Health & Beauty Manufacturer Demystifies EDI and Increases Control with Jitterbit

Business Challenge

NEOM Wellbeing is a manufacturer of health and beauty products, including hair and skincare, home fragrance, candles, and bath products. Based in the UK, the company has a number of physical stores and a robust online presence, along with retail distribution through stores such as Ulta and Nordstrom.

While they previously depended on a one-man operation for EDI, they found that as they continued to grow, this approach wasn’t scaling sufficiently to continue meeting their needs. When the company wanted to modify something or replicate a trading partner setup, it was very difficult to do without help. All processes were located in a single, hard-to-decipher, code-heavy file.

They also struggled to get support in a timely manner, and there was no visibility of incoming messages, mapping or data. “It was like a black box we put our data in, and then data came out, and we hoped it didn’t break,” NEOM Wellbeing Systems Integration Developer Tom Potkins said.

Solution

To continue scaling operations as the business grew, NEOM began the RFP process for different integration platforms. At first, NEOM found it challenging to understand all the different EDI formats, and how messages needed to be sent and received. So when they deployed Jitterbit, they started out using it like the previous EDI setup. They would create a workflow, then download a mapping file from Jitterbit to help understand which fields needed to go where in the system.

However, they soon found that Jitterbit EDI made it simple to not only see and understand how the system worked, but also to add trading partners or make changes themselves. The introduction of EDI to XML a little while later made these processes even faster and easier.

It’s been great to work with. I work with Jitterbit basically all day, every day, so getting everything in one platform — and being able to visualize it all on my interface — has been great for me.”
Tom Potkins, Systems Integration Developer, NEOM Wellbeing

Results

Since moving to Jitterbit, NEOM has enjoyed significantly improved visibility, including the ability to see all orders as they come in, which products and quantities were purchased, and the total price paid.

This visibility also makes it easy to onboard new trading partners or send orders to different ERPs. Processes are easily replicable, and NEOM can easily follow the data as it flows through the system.

For trading partners not on the list of out-of-the-box trading partners Jitterbit had created, NEOM initially did need to seek help from the Jitterbit team. But with the introduction of EDI to XML, NEOM can now perform this onboarding themselves. “The EDI team explained how it works, and it’s now quick and easy to get them set up with the new method,” Potkins said. “This has allowed us to turn around our interactions more quickly than before.”

NEOM has also been able to uplevel its supply chain. “We didn’t have a U.S. warehouse before Jitterbit,” Potkins said. “One of the first projects we did was to integrate with the warehouse so that it could use API calls to send and receive orders. We’ve integrated two warehouses in the last two years using Jitterbit.”

They’ve also integrated with a third-party logistics company in the U.S. that handles website orders, then sends the data to the warehouse companies, who handle the fulfillment of orders and automatically send back the tracking info provided to customers.

“It’s been great to work with. I work with Jitterbit basically all day, every day, so getting everything in one platform — and being able to visualize it all on my interface — has been great for me,” Potkins said.