Drop Ship Business Documents

In the businessflow of the Sterling Drop Ship solutionthe seller takes an order from an end customer and sends that orderto the supplier. The supplier then ships the order directly to theend customer. The seller must be able to answer customer queries duringthis time. Multiple documents are transferred back and forth betweenthe seller and supplier to make this possible:

The followingare the types of documents that can be sent from the seller (in EDIor XML format):

• Purchase Order (850)
• Purchase Order Change (860)
• Remittance Advice (820)

The following are the types of documents that can be sentfrom the supplier (in EDI format or Web form):

• Purchase Order Acknowledgement/Commitment (855)
• Advance Ship Notice (856)
• Invoice (810)
• Inventory snapshot document

Communication Methods

Drop ship sellersconnect to Sterling B2B CollaborationNetwork usingeither FTP or AS2. Sellers who have a Sterling B2B CollaborationNetwork mailboxmust connect to the network using FTP. Sellers who do not have a Sterling B2B CollaborationNetwork mailboxcan connect using AS2.

Drop ship suppliers who are EDI enabledcan connect to Sterling B2B CollaborationNetwork usingprotocols such as FTP or AS2. Suppliers that do not use EDI can use Sterling Supplier Portal. With Sterling Web Forms Demand supplierscan receive and send business documents as Web documents using a Webbrowser.

Visibility

IBM SterlingSupply Chain Visibility providesa comprehensive view into the supply chain order-to-cash process.This service can be used to monitor business documents throughoutthe drop ship cycle.