Three retailer-owned wholesalers plan to outsource their Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) solutions to improve business practices and focus their internal IT resources on other areas to deliver added to their retailer-owners. Associated Grocers Inc. of Baton Rouge, La.; Associated Grocers of the South, Inc., based in Birmingham, Ala.; and Associated Grocers of New England, headquartered in Pembroke, N.H., are working with Dayton, Ohio-based Edict Systems as their outsourced provider.

The three wholesalers chose to move all of their EDI-related processes to Edict’s software as a service (SaaS) offerings. These processes include:

--Data Translation: Edict’s Hosted Data Translation (HDT) services were developed to enable each AG group to eliminate the need to procure and manage software-based data translation and integration
--Trading Partner Connectivity: The EnterpriseEC solution provides a single point of connectivity to the wholesalers’ trading partners via AS2, Secure FTP, or traditional value added networks
--Supplier On-boarding: Hub & Spoke ramping services -- which include testing and certification services for EDI-capable suppliers -- combined with GroceryEC.com, are designed to deliver optimal supplier participation

These combined services and solutions are expected to improve business practices by reducing paper-based transactions and the number of errors associated with manual document processing.

“The service that Edict performs has enabled us to leave EDI to Edict and to focus our resources in other areas for added value,” said David Politz, senior director of business technology for Associated Grocers, Inc. which serves over 220 independent retailers in Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas and Alabama.. “As a result of our partnership, we have increased our business automation threefold and leveraged EDI in ways that were not possible previously.”

Ron Burke, VP of IT for Associated Grocers of the South, Inc., said it was critical for his business to automate all transactions for all trading partners. “Edict made that process simple, and in a matter of months, we had 100 percent supplier participation,” he said. AG South serves over 250 independent retailers in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee and the Florida panhandle.

“With Edict Systems’ excellent service, AG New England has experienced reduced costs and significantly expanded the number of trading partners we communicate with electronically,” said Ken Peperissa, director of IT for the wholesaler. “This has had a positive impact on how we do business and on our bottom line.” Founded in 1946, AG New England serves almost 500 independent retailers in New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Maine and upstate New York.

Advant-e, via its wholly owned subsidiaries Edict Systems and Merkur Group, Inc. is a provider of Internet-based hosted EDI and electronic document management software and services.