ERP-to-E-Commerce Integration: Why have separate platforms at all?

Businesses that already use both ERP and e-commerce technologies stand to benefit immensely by integrating them. Cost savings, advanced analytics, personalized customer journeys, omni-channel enablement, and easier development of new digital services are just some of the reasons to integrate. However, decision makers in some organizations might be wondering why their entire digital operations shouldn’t be managed using a single, all-encompassing platform. This would seem like an especially attractive option for companies that have yet to implement either type of digital solution. After all, wouldn’t one platform have a lower total cost of ownership than two? After a bit of digging, I came across a good reason to think twice about this kind of monolithic approach.

Recent articles by researchers from MIT Sloan recommend that businesses build their digital strategy around either customer engagement or digitized solutions (Ross, Sebastian, & Beath, 2017; Sebastian et al., 2017). While both outcomes converge (customer engagement drives the development of digitized solutions, while digitized solutions facilitate customer engagement), companies should pursue only one strategy, or they risk losing focus. In their study of “big old companies” (averaging approximately 80,000 employees and 100 years), the authors illustrate how the two main technological requirements for the successful implementation of both digital strategies are a strong and scalable operational backbone and an agile digital services platform.

For most organizations, the operational backbone corresponds to ERP and CRM platforms, while the digital services platform corresponds to e-business technologies (e-commerce, SCM, EDI, and so on). While the researchers agree that these two classes of enterprise technology need to be integrated, they also present compelling reasons to use two specialized technologies instead of a single, generic solution.

In a nutshell, both components satisfy different, complementary requirements of an organization’s digital strategy. In their words, the operational backbone enables operational excellence, while the digital services platform enables rapid innovation. Both platforms also employ contrasting development strategies, funding models, and primary goals, which makes them difficult to manage as a single system. While ERP platforms aim to standardize and improve visibility of internal business processes, web technologies are better suited to the construction of single-purpose modules that can be mixed, matched, and swapped in and out as needed. ERP systems favor large funding tranches and quarterly or annual updates, web platforms prefer more frequent funding in smaller parcels and continuous development methodologies.

Aside from picking one of the two digital strategies and implementing both of the major enabling technologies mentioned so far, the authors emphasize the importance of being service-oriented. The digital services platform should be designed to allow customers, suppliers, and other partners to collaborate in the development of services and apps, and corporate structure should also become highly service-oriented. The ITIL framework is recommended for ensuring that IT services and business objectives are correctly aligned. Organizations that have already arranged their teams around offered services before embarking on their journey of digital transformation will be at an advantage.

Visionet Systems possesses decades of experience in digital design, technology-driven enterprise consulting, and platform integration. For more information on how to develop a winning digital strategy, integrate e-commerce and ERP platforms, and implement ITIL principles, please contact Visionet Systems for a complimentary consultation on digital transformation.

References

Ross, J. W., Beath, C. M., & Sebastian, I. M. (2017). How to Develop a Great Digital Strategy. MIT Sloan Management Review, 58(2), 7.

Sebastian, I. M., Ross, J. W., Beath, C., Mocker, M., Moloney, K. G., & Fonstad, N. O. (2017). How Big Old Companies Navigate Digital Transformation. MIS Quarterly Executive.

Can electronic invoicing reduce late payments?

According to current research, there is a global pandemic of overdue invoices (Walker, 2017). In 2016 in the US, clients settled their invoices an average of 34 days late, or 55 days from the date of invoicing. According to surveys, 92% of suppliers were paid late between 2015 and 2016. 21% of all B2B invoices in developed and emerging markets are paid 60 days past due. In the USA and many other countries, unpaid invoices lead to constricted cash flow, and cause thousands of businesses to file for bankruptcy.

One important component in the fight against late payment is e-invoicing. 56 countries have made or are in the process of making e-invoicing mandatory to some degree. For example, in Brazil, the implementation of e-invoicing nationwide has reduced invoice processing times by an average of 5 days, and reduced the number of businesses that fail because of cash flow difficulties. The transparency afforded by e-invoicing has also reduced the incidence of large clients deliberately withholding payments and otherwise exploiting small suppliers.

That isn’t to suggest that most payment delays are deliberate. A 2013 study discovered that 49% of invoices 30 days past due resulted from errors or missing information. Another study found that 16% of businesses sent invoices to the wrong recipient, or had difficulty identifying the correct recipient. E-invoicing makes these problems and their associated delays disappear. Invoice management solutions that provide built-in online payment options also reduce cash and check payments, which are the most susceptible to errors.

Do these successes mean that electronic invoicing is the answer to payment delays and its associated woes? Not on its own. However, when combined with government regulation, dynamic discounting for early payments, and other process improvements, e-invoicing is an essential tool that improves business practices, makes transactions more transparent, and enhances market efficiency. So in addition to the immense cost savings on offer, implementing an automated invoice solution also offers wide-ranging societal and economic benefits. To discover more about how to deploy electronic invoicing in your own organization, please contact Visionet Systems.

References
Walker, A. (2017). A hoard of unpaid invoices: Dissecting economies & private market forces to solve B2B late payments (Thesis). Rochester Institute of Technology. Retrieved from http://scholarworks.rit.edu/

How Prepared are You for Electronic Invoicing?

According to various research firms like Forrester Research and Sterling Commerce, switching from manual invoice processing to an invoice automation solution typically results in major savings. Conservative estimates for manual invoice processing costs hover around $12 to $15 per invoice, whereas fully automated invoice management solutions offer a unit cost of approximately $3.50. So even businesses that only process five invoices per day stand to save $1,000 each month. That’s why I found it so shocking to discover that B2B adoption of e-invoicing solutions in most developed countries remains as low as five percent! Why would companies pass up on such a clear opportunity to improve their margins?

The reasons that researchers cite include lack of awareness and lack of a business strategy for implementing a digital invoice processing system. At least some of the difficulty in formulating a solid strategy comes from the absence of a clear framework for determining where an organization currently stands with respect to implementing electronic invoicing capabilities. Thankfully, information management researchers have recently outlined a maturity model for electronic invoice processes (Cuylen, Kosch, and Breitner, 2016). Using their Electronic Invoice Process Maturity Model (EIPMM), businesses can gain a much clearer understanding of which parts of their invoicing procedures require the most immediate attention, and how large an ROI they can expect from adopting e-invoicing.

The EIPMM covers four categories: Strategy, Acceptance, Processes & Organization, and Technology, each of which are further divided into between three and five subcategories. Against these subcategories, evaluators can award between zero and four points, depending on the current state of their invoicing procedures. Assuming you weight each subcategory equally, your organization’s final maturity score will range from zero to sixty.

The Strategy category reflects an organization’s preparedness in terms of how well-aligned its business strategy is with implementing invoice management software, how willing stakeholders are to adopt new technology, whether detailed cost-benefit analysis has been performed, and so on. Since factors listed in the Strategy category are critically important for successful implementation, improving their maturity scores will help e-invoicing proponents secure internal acceptance and executive buy-in.

The Acceptance category details the degree to which internal groups, business partners, and external entities agree to adopt or support electronic invoicing. This involves ensuring that employees (especially management and accounting) understand the benefits of e-invoicing, how willing partner organizations are to adopt or otherwise facilitate electronic invoicing, and how mature the external environment is for supporting e-invoicing, including communication with regulatory bodies, invoice management service providers, and government revenue agencies. In the same way that a clear strategy makes implementation much easier, high levels of acceptance indicate that the time is right for adopting an invoice management solution.

The Processes & Organization category outlines how clearly electronic invoicing processes have been designed, and how proactively legal matters and internal policies have been addressed. Businesses that have practices in place that are well-suited to e-invoicing will have an easier time transitioning to invoice management software. Similarly, businesses that have ensured that their internal practices already align with government regulations on electronic invoicing will be able to adopt fully automated invoicing with fewer complications.

Finally, the Technology category measures how prepared an organization’s IT infrastructure is for the paperless processing of invoices. Companies that can reduce manual effort more effectively receive a higher maturity score, as do companies that apply technical standards more consistently. Businesses with well-integrated IT operations also score higher. Companies that already manage most documents electronically will transition to e-invoicing more smoothly, and so will companies with strong information security standards.

Using the EIPMM or a similar method for evaluating your organization’s readiness for electronic invoicing is a great way to address various implementation challenges in a systematic way and convince decision makers of the value of investing in a digital invoice processing solution. For more information on how your organization can improve profitability by adopting e-invoicing, please contact Visionet Systems.

If you already use ERP and e-commerce, is integration worth it?

Most companies that use ERP technologies also operate an online store for consumers, or use a web portal for B2B sales. However, many of these companies that use both types of digital technology have yet to unify them. Should they? If they did, what should they expect to gain? To what degree would such an investment yield tangible benefits?

Thanks to the rise of cloud technologies, digital products that were once out of reach for most small and medium businesses have become affordable web services. Probably the most valuable among these is ERP, which combines an organization’s various internal business processes into a tightly integrated and highly efficient whole. Companies that use ERP suites tend to spend less time managing business documents, customer information, and other internal data, and more time achieving their primary business objectives. As a result, productivity and profitability increase.

However, the effects of implementing a traditional ERP solution are almost exclusively felt within the organization, with only indirect benefits spilling over to inter-business processes like procurement and sales. ERP platforms are designed to make information sharing easier amongst company departments and personnel, but not with partner companies or other external stakeholders.

That’s where e-business technologies come in. These web-based (and increasingly cloud-based) technologies are designed with extra-organizational coordination in mind, and help companies securely and efficiently share critical business information across the supply chain. Procurement platforms help with bidding and RFQs, vendor management tools simplify replenishment and supplier relations, and e-commerce platforms provide an easier and more effective way to engage and do business with customers. The first two examples of e-business technologies share information ‘up’ the supply chain with suppliers, while the third communicates ‘down’ the supply chain with customers.

Even if you just went on instinct, you’d probably agree that transferring relevant information throughout the entire supply chain would be more efficient than operating your external upstream, internal, and external downstream information systems separately. For example, real-time information on customer transactions (downstream) could be sent directly to suppliers (upstream), which would provide much more accurate demand forecasting and mitigate the bullwhip effect. That sounds much easier than receiving a stand-alone report on online sales, manually calculating changes in demand, and then firing off an email to your supplier. With more accurate information on consumer demand, businesses can decrease their inventory levels without any adverse effects, and can also respond to unforeseen spikes in demand with greater agility. These improvements in business processes are only possible when both e-commerce and partner communication platforms are integrated with internal ERP systems.

Thankfully, you don’t have to rely on instinct. According to recent research (Hsu, 2013), the value created by integrating ERP and e-business technologies is real, and is significantly greater than the value of operating both platforms separately. The study involved 150 firms that use ERP platforms, and analyzed survey responses as well as objective accounting data to determine changes in cost efficiency, differentiation, and the intangible benefits of ERP, e-business technologies, and their integration. Hsu and other researchers (Srinivasan and Dey, 2014) have found ERP and e-business technologies to exhibit a high degree of complementarity. Not only were the benefits of integration found to be greater than the benefits resulting from the mere co-occurrence of these technologies, but the benefits of integration were also longer-lasting. While ERP platforms also yield greatest gains between years 2 to 5 since deployment, platform integration produces steady returns over a much longer period.

Now that we have evidence that integration makes a real difference, we can move on to address the question posed earlier: is integration worth it? In other words, do the returns justify the investment? Simply put, the answer is “yes”. With enterprise application integration (EAI), there isn’t any need to replace two separate platforms with a single, comprehensive (and often prohibitively expensive) replacement. Instead, EAI service providers securely connect the information systems that you already have in place to form a much more affordable unified system… one that your employees are already familiar with. Taken a step further, pre-built solutions exist that are designed to connect specific pairs of digital platforms. These platform connectors deploy even more quickly, cost less than custom EAI services, and make ERP-to-e-commerce integration a highly attractive path to achieving serious competitive advantage.

Researchers have, however, raised a caveat. While the benefits of integration are real, it isn’t enough to simply get different software packages talking to each other. Organizations that secure the greatest competitive advantage from integration are the ones that emphasize operational coordination of business functions across the supply chain. Software integration is necessary for this to occur, but is not sufficient on its own. To maximize ROI from platform integration, businesses must pay close attention to improving their inter-organizational processes alongside enhancements to their technology infrastructure. Whereas any organization can purchase and deploy the same ERP and e-commerce software, the competitive advantage gained from process optimization is firm-specific, and therefore harder to replicate. An experienced technology implementation partner is a major asset in this regard.

Please contact Visionet Systems for more information on how our CommerceLink integration solutioncan help you achieve the benefits of a unified supply chain.

References

HSU, P. F. (2013). Integrating ERP and e-business: Resource complementarity in business value creation. Decision support systems, 56, 334-347.

Srinivasan, M., & Dey, A. (2014). Linking ERP and e-Business to a Framework of an Integrated e-Supply Chain. In Handbook of Strategic e-Business Management (pp. 281-305). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.

The Hidden Benefits of Electronic Invoicing

For virtually any business, invoicing is a fact of life. The advantages of quick, cost-effective invoicing practices can spell the difference between turning a profit and merely breaking even. The advantages of electronic invoicing (e-invoicing) are well-known, including lower average processing cost per invoice, shorter invoice processing cycle time, and improved processing accuracy. However, there are several less obvious reasons why switching to an invoice management system can produce significant rewards.
It’s clear that e-invoicing leads to improved margins, since it eliminates the need stationery and shipping costs, reduces manual labor, and helps fewer workers process more invoices in a day. These savings from process efficiency are dwarfed by the amount most businesses capture in the form of soft savings. For every $1,000 that a business saves from processing efficiency, they can look forward to saving an additional $2,000 in early payment discounts, $3,000 in working capital, and prevent a whopping $4,000 in contract leakage. In other words, the overall monetary benefit of using invoice management solutions is ten times what you might expect.
Of course, not all benefits are measured directly in dollars. Businesses that adopt e-invoicing also reduce the risk of noncompliance, whether that takes the form of late payments, incorrectly calculating taxes, line item mismatches, or using the wrong accounting codes. Invoice automation solutions bring these mistakes down from 30 percent to under 2 percent.
Finally, another underreported advantage of using an invoice processing system arises from operating entirely in the digital realm. When an organization’s invoicing is performed digitally, it becomes extremely easy to compile detailed analytics on each line item in each invoice. This simplifies cash flow forecasting and improves visibility of your expenditures. You can also improve accountability and information security, since digital systems are much easier for organizations to monitor and audit.
So if you’re thinking about moving your business over to a vendor invoice management system, you can rest assured that these subtle advantages, combined with more obvious cost savings, offer tremendous return on investment. To learn more about our invoice management solution, please contact Visionet Systems.

AtClose extends platform with e-closing capabilities

October 23, 2017, Denver, CO – Visionet Systems, Inc. announces the addition of e-closing capabilities to its AtClose Title, Settlement and Appraisal platform at the Mortgage Bankers Association’s Annual Convention & Expo 2017 being held in Denver, CO. The new e-closing functionality is being included in AtClose as a seamless, secure, and fully compliant module.

E-signatures simplify the closing process for lenders, settlement providers, and borrowers. Executed documents flow back into AtClose effortlessly, reducing the need for paper documents and giving parties additional time to review each loan package. AtClose is highly configurable, allowing agents to selectively enable e-closing for specific lenders or geographic areas to meet local recording requirements and individual lender or investor needs. AtClose gives settlement agents complete control over which documents will be pushed for e-signatures, and when they should be made available to the respective individual(s).

“The biggest advantages that AtClose offers settlement agents are a significant reduction in notary fees and the elimination of post-closing errors,” explained Arshad Masood, CEO, Visionet Systems, Inc. “Our sophisticated platform saves them the time and trouble involved in re-doing the signing process. With the CFPB and other regulatory bodies encouraging e-closing, it is time for Title & Settlement firms to begin closing all loans electronically."

AtClose is a cloud-based vendor and workflow management solution that provides a comprehensive and intuitive platform for the Appraisal, Title & Settlement industry. AtClose provides advanced security and high availability by leveraging core AWS cloud services, and improves operational efficiency by offering fully customizable workflows and numerous vendor integrations. Please visit www.atclose.com to learn more.

About Visionet Systems Inc.

Visionet Systems, Inc. is a full-service technology consulting and business process outsourcing company that delivers software solutions, services, and technology-led BPO products built on a best-of-breed philosophy to help its customers increase business agility, drive down costs, and reduce risk. With deep ties to the mortgage industry, Visionet has spent the last decade working with the top mortgage companies in the country, building various mortgage industry-specific products and solutions.  In addition to AtClose, Visionet products include production lead management, product recommendation engines, channel and broker profitability, post-close compliance automation, loan boarding and special loan setup, escrow float and shortage management, prepayment risk modeling, default risk analysis, loss estimation and tracking, and REO.

Can Robotic Process Automation (RPA) really help your organization? Here is a perfect example of how

Can Robotic Process Automation (RPA) really help your organization? Yes! Here’s a current, real-world example. Just this week, I was in a conversation with an executive who had an immediate need to identify the square footage of a parcel of land to help with pricing and vendor assignment.

This individual stated they had 2 immediate solutions available to them: 

1. Option 1 - go back to their client and request the lot size. While this reduced the workload on the organization, it simply made the overall process more complex and would impact service level agreements.  Not to mention, the cost of the client communications would eat further into margins.
2. Option 2 - obtain the information themselves from a public source. While this eliminated the back and forth with the client, it increased the amount of time it took them to process an order, which also reduced their profitability.  

At a volume of 5-10 orders a day and 2 minutes per transaction, this conversation is immaterial. It would take too long to recoup the investment in an automated solution given the fraction of an FTE you would need. However, at 500+ orders a day, that same 2 minute transaction could require multiple FTEs to meet daily demand, adding significant stress to the bottom line.

A system-to-system integration with the client’s system of record or the public source would provide a seamless way of obtaining the information in a high-volume environment. The drawback here is that it requires the organization to have access to the application code, or some type of middleware technology in place, to facilitate the integration. During our conversation, the executive commented he could look at building an integration to solve the problem, but with his current IT backlog this would be a 6+ month duration, and he needed to address this issue today, without adding FTE’s.

While RPA is the latest buzzword in the industry, most organizations are using it primarily for back office processes. This scenario is a perfect example of where RPA can provide lift to an organization quickly. Within hours, an RPA Bot was created that demonstrated the ability to obtain this information without waiting months or adding additional resources.

There are times when building a complete integration into an external system is required. But with the maturation of RPA technology, businesses can now solve problems more quickly and bring value to their clients and their organization sooner, without incurring such a significant investment in time and money. This was a perfect example of where an RPA Bot could be deployed that improves customer experience, reduces the burden on operations and solves a problem in days, not months. 

Over the next 12-24 months, we will begin to see a paradigm shift - from building direct integrations between systems, to simply deploying Bots for quick, efficient and less costly solutions. We will also see these Bots move from simply automating mundane back office processes to really improving the customer’s experience by impacting up-front, value added work steams. The applications for RPA are virtually endless - and its low investment, quick deployment and minimal risk mean all organizations can realize the benefits.

For more details regarding our services please visit: https://www.visionetsystems.com/services/robotic-process-automation

Staying Competitive in an Ever-Changing Market

While chatting with a friend who works at one of the top tech companies in the US, I discovered that he has not received a raise in the last 6 years despite several promotions and relocations. As the discussion unfolded, I realized that the mass exodus of talent from midsize companies to the better-known brands isn’t due to the prospect of jumping salary brackets but rather the work culture that is associated with the brand name.

Top tech companies are fortunate enough to be able to draw from an endless pool of resources, all clambering over each other to be the next chosen one. Mid-size organizations continue to lose their brightest talent to the allure of working for the big names. It is time for midsize companies to step in to the ring and don fighting gloves to retain their talent. While midsize companies can’t offer the prestige associated with the bigger names, with each swing they must remember the bottom line - people work for people not names. The key to staying competitive then lies in ensuring that that resources remain engaged.

Mid-size organizations, that have previously considered work culture to be a privilege, need to invest in change. This change must come at the top management in the form of servant leadership. Rather than dictating each step, management is there to encourage and guide strategic thinking. Top management must today invest in a culture that empowers its employees and allows them to function autonomously. Independent thinking carves the path for employees taking ownership of their projects. When each successful execution is incentivized, resources will more readily align career paths with targets that contribute to the overall growth of the company. “Monkey see, monkey do” is not only applicable in the toddler classroom but is equally applicable to adults. Recognizing the hard work of an employee at a staff meeting goes a long way towards others seeking similar approval. Neither a pat on the back nor verbal praise will offset the bottom line, however small a company.

Cultivating a work environment that encourages a healthy lifestyle shows its employees that management is not just concerned with profitability but is also focused on the wellbeing of its employees. Providing subsidized access to fitness, arranging incentives for attendance, organizing team building activities that foster healthy competition, all contribute to a more holistic approach to employee satisfaction. In 2016 more than half the US workforce only consumed up to 54% of their permitted paid time off. When the message from the top management is encouraging employees to utilize their allocated paid vacation and have a healthy work life balance, staff will no longer feel threatened or worried that they will lose out if they are not available 24-7.

A healthy employee is a happy employee. A healthy body leads to a healthy mind. A healthy mind will thrive under servant leaders that provide their employees opportunities for self-discovery and allow resources to set common growth goals and objectives with those of the organization.

Source: https://www.visionetsystems.com/blog/staying-competitive-ever-changing-market

Building a digital partner ecosystem beyond traditional B2B/EDI communication

Perception of traditional B2B (business-to-business) electronic communication is all about batch oriented, point to point transactional document exchange with the business partners through EDI VAN or directly managed file transfers.  This involves exchanging transactional information using various industry standard EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) formats configured for each partner along with partner/document specific logic customization for line of business applications. In typical supply chain or retail context, these partners are vendors, customers, services providers like 3PL (Third Party Logistics Providers) and b2C ecommerce websites.

Even though EDI based implementation model has matured over decades of commercial use, the traditional approach lacks many inherent capabilities required for modern digital evolution. The chart below highlights some of the fundamental features and gaps between the traditional models versus the capabilities required to support the modern digital paradigm:

Traditional capability model for B2B communication	B2B capabilities required for modern Digital Evolution
Batch Oriented (EDI or proprietary managed file transfer)	Near real time interchange (via API’s) where partners can exchange transactions, status and 360 degree visibility with the process context: For example, ·         Rapid fulfillment of B2C Ecommerce order fulfilment ·         Near real time inventory information exchange for automation based accurate decision making
Point to Point Architecture - Single document exchange centric architecture	Business process driven architecture where single B2B system manages all process touch points through the value chain
Tight coupling with internal systems where business logic is spread across (EDI and internal LOB applications) for inbound and outbound communication. Implication -> Replacing internal systems typically requires throwing away entire EDI system which is tedious, expensive and risk prone..	Open architecture with self-contained, scalable services as strategic self-contained systems, independent of any specific LOB internal application.
Scalability limited by the nature of the EDI application.	Linearly scalable services with inherent architectural capability to driven by demand.
Reliability and degree of recoverability varies from application to application.	Well defined system with the ability to recovery features and proactive notifications for manual guaranteed recovery

Given the prevalence of EDI based integration for decades, this form of communication will continue in near future. However, it is imperative for both business and IT leaders to assess how their current B2B communication ability will affect their organizations through the journey of industry wide transformation. It is also critical for businesses to start viewing B2B communication platforms as strategic self-contained, standalone asset and not just a bolt on to their internal business application(s). The modern architecture for deploying a strategic B2B communication capability needs to incorporate the following:

• Complements existing batch-based electronic data interchange (EDI) with API enabled real-time B2B collaboration
• Centralized B2B partner onboarding and management
• Common workflow for all type of communication
• Decoupled solution with minimal dependency on internal applications (in terms of code logic)
• Single point of management for all B2B communication by the operational staff  

A modern B2B communication architecture to support digital growth

A well-guided investment in B2B integration will reduce organizational risk, improve processes and increase the partnership advantage through longer-lasting relationships. When done wrong, B2B integration becomes a limiting factor, which will burden staff, introduce inefficiencies and increase compliance risks leading to substantial loss of revenue and opportunities.

 Visionet Systems offers PartnerLink, an innovative, process-centric B2B integration solution that streamlines setup, onboarding, operational management of all forms of B2B interchange including EDI, real time API’s and file based/proprietary integrations. It encapsulates all partner setups, document exchange configurations, API support, and business rules into a single robust solution. It leverages Microsoft’s cutting-edge Azure cloud and server technology to handle very large transaction volume and provides native integration adapter for Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Operations (Azure Cloud based ERP platform). PartnerLink solution is a long-term strategic asset for the organizations for B2B interchange that is no longer dependent on any specific source or target ERP system. 

Source: https://www.visionetsystems.com/blog/building-digital-partner-ecosystem-beyond-traditional-b2b-edi-communication 

Visionet Systems delivers digital commerce platform for Vitamin World

Cranbury, NJ - September 14, 2017 - Visionet Systems announced today the successful design and deployment of a unified digital commerce platform for Vitamin World that provides a superior online shopping experience to Vitamin World’s customers.

Vitamin World wanted a streamlined, mobile-friendly customer experience for their e-commerce and a fully integrated omni-channel shopping experience.

Visionet deployed a redesigned e-commerce site using Salesforce Commerce Cloud and Microsoft Dynamics 365 in order to deliver a streamlined, omni-channel cloud experience in record time. Visionet completely redesigned the Vitamin World online customer experience on the web and mobile, from its look-and-feel and navigation to personalization and e-commerce capabilities, resulting in an engaging customer journey. Salesforce Commerce Cloud was implemented to enable an enhanced shopping experience. Microsoft Dynamics 365 ERP was implemented to streamline Vitamin World’s internal business processes. Salesforce Commerce Cloud was then integrated with Microsoft Dynamics 365 to unify transaction and customer data, supply chain management, merchandising, and customer service functionality across all sales channels, including their physical retail locations and call center. Visionet enabled the streamlined integration of these platforms by leveraging Commerce Cloud for the cross-channel unification of processes, creating a single view of Vitamin World’s business operations that allows them to run advanced analytics and discover valuable actionable opportunities.

The new website based on Salesforce Commerce Cloud provides Vitamin World’s customers with personalized experiences across web, mobile, social, and in-store channels. And now, utilizing the world’s #1 CRM platform – Salesforce – they can deliver completely unified experiences for customers that extend beyond commerce to include marketing, customer service and more.

Comments on the News

• “Vitamin World engaged Visionet for CX/UX design, site build, Dynamics 365 customization and build, omni-channel integration between Dynamics 365 and Salesforce Commerce Cloud, call center operations, and customer service. By leveraging these services through Visionet, an enhanced customer journey was delivered smoothly to meet Vitamin World’s go-live objectives in record time.” – Rooban Soni, SVP Sales, Visionet Systems.
• “Visionet was the right technology partner for us. Salesforce Commerce Cloud gave us the performance and functionality to power our revamped online store, and Visionet’s vast experience with omni-channel e-commerce implementations produced a smooth and timely rollout.” – Venky Govind, CIO, Vitamin World.

Salesforce and others are trademarks of salesforce.com, inc.

Additional Resources

• Like Salesforce Commerce Cloud on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CommerceCloud/
• Follow Salesforce Commerce Cloud on Twitter: https://twitter.com/commercecloud
• Become a fan of Visionet Systems: https://www.facebook.com/VisionetSystemsInc
• Follow Visionet Systems on Twitter: https://twitter.com/VisionetSystems
  

About Visionet Systems

Headquartered in Cranbury, NJ, Visionet Systems, Inc. (visionetsystems.com) is a full-service technology consulting and BPO company that delivers software solutions and technology-led services built on a philosophy to help its customers increase business agility, drive down costs and reduce risk. Visionet has built deep competencies in the mortgage industry, and engineered high-performance, cost-effective solutions across industry verticals including banking, retail, insurance, distribution, and manufacturing, with a focus on delivering value and exceeding customer expectations. For more information, visit us online at www.visionetsystems.com.

About Vitamin World

At Vitamin World, we believe that nutrition starts at the source. We travel the world to find the freshest, purest, and potent health ingredients in order to craft the highest quality vitamins and supplements for our customers. And our high quality doesn't just apply to our products; it applies to our people. Our staff of trained and friendly Associates in our more than 380 stores nationwide can help guide you on your journey to becoming your best self. Whether you're a wellness novice or a health enthusiast, Vitamin World is committed to bringing quality ingredients, products and people, from the source to you.

Source: https://www.visionetsystems.com/news/visionet-systems-delivers-digital-commerce-platform-vitamin-world

Complete Omni-Channel Integration Solution for Ecommerce and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Operations

Microsoft Dynamics for Operations is an industry-leading ERP platform that offers reliability, security, a rich feature set, and excellent performance to keep your business operations running smoothly.

However, it isn’t designed to handle the unique requirements of operating and managing an online store.

On the other hand, while popular platforms like Magento, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, and Oracle ATG are specially designed to handle the demands of electronic commerce, they aren’t the right tools for enterprise resource planning.

In order to take full advantage of the unique strengths of both types of business technology, it is essential to unify their information.

Instead of relying on slow and error-prone manual processes to keep both platforms in-sync, leading retail brands around the world rely on CommerceLink by Visionet, an intelligent integration solution that automatically synchronizes your e-commerce and ERP data in near-real time.

Centralizing your entire multi-brand organization’s data on customers, products, transactions, and financials opens up new possibilities for analyzing customer preferences, forecasting product demand, supply chain optimization, and improving customer satisfaction.

With access to a single view of your entire operation, it becomes easier for decision makers to discover actionable insights and understand market trends.

Connecting each of your online stores and other sales channels to Microsoft Dynamics also enables true omni-channel order fulfilment.

A single view your entire inventory helps you centrally manage merchandizing, make better replenishment decisions, and avoid delays that negatively impact customer satisfaction.

Customers can have purchases delivered to their homes or to nearby retail locations for pickup, whether they are paid for online or in-store.

Maintaining a single product inventory across sales channels also means that no matter where products are purchased, customers are free to return them at the store of their choice.

CommerceLink helps retail businesses achieve all of these advantages without requiring expensive replacement or reconfiguration of their existing hardware or software.

By capitalizing on your existing ERP and e-commerce investments, CommerceLink allows you to implement unified commerce and omni-channel fulfilment capabilities quickly and securely, with both best-in-class technologies working together to provide maximum ROI.

Please contact Visionet Systems today to learn more about how CommerceLink can help you keep your information systems synchronized and unlock the full value of your e-commerce and ERP data.

Listen to the podcast to learn more about the complete omni-channel integration solution for Ecommerce and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Operations.

Source: https://www.visionetsystems.com/blog/complete-omni-channel-integration-solution-ecommerce-and-microsoft-dynamics-365-operations

Enhance e-commerce capabilities and boost profitability with world-class design, development, and support for Sitecore

Organizations of all kinds choose Sitecore to craft beautiful, versatile, and feature-rich e-commerce sites of all sizes, from global online marketplaces to exclusive online boutiques for niche brands. Visionet Systems has demonstrated excellence in planning, designing, implementing, enhancing, and supporting Sitecore Commerce deployments, and has steadily expanded its client base to include several well-known global brands in multiple industry verticals. By successfully completing Sitecore Commerce projects of varying scope and complexity, Visionet has proven that its team possesses the technical expertise and business savvy to produce superlative e-commerce for Sitecore customers.

The vision and leadership to trail-blaze a winning digital commerce strategy

Visionet’s business and technology consultants have assisted many global brands with determining the best ways to transform their digital footprint, enhancing their omni-channel commerce capabilities, and identifying areas of their business operations that are poised for technology-driven growth. By drawing up a roadmap that charts their ideal digital journey, our Sitecore experts and team leaders help our clients by designing a scalable solution that addresses their specific digital commerce challenges, while always paying close attention to the overall customer experience.

The user experience is a core component of each client’s solution design. From information architecture to visual design, our team ensures that users can swiftly navigate through the solution’s entire corpus of information, select their desired products and services with ease, seamlessly complete purchases and other transactions, and receive customer support from your brand representatives via their preferred mode of communication. Our design experts ensure that users find all information where they expect to, displayed in a clear and visually appealing format, and Sitecore’s strong personalization capabilities make each customer visit more relevant and engaging, which helps form life-long customer relationships.

Our Sitecore web applications are thoughtfully designed and rigorously tested to ensure that they function reliably, and present the user with information solutions that are succinct and intuitive. By performing multi-tier performance and user acceptance testing, our team prepares each deployed solution for an exhaustive range of use cases, and closely aligns every application with real-world user behavior.

Visionet used Sitecore’s e-commerce technology to enable a feature-rich online platform that, integrated with Microsoft Dynamics AX for Retail for back-end operations, connects online and offshore channels and delivers a complete omni-channel experience.

READ MORE

Seasoned professionals dedicated to precision, quality, and rapid deployment

During the implementation phase of every Sitecore project, Visionet’s team of experts uses industry best practices to accelerate rollout, circumvent common challenges, and address specific client requirements. The implementation phase includes many types of customization and configuration, ranging from branding and personalization to deploying search extensions like Coveo and performing integration with ERP & CRM platforms such as Microsoft Dynamics 365. Visionet is proud to be an official Sitecore Solution Partner and Microsoft Gold Partner, and our integration capabilities are second to none.

Sitecore Commerce boasts powerful analytics capabilities that power its real-time personalization and offer decision makers vital customer insights. By applying Sitecore’s leading-edge technologies to customer recommendations and personalized merchandising, Visionet creates innovative tools for users that improve engagement and add value by suggesting customer-specific add-ons and upsells, while keeping each interaction highly relevant and directly meaningful.

Proactive, agile, and cost-effective digital systems management for worry-free operations

Visionet’s mission to exceed clients’ expectations extends far beyond the day your site goes live – our team is dedicated to your projects’ long-lasting success and enduring value. Our Sitecore support team monitors your technology infrastructure, anticipates and identifies potential issues, and prevents or rectifies any sources of risk that might surface.

Empowered by a deep understanding of Sitecore, .NET, and other related technologies, our specialists detect potential challenges before they arise, respond with speed and decisiveness, and unearth underlying causes instead of merely addressing individually-emerging incidents. 24x7 break-fix support, preventative maintenance, patches, and enhancements keep your investment in optimal condition around the clock, without resorting to expensive in-house support.

The result: a secure, reliable Sitecore deployment that operates at peak performance and always exceeds uptime SLAs.

Whether your organization currently uses Sitecore Commerce, is preparing to add Commerce functionality to its Sitecore deployment, or is interested in rolling out a fresh Sitecore implementation, Visionet has the leadership and expertise you need to succeed. Please contact us today to schedule a meeting and explore Visionet’s full range of solutions and managed services.

Source: https://www.visionetsystems.com/blog/enhance-e-commerce-capabilities-and-boost-profitability-world-class-design-development-and

Vitamin World Partners with Visionet Systems to Modernize the Enterprise Wide Digital Footprint, Integrate Sales Channels

Cranbury, NJ - June 30, 2017 - Visionet Systems, a leader in unified ERP and e-commerce implementations for Retail and CPG, announced a strategic partnership with Vitamin World, a retailer of nutritional supplements and wellness products with stores across the US. Visionet will assist Vitamin World in transforming their digital commerce infrastructure, with a strong focus on seamlessly integrating their online channel, brick-and-mortar stores and backend supply chain processes.

“Providing consistent experience across all sales channels and harvesting deeper understanding of our customers is important to us. These insights will allow us to align our supply chain with varying consumer demand, diversify our assortments and provide an engaging and consistent buying experience for our customers, said Michael Madden, CEO of Vitamin World. “By adopting a unified, Omni-channel retail model across sales and supply chain, Vitamin World will become a leaner, modern and more profitable retail outfit”.

The new unified digital solution will provide consistent performance measurement and a more holistic understanding of the day to day business operations by integrated retail with the supply chain and mechanizing. Best of all, Vitamin World’s customers will enjoy a quicker, simpler, and more streamlined customer service whether they shop online or visit a retail outlet. “The new solution will help bring efficiencies to the supply chain operations, and enable Omni-channel functionality across Vitamin World’s online store, call center, and brick-and-mortar outlets”, said Venky Govind, CIO of Vitamin World.

Visionet will implement Microsoft’s cutting edge cloud based ERP, Dynamics 365 Operations for Retail and will fully integrate the online channel using its CommerceLink solution. According to Rooban Soni, SVP Sales, Visionet Systems, “This new Microsoft Azure cloud based solution along with CommerceLink and Retail Analytics will provide Vitamin World the flexibility and unhindered scalability as the business grows”.

This initiative is expected to have a profound, transformative effect on sales and supply chain operations at Vitamin World, with more effective business processes that generate results with fewer steps, enhanced reporting and forecasting, lower operational overheads and improved customer satisfaction.

About Visionet Systems

Headquartered in Cranbury, NJ, Visionet Systems, Inc. (visionetsystems.com) is a full-service solutions and consulting company that delivers software solutions, services, and technology-led BPO products built on a best-of-breed technology with the philosophy to help its customers increase business agility, drive down costs and reduce risk. Visionet has deep competencies in the Omni channel retail, fashion apparel, consumer packaged goods, mortgage Industry and offers high-performance, cost-effective solutions with focus on delivering value and exceeding customer expectations. For more information, visit online at www.visionetsystems.com.

About Vitamin World

At Vitamin World, we believe that nutrition starts at the source. We travel the world to find the freshest, purest, and potent health ingredients in order to craft the highest quality vitamins and supplements for our customers. And our high quality doesn't just apply to our products; it applies to our people. Our staff of trained and friendly Associates in our hundreds of stores nationwide can help guide you on your journey to becoming your best self. Whether you're a wellness novice or a health enthusiast, Vitamin World is committed to bringing quality ingredients, products and people, from the source to you.

Source: https://www.visionetsystems.com/news/vitamin-world-partners-visionet-systems-modernize-enterprise-wide-digital-footprint-integrate

Mattress Firm Achieves Omni-Channel Enablement by Partnering with Visionet Systems

Cranbury, NJ - April 12, 2017 – In order to achieve true omni-channel retail capabilities and improve operational efficiency, Mattress Firm has chosen Visionet Systems as strategic technology partner. Visionet has applied its expertise towards integrating Mattress Firm’s existing investments in e-commerce with Microsoft Dynamics AX to produce a centralized information repository that synchronizes all business information across retail channels in near real-time. This has resulted in streamlined e-commerce processing and fulfilment, and a more consistent customer journey.

As a partner of both Microsoft and Demandware, Visionet was the perfect technology provider for this project. “Visionet’s integration solution for Demandware and Dynamics AX has simplified our retail order management,” said Jonathan Sider, CIO at Mattress Firm. “It ensures a single version of the truth, and prevents the proliferation of separate information silos for each sales channel. Automatic synchronization between Dynamics and Demandware has eliminated the need for other error-prone and labor-intensive methods.”

Unifying ERP and e-commerce platforms has led to many strategic benefits. “Maintaining a single data repository lets Mattress Firm implement genuine omni-channel workflows, such as support for in-store or home delivery of products ordered over the phone or online,” said Orryn Sledge, Senior Vice President, Professional Services at Visionet Systems. “Synchronizing Demandware with Dynamics has also improved inventory visibility, and provides consistent product availability irrespective of sales channel. It has also produced a clearer picture of customer loyalty, with cross-channel sales information used to generate analytics for store managers and measure each customer’s lifetime value. These improvements enable smart clienteling and more effective digital marketing, and result in higher customer satisfaction.”

Integration between Demandware and Dynamics was achieved in a quick and cost-effective fashion by using CommerceLink, Visionet’s pre-built e-commerce integration solution, www.visionetsystems.com/solutions/commercelink. Completely linking the two systems has helped Mattress Firm effectively monitor and optimize customer interactions. “Visionet’s CommerceLink solution has helped us achieve visibility into all of our consumer interactions across our multiple online and store channels,” said Tony Miller, Vice President of Enterprise Systems at Mattress Firm. “This was important for us in order to improve our customer engagement, bring merchandising consistency, and streamline fulfilment processes. Visionet’s EdgeAX CommerceLink solution cut through complexities, simplified these business processes, and helped us achieve our objectives across channels.”

About Visionet Systems

Headquartered in Cranbury, NJ, Visionet Systems, Inc. (visionetsystems.com) is a full-service technology consulting and business process outsourcing company that delivers software solutions, services, and technology-led BPO products built on a best-of-breed philosophy to help its customers increase business agility, drive down costs and reduce risk. Visionet has a decades-long track record of successful projects involving omni-channel enablement, e-commerce, ERP and has engineered many high-performance, cost-effective solutions across a wide range of sectors including, retail, banking, insurance, distribution, and manufacturing, with a focus on delivering value and exceeding customer expectations. For more information, visit online at www.visionetsystems.com.

About Mattress Firm

Founded in 1986, Houston-based Mattress Firm (mattressfirm.com) is the largest independent multi-brand mattress specialty retailer in the United States and one of the most successful specialty bedding companies in the world, with more than 3,500 company-operated and franchised stores across 49 states, and over $3.5 billion in pro forma sales in 2015. In September 2016, the company was acquired by Steinhoff International for $3.8 billion, and now operates as a subsidiary of Steinhoff. Mattress Firm offers a broad selection of traditional and specialty mattresses, bedding accessories, and other related products from leading manufacturers.

Source: https://www.visionetsystems.com/news/mattress-firm-achieves-omni-channel-enablement-partnering-visionet-systems

Visionet Systems Inc. - VisiAnalytics for Grocers

VisiAnalytics for Grocers is a cloud-hosted BI and Analytics platform that provides insights to critical insights to help business decision makers make the right decisions based on the facts. In addition to the pre-built reports and dashboards, it provides a comprehensive set of dimensions and measures for self-service BI.

Based on Power BI and Azure-SQL VisiAnalytics has 2500+ data points driving permutations of the critical KPIs that matter most to you, providing scale, speed to market, maximum efficiency and cost savings.

Better Margins – discover hidden connections in your customers buying habits and stock the stores with the right products at the right price.

Product Profitability – having the ability to uncover real product margins, through purchase, discounts and retail price analysis.

Store Performance – support the high performing stores and create an action plan to exploit the emerging ones through insights to customer demographics and store sales history.

Targeted Marketing – know the impact of your weekly sales campaigns before the rollout. Adopt and sell the right products to your community.

Daily Sales Flash

• Day level store performance summary
• Key sales KPIs including GM%, ADT, AUR, UPT
• TY vs LY comparison for key KPIs
• Top and bottom stores by sales
• Hourly sales and GM trends
• Drill options for time hierarchy

Store Operations

• Holistic view of daily store operations
• Information along with store level drilling
• Traffic counts and conversion rates
• TY vs LY store operational analysis
• Hourly sales, traffic and conversion trends

Returns Analysis

• Daily Returns analysis to find trends around returning products
• TY vs LY Return Comparisons
• Return to Sales Ratios for Sales Amount and Units
• Returns by Product Class and drill option to Product
• Week Over Week Return Analysis

Custom Attributes Analysis

• Analysis on Product Level Custom Attributes
• Data Model Supports Maximum Key Attributes for CPG Products
• Grouping of Custom Attributes based on nature
• Analysis and Trend based on Custom Attributes using Key KPIs
• Drill Options on Store and Time Hierarchy

Source: https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/partner-showcase/visionet-systems-inc-visianalytics-for-grocers/

Simplifying Unified Commerce Enablement

What challenges do fashion retailers face as they embrace omni-channel operations? Discover technologies for easier unified commerce deployment.

Since mobile Internet access became commonplace, customers have displayed the tendency to engage brands and make purchases through multiple channels, while expecting a consistent shopping experience. Differences in pricing, order fulfilment procedures, contacting customer service, and other aspects of the customer journey tend to detract from their ideal shopping experience, leading to lower customer satisfaction, decreased brand loyalty, and ultimately, sub-par sales revenue.

These factors are especially important for fashion and apparel retailers. Similar to other “experience goods” such as perfumes and footwear, the apparel shopper usually prefers to interact with products on a direct, physical level, which increases the likelihood that they will visit a brick-and-mortar store. In order to maximize the customer’s opportunities to complete the purchase, leading fashion retailers offer them multiple shopping channels. If the customer doesn’t buy the item at that retail location, they might wait until they get home and buy it over the phone or through the brand’s online store, or use a mobile app to buy the product while they’re on the go.

The Importance of Seamless Customer Experience

Offering customers multiple paths for their purchases is essential, but it isn’t enough to cement the reputation of your brand. Customers will express frustration if item pricing or availability differs depending on which sales channel they choose, and this usually results in lost sales. This is precisely why omni-channel retail is not a fleeting industry trend or empty buzzword – it is swiftly becoming the norm for all successful retail brands.

Omni-channel retail is a seamless approach to the consumer experience through all available shopping channels. Multi-channel businesses engage customers through several independent channels, while cross-channel retail presents channels as a single brand and single view, but with differences in brand experience. On the other hand, omni-channel retail offers customers a uniform brand experience over every shopping channel. While many retailers have successfully transitioned from single-channel to multi-channel setups, and have even graduated to cross-channel retail, relatively few have successfully implemented a truly omni-channel customer experience.

Why is that? What challenges do businesses face that prevent them from a smooth transition to genuine omni-channel operations? Even though it’s true that every business is unique, with its own series of challenges to overcome, the most common hurdle on the road to omni-channel success is legacy technology and information silos.

The Problem with Multi-Channel Data Silos

Many organizations start with a single-channel retail setup, and gradually add more sales channels as they grow. Because of advances in information technology, newer channels often use newer information systems instead of the ones deployed for existing channels. The biggest problem with this approach is that the customer, product, and transaction information in each channel can’t be shared with any of the others.

So when Betty Walker buys a plaid skirt via your online store on June 12, neither your brick-and-mortar stores nor your call centers are notified about the transaction. You are forced to either tally and adjust stock levels manually on a daily or weekly basis, or keep entirely separate inventories… and neither of those solutions is satisfactory. Furthermore, if Betty decides to shop for other items on her smartphone on June 15, the information system for your mobile channel might not have any record of her previous purchase, leading to a missed opportunity to recommend a product similar to her last purchase. As a matter of fact, your mobile channel might not have any record of a Betty Walker at all! In that case, Betty might be asked to register for a separate mobile account, an annoyance that will probably discourage her enough to abandon the transaction completely.

The example above illustrates just some of the pitfalls of relying on a patchwork of disparate technologies that manage sales channels independently of each other. An omni-channel retail setup would instead use a centralized data repository for all customers, products, and transactions, irrespective of sales channel. That way, shoppers can buy your products over the phone and return them using a mobile app, or order a product from your website and pick it up in-store. Each customer’s transactions would form a single, comprehensive transaction history, making it a simple matter to analyze buying behavior, gauge customer loyalty, and recommend appropriate purchases in the future. A single user account would grant each customer access to your online store via both traditional web browser and smartphone app, which would offer them the same, familiar, full-featured customer experience on both platforms.

Optimized Supply Chain

In addition to a vastly improved customer experience, omni-channel retail streamlines your supply chain operations immensely. Instead of separate, inconsistent records for each channel, or even entirely separate inventories, omni-channel retailers benefit from a single, accurate, real-time view of their entire supply chain. Each in-store, over-the-phone, and online transaction updates your records as they happen, allowing you to respond quickly to significant trends in purchases, returns, or other behavior. Slow, error-prone, and expensive manual transcription and data entry is eliminated as well, which greatly improves data accuracy and reduces operating costs.

Streamlined IT

Your IT department also stands to benefit from well-implemented omni-channel retail. Maintaining a single data repository eliminates the need for multiple legacy information systems, so there are fewer server computers to maintain and purchase software licenses for. To achieve even lower ownership costs, many companies are adopting cloud technologies like Microsoft Dynamics 365. Cloud platforms like Dynamics don’t require on-site server computers, use software and licensing that stays up-to-date automatically, can be accessed securely from multiple devices and locations, and can usually be purchased as cost-effective per-user, per-month subscriptions.

Predictive Analytics

Lower IT costs aren’t the only data-related benefit of going omni-channel. Unified commerce solutions bring all of your business data together, which becomes an extremely powerful diagnostic and predictive tool. Advanced Business Intelligence and Analytics tools track and measure your sales, inventory, and customer data, and give you a detailed picture of your successes and opportunities for growth. Their forecasting capabilities help you assess potential business strategies before you execute them, and make it easier to detect subtle industry trends that you might overlook unaided.

The Transition

Moving to a pure omni-channel infrastructure might seem like a complicated proposition, but it doesn’t have to be. There are a number of tools and technologies that allow a smooth and speedy transition from legacy platforms to unified commerce solutions. Some provide connectors that integrate your existing e-commerce setup to modern cloud platforms, and keep both synchronized automatically, securely, and without causing disruption or downtime.

Conclusion

In order to implement true omni-channel retail that avoids unnecessary complexities, a comprehensive ERP solution is essential. Cloud ERP platforms should be preferred, given their quick, easy deployment, cost-effectiveness, and essentially maintenance-free nature. Instead of scrapping your existing e-commerce implementation, pre-packaged integration solutions offer a much simpler way to automatically synchronize your sales channels’ current technologies with a centralized ERP platform. Powerful predictive analytics technologies can then take full advantage of your customer and product data by generating vital insights that drive business growth.

Visionet Systems offers solutions and services that have helped many retail fashion and apparel businesses of all sizes achieve true omni-channel performance. To find out how we can help your organization attain omni-channel success, please contact Visionet Systems today.

Source: https://www.visionetsystems.com/blog/simplifying-unified-commerce-enablement