During the onboarding process of your Trading Partner implementation project, there will be a series of phases, all containing their own set of required tasks and responsibilities. These phases are critical for successful project completion. TrueCommerce has designed the onboarding process to be as painless, fast, and efficient as possible.

All required tasks have been grouped to help you understand your progress through each phase of your implementation project. These six phases consist of Initiation, Trading Partner Configuration, Trading Partner Testing, Inbound Transactions, Outbound Transactions, and Production.

Disclaimer: This document outlines the use of an Inbound Purchase Order and serves as the standard onboarding process for establishing a sell-side business relationship. Depending on your Trading Partner relationship, this process may instead use an Outbound Purchase Order to support a buy-side business relationship.

The Initiation phase is the first phase of the implementation project that ensures you, your Trading Partner, and TrueCommerce have all the necessary information required to successfully onboard the new Trading Partner. This phase consists of three primary tasks related to the connection setup, the account details for your Trading Partner, and Trading Partner mapping specifications.

To successfully conclude the Initiation Phase, the three primary tasks within the phase must be completed in their entirety. These three tasks consist of details related to the connection setup, the account details for your Trading Partner, and providing any Trading Partner mapping specifications.

The second phase of the onboarding process is the Trading Partner Configuration Phase and consists of three primary tasks related to configuring your business system code(s), ship-to address(es), and inventory items within your Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. These items will also need to be synced with Transaction Manager. Click here to launch a help article to learn more about the item sync feature.

This phase ensures that the functionality of your ERP system can connect and communicate with Transaction Manager in order to create Sales Orders, Invoices, and Shipments for your new Trading Partner.

To successfully complete the Trading Partner Configuration Phase, you must ensure you have properly configured your partner setup, address list, and item setup within your ERP system as well as syncing them with your EDI Trading Partner via Transaction Manager.

Trading Partner Testing Phase

The third phase of the onboarding process is the Trading Partner Testing Phase and consists of determining how your Trading Partner tests. During this phase, you and your Implementation Specialist will determine which of the following testing methods is utilized by your Trading Partner:

Once all inbound and outbound transactions are approved by your organization and Trading Partner, your Implementation Specialist will then verify any Packing Lists or UCC-128 label requirements. These requirements vary based on Trading Partner and can be implemented with the TrueCommerce Foundry platform (if owned as an item with TrueCommerce).

Lastly, a Go-Live date will be discussed with all parties. This date must be established and approved by your organization and your Trading Partner. TrueCommerce can only move a new connection live and into production with the approval of your Trading Partner.

To successfully complete the Trading Partner Testing Phase, you must ensure you understand which method of testing your Trading Partner utilizes – either Direct Testing or Portal Testing.

Note: This phase of the onboarding process also combines the next two phases, Inbound Transactions Testing and Outbound Transactions Testing, to ensure you test your ERP data mapping (if integrated with a business system). Testing transactions with your integration is crucial for the success of your onboarding project. Testing with your ERP system will ensure transaction maps are ready for production and not cause unnecessary delays with processing live, production Purchase Orders with your ERP system.

Once you have configured and completed the setup of your Trading Partner to sync with Transaction Manager and your ERP, you are ready for the fourth phase of the onboarding process, the Inbound Transactions Testing Phase. This phase is where you begin working on testing the export of the inbound Purchase Order (850). The test Purchase Order transaction should be located within your Transaction Manager’s Inbox. The Purchase Order is used to create a Sales Order within your ERP.

Inbound transactions contain various details based off each EDI transaction your Trading Partner sends. For the standard Sales Order process, where the Trading Partner is sending you a Purchase Order, you will typically only need to configure and test the inbound Purchase Order (850).

Each EDI transaction contains four subtasks that need to be completed to consider the transaction tested and ready for production. These tasks consist of receiving a test inbound transaction, the setup and export of the inbound transaction, data mapping, and ERP testing.

To successfully complete the Inbound Transactions Testing Phase, four tasks must be completed. Those tasks consist of receiving a test inbound transaction, the setup and export of the inbound transaction, data mapping, and ERP testing. You will need to confirm that all of your inbound transactions have been properly processed during this phase of the onboarding process.

This requires you to ensure your Purchase Order (850) exports properly to your ERP system and creates a Sales Order that is data mapped both for your Trading Partner needs as well as your own internal business needs. Data mapping is the process of creating a diagram that connects data fields from a source location to corresponding fields in a destination location.

It is essential to ensure that your Purchase Order is fully data mapped prior to beginning the outbound transactions testing phase. Outbound transactions are extensions of the Sales Order created within your ERP.

Any missing data on the Sales Order will result in missing data on your Advanced Ship Notice (856), Acknowledgement (855), and/or Invoice (810).

Once your Sales Order is created in your ERP system from your inbound Purchase Order (850) export, and you are content with the data being mapped, you can begin the fifth phase of the onboarding process, which consists of creating the outbound EDI transactions. Each outbound transaction contains three tasks to track the progress of that particular transaction's production readiness, as all transactions are tested individually. These tasks consist of setup and import, data mapping and templating, and Trading Partner testing.

To successfully complete the Outbound Transactions Testing Phase, you will need to complete the three required tasks. These tasks consist of setup and import, data mapping and templating, and Trading Partner testing to confirm production readiness, as all transactions are tested individually

While you can utilize the turnaround function to perform compliance testing with your Trading Partner, your data will need to be mapped from your ERP to match prior to moving into a production/go-live phase. Click here to learn more about the turnaround function.

Failure to test your integration during the testing phase could delay processing your production transactions, resulting in late transactions, and negatively impacting your relationship with your Trading Partner.

The final phase of the onboarding process is the Production / Hypercare Period Phase where your first Production transactions are monitored for accuracy and any identified issues are quickly rectified. This phase contains three tasks that consist of receiving your first, live production orders, validating data in your production orders and attending a handoff call with the Technical Support team

It is not uncommon for your first live production orders to be received several months after you have officially completed and passed all Trading Partner testing requirements. It is important to ensure that no changes have occurred from the Testing Phase to the Production Phase with your Trading Partner. Your Implementation Specialist will remain your main point of contact for first live order issues, no matter the amount of time it takes for you to receive those first orders.

To successfully complete the Production/Hypercare Period Phase, you will need to complete three required tasks. These tasks consist of receiving your first, live production orders, validating data in your production orders and understanding how to submit support cases via AMP. The Technical Support team will now be your point of contact for any production issues or questions, should they arise.