Florim USA Streamlines Supply Chain With SEEBURGER & SAP NetWeaver

ATLANTA, May 11 /PRNewswire/ -- SEEBURGER Inc. announced today that tile manufacturer Florim USA has replaced its legacy EDI system with SEEBURGER business-to-business integration technology to streamline order-related message exchange with key customers. Benefits for the 250-employee company include an 85% increase in user productivity, elimination of $6,000 a year in VAN fees through use of AS2 communication, improved cash flow achieved through more timely invoicing, fewer data errors, and time-saving integration with Florim's SAP NetWeaver Exchange Infrastructure (SAP NetWeaver XI) platform.

A complete case study is available at www.seeburger.com/customer-references, with a webcast about the project available on demand. Florim and SEEBURGER will also be discussing the deployment and its results on Wednesday, May 19, in a 2 pm session at the SAPPHIRE conference in Orlando.

Florim is using SEEBURGER's EDI adapter for SAP NetWeaver XI, which is built into the SAP NetWeaver XI technology stack, for exchange of purchase orders, advance shipping notices and invoices. The first phase of the implementation involved switching EDI communications with a major home center customer from Florim's legacy system to the SEEBURGER platform. Additional customers are scheduled to be onboarded to SEEBURGER beginning in Q1 2010.

The SEEBURGER/SAP integration has reduced Florim's processing time per order from 30 minutes previously spent retrieving orders from a POP mailbox, printing and manually inputting them into the company's previous ERP system, and generating ASNs and invoices to just five minutes required for data validation. It has also eliminated invoicing and ASN transmission delays that affected the company's order-to-cash cycle and customer relationships, respectively.

Factors that led Florim to select SEEBURGER over competing B2B solutions included analyst evaluations of B2B technology, speed of implementation, and the cost savings of using SEEBURGER's AS2 adapter to avoid VAN fees. In contrast, at least one other vendor offering an EDI adapter for SAP NetWeaver XI EDI adapter operates its own VAN and charges a fee for each message transmission.

"Before we migrated to the SEEBURGER platform, there was so much manual EDI-related work that our ASNs sometimes arrived at the customer site a day or two after the actual tile delivery to their warehouse, and our invoices frequently were sent too late to be included in the customer's next payment cycle," said Sajal Nath, Head of IT, Florim USA. "The increased automation we have achieved with SEEBURGER has yielded a major improvement in our supply chain efficiency."

"This deployment highlights the growing trend of SMBs adopting B2B technology as well as the benefits that can be gained from B2B modernization projects," said Wesley Thompson, VP Services for SEEBURGER Inc. "Florim's experience clearly demonstrates that investing in a newer EDI/B2B platform helps enterprises improve supply chain agility, staff productivity and even cash flow by optimizing B2B communications."

SEEBURGER's core EDI/B2B technology is available as a standalone gateway or as an add-on for use with the SAP NetWeaver Exchange Infrastructure (XI) or SAP NetWeaver Process Integration (PI).  Both options support all global trading requirements with a single B2B gateway, aiding global enterprises that wish to simplify their technology infrastructure by standardizing on one B2B solution for all offices.

SEEBURGER also offers the only message-oriented middleware capable of integrating 100% of an organization's trading partners - including smaller customers and suppliers that still do business on paper - on a single platform that has been developed in-house by SEEBURGER to ensure compatibility, provide a common work environment, and simplify the internal IT infrastructure as well as maintenance across the extended supply chain.

About SEEBURGER

SEEBURGER is a leading provider of global business integration solutions designed to optimize transactions throughout the extended enterprise by automating trading relationships with all partners regardless of their size and technical resources.  Launched in 1986 to provide integration solutions to the automotive industry in Germany, the company today is ranked among the top business-to-business gateway providers by leading industry analysts, and serves more than 8,000 customers in more than 50 countries and more than 15 industries through its flagship Business Integration Server and related products and services. SEEBURGER has global offices in Europe, Asia Pacific and North America, including a U.S. office that opened in 1998.  For more information, visit www.SEEBURGER.com

SOURCE SEEBURGER Inc.