nChannel Gears Up Cloud Integration Offering with New Microsoft Dynamics ERP Connectors, Distributor Focus

Imagine you are a small to mid-sized retailer getting your business off the ground. You could spend weeks or months feeding item data into a retail management system (RMS) as your suppliers send you paper catalogs, spreadsheets, or static online catalogs.  And for all that work, where is the value-added detail that you need to make their products really work for you across multiple channels?  (You are already thinking multi-channel, right?)

As that same retailer, if you had a supplier or distributor that offered an easier automated way to place orders, receive invoices, organize item information across channels, and do it all with your existing RMS or accounting solution, then wouldn't you prefer them over the suppliers still stuck in the IT dark ages? 

nChannel, a year-old ISV breaking into the data integration space, believes that the key pain point to address in the retail supply chain - and a key to their own success as a startup ISV - is offering an affordable and scalable integration platform that distributors can adopt for their own businesses and then expand to their customers.  Make your vendors' lives easier and you'll be at the top of their list every day, the thinking goes.

Motivating distributors with affordability

When not addressed pro-actively by at least one party in the supply chain, initiating integration deployments can turn into a chicken and egg conundrum for retailers and their suppliers or distributors. 

"EDI is here to stay.  All parties in the supply chain should participate," says Ann Grackin, CEO of ChainLink Research.  "Retailers should drive the adoption in their trading/supplier network. However if they have not asked ...