Products and services for UTILITIES, INFRASTRUCTURE, CONSTRUCTION and the ENVIRONMENT
When computer systems were first deployed in the working environment, the whole business operation model changed, employees were now able to channel quantitative information through a machine that could store, process and analyse data.
Keying information soon replaced writing and became a full time job for a person or team. The benefits of using an IT system soon became apparent, organisations were much more efficient in areas such as data archiving, controlling budgets and auditing.
Manually inputting data and printing it off to be posted or faxed was a massive leap in technology and eased trading between customer and supplier, but was it the most effective way to do business? If these systems could produce the data, then why could it not be exchanged between two machines? Well simply put, they could but no one thought about it! Some 15 years later EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) was born.
Electronic Trading, EDI or E-Trading, is the electronic transmission of business-to-business transactions between trading partners i.e. contractors and suppliers. It has grown dramatically over the last five years and is no longer a buzz word but a common method that many companies introduce into their business model.
Having so many suppliers/customers exchanging paper documents daily took up a huge amount of resource and cost. Burdens therefore realised that E-Trading would really benefit the business and with the prospect of machines taking over this role making alot of sense. This new technology has allowed us to free up many resources to concentrate on other areas in Procurement, as well as save us money.
Along with a major building contractor, Burdens decided to invest in the required systems and resources to fully implement e-trading that would allow us to maximise its potential. Having a Third Party specialist to look after all of the mapping of data to and from Burdens' back office ensured there were no restrictions in what the customer/supplier’s preferred method/standard of trading was.
E-Trading enables you to exchange any type of structured business information, catering for all industry sectors. The business documents that can be exchanged are:
Below are some figures which can give an indication of how much Burdens trade electronically today:
10,000 documents each month outgoing and around 9,500 incoming. This has a monetary value of £3 million from and £12 million to WTB each month.
This is £144 million being loaded into WTB’s system, and £36 million being sent each year.
Burdens is continuing to expand their E-trading profile, with ever more suppliers and customers deciding to now trade in this manner. It will soon mean that the majority of business documents being exchanged with Burdens will be done electronically
