neckermann.de integrates business partners using Crossgate’s Business-Ready Network
Munich on 3 June 2009
The mail-order company neckermann.de will use Crossgate’s B2B platform to handle all business partner communication in future. The solution will be integrated seamlessly into the company’s SAP environment.
neckermann.de is investing in the restructuring of its IT environment and will be handling all material management activities with the help of SAP software solutions in future. The company wishes to con-centrate on its core competences and is therefore outsourcing IT processes to a specialist: EDI com-munication with business partners via Crossgate’s B2B platform is an important component and ele-ment of a long-term IT master plan.
The central partner profile repository forms one of the core elements of the Crossgate network. This is similar to a telephone directory, but instead of isolating phone numbers and addresses, the Crossgate repository containspartner specific integration mappings that have been collected during 3,000 cus-tomer projects. Currently, more than 40,000 business partner profiles exist on the network simplifying the onboarding and electronic connectivity of business processes.. More than 400 business partners of neckermann.de will be connected to their internal SAP infrastructure via Crossgate’s platform for the purpose of processing orders, delivery notes, invoices and performing master data comparisons. Dur-ing the project, Crossgate will assist neckermann.de in contacting its partners in addition to carrying out all EDI enablement activities. In other words, it will integrate the business partners into the B2B network. The exchange of documents will then take place centrally via Crossgate’s Business-Ready Network. Around five million transactions will be exchanged annually.
Optimized business processes with no maintenance whatsoever Amongst the key benefits that neckermann.de is expecting from the connection to Crossgate’s Busi-ness-Ready Network are a consolidation and acceleration of processes. As the solution is fully-hosted by Crossgate, Neckermann will not have to perform any kind of maintenance or updates and expan-sions to the solution which will be integrated into the new system architecture of neckermann.de. The result —it will be possible to integrate all processes seamlessly, lower the total cost of operating an EDI infrastructure, and maximize the investment in SAP.
Stefan Beyler, Chief Information Officer (CIO) at neckermann.de, explained the situation: “Our goal is to achieve flexible, fast business processes. This will not be possible without the seamless integration of the respective business partners in all areas, including our SAP systems.”
About neckermann.de GmbH
neckermann.de GmbH, with a turnover of 1.4 billion euros, is one of the leading mail-order companies in Europe. The neckermann.de Group, including its subsidiaries in ten European countries, employs around 5,000 people – 3,500 of these in Germany. Sun Capital Inc., a leading investment company based in Boca Raton, Florida/USA, is the majority shareholder of neckermann.de. As a multi-channel mail-order company, it offers customers nu-merous possibilities for ordering items from its range of over 250,000 products, including a catalogue, the Inter-net, the phone and a mobile application. neckermann.de generates around 50 percent of turnover via the online shop and receives regular awards for its innovation, such as best online shop and the concept award for dialog-oriented shopping.
