OKA Business Goals
NetSuite EDI eCommerce Integration is the modern solution for thriving retail/e-commerce businesses. And this case study is about our customer, OKA Direct and the solution we developed. OKA Direct is a British luxury home furniture retailer. The company was founded in 1999 by Annabel Astor, Sue Jones, and Lucinda Waterhouse. The name “OKA” was inspired by a small Indonesian island.
OKA Direct offers a wide range of furniture, lighting, soft furnishings, and decorative accessories for interior design. Their products are known for their quality craftsmanship and unique designs, often drawing inspiration from different cultures and periods. In addition, OKA Direct emphasises a mix-and-match approach, allowing customers to create personalised interiors.
In a highly competitive and rapidly changing market, OKA Direct wanted to leverage the benefits of digital integration and automation to achieve its business goals which included,
- Enhancing the shopping experience for online and direct customers
- Expand the customer reach
- Increase sales and revenue and
- Decrease the cost of operations
Technological Challenges
As a rapidly growing company, OKA Direct has incorporated several SaaS platforms and 3rd party applications into its IT ecosystem. The two primary sales channels are e-commerce website and Point of Sale (PoS) in physical stores.
Oracle NetSuite is the core ERP platform where Sales Orders are generated, invoices are generated, and customer deposits are managed. NetSuite also remains the master of Orders, Returns and Inventory.
The E-commerce website is developed on the Magento platform, while the payment gateway is Eskimo. In addition, the Korber platform provides the 3rd party logistics (3PL provider).
So, to gain the maximum potential benefits of integration, it is necessary to connect these platforms seamlessly. Furthermore, it is essential to keep the integrations simple, easy to maintain and enhance as required and monitor and support with minimal operational cost.
How NeosAlpha Helped
First, we reviewed the systems and their capabilities. Next, we understood how the business processes were orchestrated and the key challenges. Finally, our business analysts worked closely with the OKA Direct business to understand their requirements and custom working methods so that the solution would cater to their specific needs.
3PL platform relied on EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) for exchanging business documents such as purchase orders, invoices, shipping notices, and payment remittances. At the same time, the payment gateway exposed APIs to connect with the ERP platform. So, there was a need for an iPaaS platform which has inherent capabilities to handle API-based transactions and EDI-based transactions.
We leveraged Boomi’s EDI capabilities to connect the Korber 3PL platform to Oracle NetSuite using EDI X12 via AS2 protocol. Several formats of EDI documents were integrated as part of the solution. It includes,
- EDI940 – Warehouse Shipping Order (or Warehouse Shipping Advice) transaction used to communicate shipping instructions from the seller or supplier to a warehouse or distribution centre.
- EDI943 – Warehouse Stock Transfer Shipment Advice transaction used to communicate information about the transfer of inventory or stock from one warehouse or distribution centre to another
- EDI944 – Warehouse Stock Transfer Receipt Advice used to communicate information about the receipt of transferred inventory or stock at a receiving warehouse or distribution centre.
- EDI945 – Warehouse Shipping Advice transaction used to communicate shipping information from a warehouse or distribution centre to a trading partner.
- EDI947 – Advance Ship Notice (ASN) or Ship Notice/Manifest used to provide detailed information about a shipment of goods from a supplier or warehouse to a customer or trading partner.
Furthermore, NeosAlpha developed the following integrations using Boomi’s native connectors:
- Oracle NetSuite Salesforce integration to synchronise Customers, Opportunities, and Products.
- NetSuite Magento integration uses the HTTPClient connector to make API calls to Magento via OAuth2.0 securely.
Results
The integration solution provided by NeosAlpha enabled OKA Direct to achieve its business goals effectively. It enhanced the shopping experience for customers, expanded their reach, increased sales and revenue, and reduced operational costs. In addition, the seamless integration of platforms ensured simplified maintenance, monitoring, and support with minimal operating expenses.
Through NeosAlpha’s expertise and tailored approach, OKA Direct successfully leveraged NetSuite EDI eCommerce Integration to optimise its business processes and drive growth in the highly competitive retail/e-commerce market.
