Customer and Supplier Portals are Essential to Supply Chain Collaboration

Despite company initiatives to digitize, small companies in the supply chain without the technical resources can get left behind. Customer and supplier portals are a great way for those suppliers, distributors, manufacturers and retailers without extensive IT resources and supply chain software such as ERP systems to manage and optimize their supply chains. Customer and supplier portals allow businesses to connect and collaborate with their trading partners over the internet. They serve as a central exchange hub for supply chain-related communications by connecting trading partners electronically. These portals accommodate a variety of data formats, whether EDI-based documents, web forms, XML, and unstructured data formats (PDFs, flat files, scanned documents and images, etc.) through a backend integration to the trading partner’s ERP system. Customer and supplier portals facilitate the flow of information and knowledge among companies by automating supply chain processes. The many benefits of portals include error elimination and improved data quality. These platforms reduce order processing times and eliminate disputes by providing an archive and audit trail. The use of portals bring trading partners inventory visibility and through automation, allow them to truly collaborate with their trading partners and even diversify their supplier networks. Here’s a look at the Generix cloud-based customer and supplier portals: