A hybrid approach to connecting with customers made easy

One of the limitations of EDI transactions is that once a supplier sends an Advance Shipping Notification (ASN) to a customer, there isn’t a foolproof way to know that the customer’s system received it. An ASN is a document that notifies customers of a pending delivery, including physical characteristics of the shipment and delivery times, so the customer can prepare to accept it.

The consequences of a failed ASN transaction can be costly. “If a truck arrives and the ASN is not there, the supplier must do a manual reset of the entire truckload of components,” says Senthil Kannan, IT Manager, Demand and Distribution Applications for Hendrickson. “To avoid that, our customer wanted real-time confirmation that when Hendrickson submitted an ASN, they would be able to detect any errors and fix them immediately. So before the truck goes to the customer’s docking station, there’s confirmation that ASN is in the customer’s system.”

Today, Hendrickson submits an ASN to the truck manufacturing customer’s system and receives real-time confirmation that the ASN has loaded or has failed to load in the customer’s system, all during a single API call. Hendrickson can then resolve errors immediately, so that the ASN is available 100% of the time in the customer’s system when the shipment reaches the customer’s docking station. The ability to detect and eliminate errors saves both the customer and Hendrickson time and money. The customer is now looking at adding the API capability to other processes, beginning with its order processes.

Hendrickson employees are also happy with the B2B API gateway capability. If Hendrickson’s customer has other suppliers that are unable to convert to API connections, they must enter ASNs through the customer’s portal. Occasionally Hendrickson employees get emails prompting them to do so. According to Kannan: “We can tell them, ‘We’ve got this—you don’t have to do it because we are already compliant.’ They are always surprised and appreciative.”

With the hybrid translation capabilities provided by the IBM Sterling solution, the mapping process is seamless for Hendrickson. “We don’t have to change our ERP system at all. All the changes are managed by IBM,” says Kannan. “Once IBM receives a file that needs to be handled in a specific format, they create that capability. It’s all behind the scenes for us.”

The scalability of the B2B API gateway is a major benefit as well. In the near future, Hendrickson expects its current customer to request additional API capabilities that extend beyond ASNs and for other customers to begin requiring API mappings unique to their IT environments. “We don’t know when, but we imagine there are going to be many similar projects in the future,” says Kannan. “It’s one of the reasons we went with IBM rather than developing something internally. As a manufacturing company, we don’t have the IT expertise to match the volume we’re expecting. When we have new customers, we can hand them over to IBM to do the mapping to meet the customer’s requirements.”

“We have a great relationship with IBM,” he continues. “The moment we have an issue, we pick up the phone and call. The IBM team resolves the problem for us rapidly and at a reasonable cost. Right now we have a working API solution. And it doesn’t matter how we grow it, we will always reach out to IBM.”

Founded in 1913, Hendrickson (link resides outside of ibm.com) is a privately owned global manufacturer and supplier of medium- and heavy-duty truck and trailer suspension systems, axles, brake systems and components to the global commercial transportation industry. The company is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, and has manufacturing and R&D centers in the US, Canada, Mexico, Colombia, the UK, Germany, France, Austria, Romania, Poland, Turkey, India, China, Japan, Thailand, Australia and New Zealand.