Topcon Positioning Group Growth with EDI

Background

A manufacturer of positioning systems for farming and construction purposes, Topcon Positioning Group is focused on a larger global mission: supporting sustainable agriculture and infrastructure.

Summary

• Tasked with increasing their food production by 70 percent, Topcon needed to deploy an EDI solution to improve workflows between SAP (their ERP system) and their trading partners/OEMs
• After a prior EDI implementation effort stalled for over a year, Topcon turned to Jitterbit Harmony to seamlessly integrate SAP with the dozens of EDI formats housed by their manufacturers
• With Jitterbit Harmony, Topcon fully eliminated manual work with automation and improved vendor relations with faster, smoother operations

Challenge

To connect with trading partners and OEMs, Topcon needed seamless EDI integration

In order to significantly increase their food production output, Topcon needed to conduct seamless electronic data interchange (EDI) transactions with its trading partners, including sizable original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

“By 2050, we’re going to have to produce 70 percent more food than we have today to feed everybody that’s going to be on the planet,” says David Vopnford, Application Delivery Manager for Topcon. “Topcon is trying to make a difference by helping all of the different companies we serve be more efficient and deliver their solutions faster.”

“SAP is our ERP system, and we connect to several huge manufacturers of tractors and pavers and mining equipment,” Vopnford. “We needed an integration partner to help us because within even a single one of these companies, there are multiple verticals and upwards of a dozen different EDI formats.”

Previously, Topcon engaged an on-site EDI consultant to deploy a solution, but efforts stalled. “After 12 to 18 months, we still weren’t able to get things live in production,” says Vopnford. “As a manager, I spent a lot of time on EDI, which wasn’t ideal. We wanted to find something that would just work and allow us to leave it alone.”

Solution

Jitterbit Harmony centralized and connected data into Topcon’s SAP ERP system

After seeing a demo and proof of concept, Vopnford decided to deploy the Jitterbit Harmony integration platform. “Being able to feed all information through one middleware solution to get it converted and sent into our SAP system was really huge for us,” he says. “We simply didn’t have the resources to do that on our own.”

Benefits

Elimination of manual tasks frees up time to scale the business

With Jitterbit Harmony, Topcon replaced manual, time-consuming order processing with fully automated workflows. “We’ve saved countless hours that people spent working manually on orders,” says Vopnford. “And showing our partners that we can process orders quickly and efficiently creates faith in our brand and opportunities to grow our business.”