Generix Group processes Carrefour's 60 million messages
Generix Group's on-demand exchange platform has processed 60 million messages from 20,000 suppliers across 14 countries for Carrefour Group over the past year. This is thanks to Carrefour Group's decision to outsource its international electronic data interchange (EDI) and business-to-business (B2B) workflow management on Generix Group's shared data-exchange platform, known as EdiConnect.
- (1888PressRelease) November 24, 2011 - As part of its development plan, in mid-2009, Carrefour Group decided to overhaul its international EDI/B2B exchanges and the management of data flows between its brands and its suppliers. One year after Carrefour Group commissioned Generix Group's shared platform EdiConnect, Hervé Thoumyre, CIO of Carrefour Group, which is the world's second largest retailer, and Jean-Charles Deconninck, CEO of Generix Group, provide an assessment of EdiConnect.
Hervé Thoumyre, CIO of Carrefour Group, explains, "The EdiConnect platform aligns tools operating across 14 countries in which we work throughout Asia, South America and Europe, while meeting local needs. Volumes are very high: 20,000 suppliers and 400 trading partners are currently connected to EdiConnect. With an annual traffic of 60 million exchanged messages, the quality of our international data-flow management is an important factor in our performance."
To better implement its business model, Carrefour Group decided to outsource its data-exchange management. The EdiConnect service, offered and operated by Generix Group, is provided via a single shared collaborative platform across all countries.
"The platform provides a 24/7 service that meets the requirements of time-critical exchange-flow processing. It is also adapted to local needs, while guaranteeing harmonisation across all countries involved. For example, the preparation orders must be strictly completed within very tight time constraints to trigger logistics-orders processing around the world. The service is evaluated with very strict performance indicators [service-level agreement], and concurrently provides reliability and security guarantees. SaaS [i.e. Software as a Service] relieves our teams of daily operational tasks, allowing them to focus on their jobs. The final return on investment aggregates all those factors," concludes Hervé Thoumyre of Carrefour Group.
When commenting on the migration of Carrefour Group's EDI/B2B infrastructure, Hervé Thoumyre explains, "This [migration] expands the service availability, reduces the number of incidents, improves the speed of international EDI flow and, therefore, better serves our customers around the world."
As an expert in SaaS-based critical workflow management, Generix Group already serves 2,100 companies such as Cora, Ferrero, FNAC, Galeries Lafayette, Henkel, Kuehne + Nagel, and PepsiCo France. Its collaborative-supply-chain solutions manage complex workflows and, as a result, meet the standards imposed by retailers dealing with multiple vendors and managing a multitude of products.
Jean-Charles Deconninck, CEO of Generix Group, points out that, "Our customers seek to reduce inventory levels and accelerate their product rotation. Every day, we deal with issues relating to orders, inventory, deliveries and billing - areas that are much more effective with task automation. Daily, our collaborative platforms handle over a million messages associated with critical workflow, often within tight deadlines. In the retail sector, the international services platform managed for Carrefour Group is characterised by its high volume, the criticality of managed workflows, and the extremely tight processing times."
Moreover, the principle of a SaaS contract rests on the availability of an application service catalogue that details changes. This is provided by Generix Group, as the EdiConnect platform is enhanced with new services over time, such as the recently added connectors to support new banking protocols.
"SaaS creates a new era in which customers become 'services consumers', and their loyalty depends on the quality of our services, the effectiveness of our organisation, and our ability to deliver on our commitments. Being a SaaS provider requires strong organisational changes in order to continuously meet customers' demands," stresses Jean-Charles Deconninck. "Customer Care is the cornerstone of this scheme to continuously manage the relationship with our clients."
In 2010/2011, the on-demand flow-management applications accounted for over €10 million of Generix Group's turnover, i.e. nearly 25% of their software-publishing business. The increase in sales in this area - up by 33%, year on year, in 2010/2011 - strongly reflects the growing demand for SaaS.
"In a few years, EDI has become a tool that is both commonplace and essential in optimising critical workflow. Most of the new B2B projects include technologies such as Cloud [computing] and, today, customers prefer SaaS to EDI/B2B solutions. Like communication tools such as CRM [i.e. Customer Relationship Management], the EDI market has largely switched to using the SaaS mode, which offers greater flexibility and agility. The collaborative supply chain is part of this mainstream movement," concludes Jean-Charles Deconninck.
According to Gartner's Revenues by Country & Segment 2010 of the AIM market, the London Stock Exchange's international market for smaller/growing companies, Generix Group is France's leader in EDI/B2B data-exchange solutions, with more than 35% of market share.
About Generix Group
Generix Group, a leading SaaS producer, offers collaborative solutions for commercial use by consumer-goods manufacturers, specialist retailers and e-commerce companies, as well as businesses operating in the field of transport and logistics.
The group offers a wide range of infrastructure solutions designed to increase collaboration within (and between) companies, automatizing both A2A [i.e. Application to Application] and B2B exchanges (such as e-billing and B2B gateway portals).
With a turnover of €67 million, Generix Group is Europe's leader in collaborative solutions for commerce and the supply chain. To date, 1,500 distributors, global manufacturers and logistics companies have chosen Generix Group's collaborative business solutions, and they include Carrefour, Cdiscount, DHL Exel Supply Chain, Gefco, Kuehne + Nagel, Leroy Merlin, Louis Vuitton Sodiaal, Metro, Nestlé, Sara Lee, and Unilever.
For further information, please go to: www.generixgroup.com or www.gci.generixgroup.com/en
For further information, please contact :
Quote ref. : FTPB3662
Ms Katherine WOODS - Press Officer
UBIFRANCE Press Office in London
Tel: +44 (0) 207 024 3640
katherine.woods ( @ ) ubifrance dot fr
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