Conditorei Coppenrath & Wiese sends Cream Pies via EDIINT AS2

The largest maker of frozen backed goods had 10 days to switch its EDI communication with the Wal-Mart subsidiary, Asda, to AS2. Conditorei Coppenrach & Wiese kept the tight schedule of i-effect^®’s implementation with remarkable ease.

The Deadline came suddenly. Asda required from its 2500 suppliers that they switch to the internet protocol EDIINT AS2 within 10 days. The IT team was challenged to find, in record time, an AS2 solution for the server system i5 and a provider that was just as fast.
90% of the external data transmission had been done over FTP up to that point. The most modern confectionery in Germany supported the switch to internet communications from the beginning. “Unexpected failures and the time the value added services were down were worse than the probability of a complete internet crash,” said the EDI project manager, Peter Kosel. The unclear billing procedures of VAN and the savings because of AS2 were not the only reasons for switching to EDIINT AS2.

Conditorei Coppenrath & Wiese uses their own freezer technology to get the frozen backed goods reliably, on time, and undamaged to their destinations. The family-run company demands the highest standard of quality and hygiene, from its confectioners. For this reason, the premium assortment of over 70 different bakery products are only produced in neighbouring Mettingen, where over 1 million pies, cakes, and 1.5 million bread rolls leave the bakery every day.

IT Strategies Account for Growth
From the distribution center in Osnabrück, their subsidiary Overnight TK-Service GmbH supplies their partners; running a tight schedule with a fleet of 35 trucks. 90% of business transactions are conducted electronically. Around 30 EDI-partners are part of the Workflow; among these are all leading English firms like the Wal-Mart subsidiary, Asda. 50% of their exports go to Great Britain. All of the current message types such as INVOIC, ORDERS, DESADV, and inventory reports are exchanged. The receipt of Sales reports from distributors is noticeably increasing. The server i5 570 carries all EDI Processes on one partition. An i5 520 is always ready to make backups. The project manager knows performance bottlenecks: “We plan oversized. On demand is the magic word. If needed, we can expand our CPU.” Peter Kosel, who has worked with EDI at Coppenrath & Wiese since 1994 started exchanging data: “with streamers and with an old 32. The system has been approved for years. We don’t see any reason to switch from IBM Technology.”

Functionality, Service, and Licensing Terms
Determining Factors
The decision for the data integration solution i-effect^® was obvious. The modular architecture of the Standard Solution, which, as complete EDI Software, uses all important communications protocols and offers companies a flexible approach to go, when needed, from classical EDI to EDI over the internet. The project manager needed only one day to settle on the System-i experts from Bergisch Gladbach, when he needed a quick Telebox solution for the exchange bilaterally agreed upon data formats. “The recommendation came from an independent EDI consultant. Mr. Menten came on the same day and in the evening everything was taken care of.” The ZIP Module of i-effect^® was added, to cut down the transmission time with compressed data.

The License terms were also a determining factor. ”The fact that we have different processor types should not concern the software provider. Furthermore, he has to program his software, regardless of how many partners we communicate with.” Both the OS/400 Native functionality and the attractive license terms spoke for i-effect^®, which is independent from processor groups. The number of EDI partners and the data transmission rate can be individually scaled.

Speed, Security, and Integrity Key Issues
The installation of the AS2 Server and the AS2 Client was worked out with an EDI team of 2. Particular attention was given to the AS2 certification process, which verifies the communicating partners’ trustworthiness and the choice between synchronous and asynchronous receipt. Both welcomed the digital signature, which finally put an end to the issue of unconfirmed shipments. The initial object was, however, to “eliminate delays. Sometimes we needed, with IBM IE and Telebox, up to 45 min. to send the data. Data transmission could have been delayed up to an hour if the polling times of the partners’ systems were long.”

A Minor Stumbling Block at the End
An unexpected obstacle occurred, when a configuration error was caused by the AS2 Subsystem as it called the Java Virtual Machine.
i-effect^® requires Java Runtime 1.4, but version 1.3 was installed on the customer’s machine. A quick change to the configuration to access the correct JVM application straightened things out.

Cost-saving Catches On
Peter Kosel sees the switch to AS2 has potential for the future: “Metro and Edeka are also forcing the change. We will, however, approach the market, to expand the use of AS2.”


Back to overview