Challenge Dairy Spreads Company Growth with EXTOL Managed EDI Services
Company Size
1,000+
Region
- America
Country
- United States
Product
- EXTOL EDI Integrator for i
- EXTOL VAN
- EXTOL Secure
Tech Stack
- EDI
- AS2 protocol
- VPN
Implementation Scale
- Enterprise-wide Deployment
Impact Metrics
- Cost Savings
- Customer Satisfaction
- Productivity Improvements
Technology Category
- Application Infrastructure & Middleware - Data Exchange & Integration
- Cybersecurity & Privacy - Network Security
Applicable Industries
- Food & Beverage
Applicable Functions
- Business Operation
- Sales & Marketing
Use Cases
- Inventory Management
- Supply Chain Visibility
Services
- Data Science Services
- System Integration
About The Customer
Challenge Dairy Products, Inc. is a cooperative association responsible for the marketing and distribution of butter products from 700 large, family-owned dairies. Headquartered in Dublin, CA, Challenge is the most recognized, largest selling brand of premium butter in the Western United States. Challenge Butter is often specified by the leading chefs at gourmet restaurants and hotels. The company also sells to retailers, manufacturers, restaurants and bakeries, and has 23 EDI trading partners including Wal-Mart, Tyson, Safeway, Albertson’s, Costco and Kroger/Ralph.
The Challenge
Challenge Dairy was facing a bottleneck to company growth due to their antiquated EDI system. The legacy EDI translator was unreliable, often losing data and lacking an error notification system. This led to missed orders, unreliable invoice transmission, and occasional charge-backs and penalties. The system required constant manual intervention and could not be customized or provide to other applications. It required one full-time-equivalent (FTE) to manage daily activities. End user departments did not have access to transaction and order data. Documents would get lost, and connectivity with customers was not readily verifiable by users due to inaccessibility to acknowledgements and transaction history. The company was also threatened with missing out on new revenue opportunities as new customers often waited weeks or even months to begin active trading.
The Solution
Challenge Dairy approached EXTOL International for a solution to their problems. EXTOL provided the right software solution and a rapid implementation through its Managed Services program. EXTOL EDI Integrator for i was installed on Challenge Dairy’s System i 520 server, and the day-to-day management of EDI operations was handled remotely by EXTOL business process experts. This arrangement enabled a quick launch because it did not involve the time for user training, deployments, integration, or the errors associated with a learning curve. The implementation and roll-out met or exceeded every deadline Challenge set. And none of the Challenge Dairy’s limited IT team is involved with the tasks required to manage and run a robust and agile EDI initiative. Another substantial benefit of Managed EDI Services, as opposed to outsourcing or hosted services, is that the implementation, data and processes are on Challenge Dairy’s server. Their IT department can easily take over management at any time.
Operational Impact
Quantitative Benefit
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