An integrated e-trading system has been developed and implemented between timber and builders merchants Lawsons and the merchants co-operative, Unimer.
The system, created by Hungerford-based Kerridge Commercial Systems, uses modern e-trading tools such as XML – extensible markup language – which negates the need for paperwork. Invoices from Unimer suppliers are electronically transmitted, received, matched and processed without any manual intervention.
Having pioneered the system with Unimer, Lawsons is now preparing to receive test data from other major suppliers, including the National Merchant Buying Society.
Lawsons IT director Jeremy Norris said: “Reducing cost from the business is a consistent theme for us and e-trading is one of our major initiatives. Like all merchants, we need to manage the burden of administration and the Unimer interface is already delivering valuable benefits.”
Unimer commercial director Chris Pateman said most merchants found invoice-matching time-consuming and added: “Being able to automate this process represents a major opportunity for our members to gain significant cost savings.
“The volume of transactions now managed by Unimer is enormous and growing. Streamlining this administration task is essential in order to control our overheads.”
