EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) - exchanging orders, invoices and other business critical documents with customers and suppliers has been around for nearly 20 years.

If, however, one looks at the profile of usage in a typical company you will see that the Pareto principle holds true i.e. most companies are (in the case of a first tier supplier to a retailer or manufacturer) only trading via electronic means with the 20% of customers that make up 80% of the order volume. Typically also they will only be receiving orders and sending invoices.

Today there is still very little electronic trading undertaken further up the supply chain with a company

Advance Web Trader is designed to overcome these two problems by providing the trading hub with a tailored secure website into which it deposits orders for typically small to medium sized suppliers.

These suppliers can then utilise any standard PC with a web browser to access the website and download trading documents such as orders and remittance advices, whilst at the same time creating other trading documents such as invoices, or advance shipping notifications to their customer.

COST - this issue is overcome by the supplier not needing any specialist software and the use of the Web Trader system can be minimal depending on the wishes of the customer.

COMPLEXITY - is overcome very easily as the supplier only needs a PC and a web browser to access the secure website.