Making the Right Decision: SaaS, Hybrid, or On-Premise Models for Supply Chain Compliance

In a previous column, I wrestled with the technical terms you'll often hear as you investigate SAAS, On-Premise and Hybrid models for using Microsoft Dynamics AX.  In this column I discuss how the various models impact workflow, and in our experience, which models work best for supply chain compliance.

We define supply chain compliance as the business rules between trading partners that mandate what information is shared, how it is shared and under what time constraints.  This is normally accomplished using Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) as a standardized foundation.  Most of our customers trade with "big box" retailers such as Wal-Mart and Home Depot.  Many also trade with a myriad of other suppliers and customers like automotive manufacturers, hospitals, carriers, and 3PL's /remote warehouses. 

Business rules can be as simple as following a mandated EDI structure, but can also be specific to the way a trading partner wants to capture and return data or how trading partners want to process business transactions. 

For example, Wal-Mart requires partners to capture multiple line item discounts and show them in electronic EDI invoices that are sent.  Best Buy wants suppliers to create an Advance Ship Notice for each box in any given shipment.  We have many customers that receive a single purchase order from a trading partner, which must be shipped to a single distribution center but packed for as many as 30 different stores.

What I have just described are best defined as business processes, or "workflow".

Any time you are evaluating supply chain solutions such as EDI you should consider your workflows in the broadest of terms, as well as to the level of greatest detail, both internal to your operation and between vendors and ...