As more and more manufacturers and customers demand electronic commerce as a way to streamline the supply chain, distributors must be responsive to their needs or risk being left behind.

Whether it be through an Internet trading network, EDI, or a Web-based storefront, distributors can find the right solution with Activant.

Trading Partner Connect®

Trading Partner Connect, an Internet trading network for distributors, streamlines the commerce process, increasing collaborative opportunities and streamlining processes, enabling distributors to improve customer service while reducing operating costs.

Benefits include:

	Use your own part numbers when communicating with other members through inventory synchronization. More than19 million synchronized items in Activant's database helps eliminate order errors and delays, and makes for clean data transmissions.
	Conduct EDI transactions in real-time at little or no cost.
	Identify and reduce dead stock by forming trading relationships with distributors who actively sell stock that you have marked as inactive or dead in your inventory. In turn, you can source another distributor's slow-moving inventory at discount prices to increase your margins.
	Increase your sales without investing in additional inventory, warehouse space, or staff by partnering with distributors in other geographical locations or outside your industry. You can source items from multiple partners in less than a minute, vastly improving your customer service response time.
	Upload price updates to prevent payables issues – and margin erosion – that can arise when price increases are not enacted in a timely manner. Synchronization allows you to avoid having a separate mapping process for each supplier.
	Maximize your use of the Internet to conduct business with other trading communities without hurting your bottom line.

EDI

With more and more manufacturers and suppliers requiring distributors to conduct business electronically or face penalties, the Activant Distribution Suite streamlines the transaction process by providing a portal for EDI transactions.

All transactions are done in real-time, meaning you get the most accurate information available. You also save money because the Activant Distribution Suite helps eliminate EDI VAN charges when interacting with other Activant Distribution Suite members.

Web-Based Storefront

Activant makes it easy to service existing and prospective customers 24 hours a day, seven days a week with its Web-based storefront solution for distributors.

An integrated Web-based storefront makes it possible for you to service customers as near as next door or as far away as the other side of the country, without making the financial investment of opening a branch or hiring more staff.

Your customers can also use your secure Web site as their business system to keep track of what they ordered for their individual customers and download accounting-specific information, including past invoices, into Excel spreadsheets – a value-added service that will make them loyal customers for years to come.

Receive online orders directly into the Activant Distribution Suite without intervention from your staff, saving time and avoiding costly re-keying errors. This not only increases sales and improves customer service, but also frees your customer service staff to focus on more profitable tasks, such as developing new customers.

Activant has a long-range vision for distribution technology and the industry experts to make it happen. Find out more today. Visit distribution.activant.com, email distribution@activant.com, or call 1-800-776-7438, and press 1.