Scenarios for Using Warehouse Management Interfaces (WHI)

WMS integration is a standard interface to M3 for larger Warehouse Management Systems (WMS).

This communication can be asynchronous for managing large volumes, or synchronous, for example, from and to a bar code reader.

This is integration to material handling equipment (MHE) such as, scanners, bar code readers, hand-held devices (Palm, Pocket PC), conveyors, and so on. This communication is often synchronous.

This is integration to MHE, which consists of very thin clients. This is only synchronous communication. There is very little logic on the client side.

3PL is a concept for outsourcing supply chain management.

Outsourcing is a viable option for many companies. Businesses outsource for various reasons - to increase shareholder value, reduce costs, business transformation, improve operations, overcome lack of internal capabilities, gain a competitive advantage, improve capabilities, increase sales, improve service, reduce inventory, increase inventory velocity and turns, mitigate capital investment, improve cash flow, and turn fixed costs into variable costs and other benefits, both tangible and intangible. To the maximum, and if done correctly, outsourcing and business process outsourcing can be used to create a viable virtual corporation.

The objectives of vendor-managed inventory (VMI) are as follows:

• Increase in-stock inventory
• Increase sales
• Improve customer service
• Increase gross margins
• Reduce overall inventory in the supply chain
• Stabilize vendor's production.

Another interesting issue that is part of the VMI process is whether customers should be invoiced directly at shipment or after selling the products to their own end customers.

M3 point of sale (POS) integration is a vital part of a retail-concept based on M3 Collaboration Application. M3 POS integration connects local and separate POS systems to M3.

The combination of a specialized POS system, which meets specific requirements from the counter sales and cash payments process in high volume shops, with M3 provides a solution for the entire value chain.

Electronic data interchange (EDI) is the computer-to-computer exchange of business data in standard formats. In EDI, information is organized according to a specified format set by parties, allowing a 'hands off' computer transaction that requires no human intervention or rekeying on either end.

The information contained in an EDI transaction set is, for the most part, the same as on a conventionally printed document.

The M3 EDI solution is based on Infor Enterprise Collaborator (IEC), normally complemented by AMTrix as the EDI server. Those components fulfill the technical infrastructure and can be complemented with package integration processes, so called EDI Business Messages.

This solution aims to offer packaged integration processes in order to deliver both speed and low risk for B2Bi projects.