First B2B

Our Key Focus in Community Management

For many businesses, keeping the contact details and names of suppliers up to date is a real challenge. The First B2B Team understands that community management's most critical element is in the preparatory stages, including removing as many technical and cost barriers to entry as possible. All First B2B fully managed EDI solutions are cloud-based, with software licensing and delivery service licensed on a subscription 'on-demand' basis. The running costs are based on the number of ‘live’ documents we process on your behalf. This method of charging ensures that our pricing stays in line with the benefits of automated electronic data interchange.

We understand the importance of the relationship between vendor and trading partner. Our high-quality approach to community management focuses on this. We measure success by the number of customers and suppliers taking part.

An effective community management system features seamless connectivity, rebranded services, and full cross-community integration. The engagement of suppliers is crucial, but many vendors underestimate the importance of maintaining this relationship.

Our processes are clear-cut and compelling, with a typical community management project taking 3-4 weeks to establish. Once complete, the system in its entirety - software connection, integration, and partner management - can be outsourced to First B2B, or our expert team can support your current capabilities. As a UK-based EDI provider, we pride ourselves on tailoring every solution to our clients worldwide.

First B2B's Proven Methodology

The primary objective is to guide your trading partners, or customers, through the process of engagement. Our team will co-ordinate and take responsibility for delivering precise and compelling messaging using webcasts, conference calls, promotional collateral, your account team, and your website. This comprehensive engagement process is useful in helping your trading partners or customers to:

Buy into the concept
Establish the benefits for them
Set and commit to time scales
Connect to the new service via SaaS
Integrate the data and message feeds from/to their core systems via Saas
Test, dry run, and continue ongoing support
Realise incremental business benefits
Understand that a similar service can be extended to their customers and suppliers

We work with many major businesses within the food and beverage sector, including:

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Supporting image for Fourth Hospitality EDI

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See full partner list

The Benefits of Electronic Data Interchange and Supply Chain Integration: A Review of the LiteratureDownload resource

FAQs

What EDI Formats do First B2B Support?

The First B2B System supports Tradacoms, EDIFACT and ANS X12

What formats other than EDI do First B2B Support?

The First B2B service can also exchange and convert data from CSV, XML, Fixed Width (Byte Delimited), xlsx and PDF.

Can First B2B use the data from a PDF File?

Yes, the First B2B system can process PDF files and extract the data from them.

What methods can the First B2B service send and receive data by?

First B2B can send and receive data through AS2, EDI VAN, FTP(S), HTTP(S), SFTP, email and Web Service.

How can I view the data your process for me?

The First B2B service provides all clients with access to our web portal, The Lens. You can use this to view any data we have processed on your behalf for the past 400 days. You can search for the data by any information contained within the documents, for example the document number or a purchase order number, delivery number or product code, for ultimate convenience.

What are you standard support hours?

Our Standard Support desk hours are 9:00am GMT to 5:00pm GMT Monday to Friday, excluding English Public Holidays.

Do First B2B offer 24/7 Support?

First B2B offer a range of Support options, tailored to each client's needs, including 24/7 support.

How can I get an overview of how successful my business has been in connecting to my trading partners?

First B2B clients enjoy access to our unique web portal, called The Lens. It features a comprehensive dashboard showing you how your connections through First B2B are performing. You can check the number of connections, document volumes, the cost per connection and rate of successful exchange, keeping you in control and informed.

Do First B2B offer any alerting services to help with our business processes?

First B2B has several options for clients who wish to be alerted to potential issues with their business processes. By default, we monitor the connections to our clients 24/7 to ensure that, even if no data is flowing, we are aware if there is an issue with the connection. This ensures that we can be proactive in helping to solve communications issues for our clients. We also have a built-in alerting system which uses a heuristic algorithm to determine, for each message exchange (e.g. Purchase Orders from a customer to you) on each day of the week, how many documents should be exchanged, and if the correct number of documents is not processed we will raise an alert to you and our support desk. These alerts are configurable by our clients, including SMS alerts if you require them. We can even alert you if we have processed a purchase order for you but have yet to receive a corresponding invoice.