated in 1889 as a furniture manufacturer and entered the healthcare field in the 1960s, establishing a reputation for quality and innovation. In its current focus it supplies its specialized equipment to customers worldwide both directly via rental and through an extensive network of dealers and distributors. For further information, visit www.joerns.com.
About EZConnect EDI-XML
EZConnect EDI-XML is a Windows-based, any-to-any data translation and partner management platform that supports direct integration to one or multiple databases as well as flat file and XML interfaces to applications. It is compliant with all EDI standards, including ANSI X.12 and EDIFACT, and all XML and database document formats.
About ACOM Solutions, Inc.
Now in its 25th year of business, ACOM Solutions, Inc. develops modular software systems for document output, document management, secure corporate payments, and B2B EDI/XML e-commerce, marketing them directly and through a widespread domestic and overseas partner network. Corporate headquarters are in Long Beach, California and System i Software Division headquarters are in Duluth, Georgia. For more information, call 800-699-5758, email
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