EDI – from a cosmetics perspective

The main challenges for CURA in their close collaboration with drugstore chains are large product ranges, continuously shorter product cycles, fast turnover and relatively short inven­tory ranges at the stores‘ distribution centers.

“This is why the dynamic pro­vision of merchandise with short lead times is key. What you need in order to keep up with this merchandise flow is a swift and straightforward exchange of documents,” said Gerhard Kaiser, Chief Operating Officer and authorized agent of CURA-Marketing GmbH.

This is why CURA started looking into EDI at an early stage and has been relying on the services of EDITEL for more than ten years. “What stands out in our collaboration with EDITEL is their high-quality after-sales service and their staff ’s thorough expertise,” explained Gerhard Kaiser. CURA mostly focuses on electronic orders (ORDERS) because, according to Mr. Kaiser, “it allows suppliers to have fast lead times for a large product range that retailers very much expect, and, in some cases, to offer order-picking for specific stores in the first place.”

CURA relies on the EDI integration service by EDITEL as a cloud-based solution, which, according to Chris­toph Stenech, Senior Sales Consultant at EDITEL,

“has the advantage that CURA does not have to take care of any coordination issues involving EDI connections and can instead focus on its core business.”

For CURA, EDI also plays an important role in its international business. “There is no faster flow of documents between two systems than in EDI transactions,” said Gerhard Kaiser. The company uses EDI for invoice processing with a total of five countries (Austria, Germany, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia) via the payment provider MARKANT. According to Mr. Kaiser, “the unique challenges in this context are the diffe­rences among supplier countries which all have their specific mapping guide­lines and different interfaces.”

In terms of what’s next in EDI, CURA plans to introduce electronic despatch advices (DESADV). “These will help meet the continuously increasing de­mands for a professional remittance advice management,” explained Mr. Kaiser.

In Brief

• EDI allows for a swift and straightforward document flow with drugstore retailers
• Implemented message formats:
  • Orders (ORDERS)
  • Invoices (INVOIC)
• EDI Integration via EDITEL as an outsourcing solution
• International EDI connections in 6 countries via MARKANT
• High service level by EDITEL regarding different mappings and interfaces