We know there is no single method to automate business transactions that will work for everyone. Large enterprises may require extensive features, planning and testing in order to go live with a solution, while small- and medium-sized businesses may need more technical support and just a few features to be successful.

At Rea, we have processes available to meet your needs, and we’ve outlined a few of your options below. Whether you are a high-volume operation or a focused manufacturer, rest assured we have a solution that will work for you.

Automated Business Transactions

Business Documents (Automated)
Rea can support direct B2B transactions, web services, traditional X12 EDI documents and simple file transfer protocols of files.  We can even customize a solution that might better fit your specific needs.  Our flexibility gives you essentially every connectivity paradigm that is in wide use today.

ANSI ASC X12 Supported Documents
Purchase Orders (850)
Planning Schedule with Release Capability (830),
PO Acknowledgments (855)
Invoices (810)
Advance Ship Notices, Manifest (856)

Other Invoicing Practices Supported

Evaluated Receipt Settlement (ERS)  – ERS is a process for paying for goods and services from a packing slip rather than from a separate invoice document.  The payee uses data in the packing slip to apply payments to the existing purchase order (or contract) and then pays the supplier.

Exchanging Documents
Inbound and Outbound EDI documents can be traded via AS2 or through a traditional value-added-network (VAN).

Self Service

Self Service Features
Consignment Tracking
Distributor Sales Reporting
Invoice Inquiry
Inventory Inquiry
Open Orders
Shipment History
Web-based Order Entry

Open Application Group

What is the Open Application Group?

Introduction
The Open Applications Group is focused on delivering practical specifications defining business software component interoperability to real and present problems for customers and vendors.  Since 2005, Rea has adopted the Open Application Group’s Integration Specification for Business Object Documents.  The specification is built upon an XML Architecture.  Reference: http://www.oagi.org

Business Object Documents (BODS)
The common XML message structure provided by OAGIS is the Business Object Document (BOD,) which provides a message architecture based on the following reusable components:

• Nouns – Nouns describe a common business object and are comprised of components.
• Verbs – Verbs describe the action to be applied to the Noun.

For example, the ProcessPurchaseOrder BOD is constructed from the PurchaseOrder Noun and the Process Verb. All BOD messages are based on common Nouns combined with a Verb.

During a document’s lifecycle, the Noun may be combined with various Verbs to achieve portions of a business process. You may send your partner a ProcessPurchaseOrder, the partner responds with an AcknowledgePurchaseOrder and you later may need to issue a ChangePurchaseOrder. All three messages would use the same Noun to describe the Purchase Order.

Additionally, all BODs contain an application area with information that can be used by the processing infrastructure for routing, authorization and receipt verification.

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

What is EDI?
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is the computer-to-computer exchange of business data in standard formats. In EDI, information is organized according to a specified format set by both parties, allowing a “hands-off” computer transaction that requires no human intervention or rekeying on either end. All information contained in an EDI transaction set is, for the most part, the same as on a conventionally printed document.

Organizations have adopted EDI for the same reasons they have embraced much of today’s modern technology-enhanced efficiency and increased profits. Benefits of EDI include:

• Reduced cycle time
• Better inventory management
• Increased productivity
• Reduced costs
• Improved accuracy
• Minimized paper use and storage

The EDI standards are developed and maintained by the Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) X12. The standards are designed to work across industry and company boundaries. Changes and updates to the standards are made by consensus, reflecting the needs of the entire base of standards users, rather than those of a single organization or business sector. Today, more than 300,000 organizations use the 300+ EDI transaction sets to conduct business.

Rea has employed X12 based EDI documents for more than 15 years. Let our skilled IT staff assist you with creating a low-cost solution for doing business.

Rea also supports the EDIFACT EDI Standard for select transactions.