The Harmony Order Management System (HOM)
ESIS' Harmony Order Management System or HOM is a hosted supply chain solution that automates your purchasing processes and saves you time and money. ESIS has been instrumental in streamlining the supply chain processes for many of the world's largest complex manufacturers.
With ESIS, you do not have to purchase expensive software, absorb exorbitant implementation costs or tie up your personnel during a lengthy implementation process. Our consultants work with you to customize your system, we'll have you exchanging data with your suppliers in only 90-120 days. Once implemented, we maintain the system for you and manage your data on our secure servers.
How the HOM Data Flow Process Works
ESIS receives the purchasing data from you in any form. If it's straight from your system, we can receive a flat file (or other custom file) via FTP. We can work with any type of MRP/ERP system since our customers define with us the file layout to and from their systems. This is something we do with your IT department but which requires a very minimal amount of effort from your programming staff. Once programmed, the data is transferred automatically.
Your purchase orders are sent automatically to an ESIS secure server. After ESIS picks up your file from our secure server site, the data is then processed through our application tables and posted to each of your respective supplier's secure Internet mailboxes or, if they prefer, sent to their VAN. We can receive and send files in any format you require.
When a supplier responds to the documents they receive from you on the HOM web site, the response information is updated on the ESIS system. This data is then put into a file to be automatically picked up by you in the file format(s) you request via FTP or sent to you through a VAN.
Your Business Rules and Processes
Each document (Purchase Order, Change Order, etc.) is mapped by our consultants to meet your exact specifications. Within each document, you determine the fields which the suppliers see and those that they are able to change For example, you may or may not wish to allow a supplier to change a price or ship date.
ESIS also incorporates your business rules into the HOM system application. For example, in order to control excessive early arrivals of expensive parts and avoid having to incur the costs associated with housing them, we have created an "earliest ship date" field for some of our customers. A supplier would not be able to create a ship notice or bar code until a certain date based on your pre-determined lead time. We tailor every customer's application to fit their requirements and business processes.
How Your Suppliers Use HOM
All your suppliers need is access to the Internet and an email address. Suppliers are notified by email whenever you send a document to them. A hyperlink within the email takes the supplier directly to the ESIS web site mailbox. The supplier then logs onto the site using a unique username/password combination that they have been assigned. Once inside, they are able to view and respond to all of the documents that you have sent to them. ESIS' HOM can handle Purchase Orders, Change Orders, Planning Schedules, Forecasts, Advance Ship Notices including the creation of barcodes and labels any and all of the documents that you are currently using to communicate with your suppliers.
Since ESIS provides one web site where suppliers can receive their documents from all their customers, you can be assured of a high rate of supplier acceptance. This is key to the success of your e-commerce initiative. ESIS already works with over 25,000 suppliers, and the chances are that a high percentage of your suppliers are already doing business through ESIS.
ESIS Project Management
ESIS uses a sophisticated enablement process to achieve these results. Our Project Manager manages everything from the initial supplier database creation to final production turnover of the supplier. Throughout the project, we use our extensive internal systems to track all your trading partners' implementation status and "state of readiness," as well as their many contact changes, e-mail changes, etc. Once each supplier is active, we track all information flow down to the document level. We monitor each supplier's system use and provide you with a report.
HOM offers many special features including:
- Basic purchasing and response documents can all be saved on the supplier's system.
- E-mail notifications of new data alert users to take action.
- E-mail links to the buyer within the document allow immediate communication between supplier and buyer.
- Change Order Analysis - The system records what has changed since the last order and how it changed. Price changes, quantity changes, schedule changes are highlighted for easy comparison to the original order.
- Planning Schedule Analysis - Quantity changes and schedule changes are also highlighted for easy comparison.
- Workflow Tracking - All documents show whether they have been viewed and/or acknowledged.
- Support of e-Commerce transactions with ALL the supplier's customers. This provides suppliers with one system and customers with rapid implementation.
- Customer-defined messages such as alert windows, shipping time notifications, mandatory fields, etc., can be programmed into the system based on customer requirements.
ESIS Customers-Partners in the Evolution of HOM
Since its beginning, ESIS has had a history of listening to our customers. We consider them to be our true partners. Their valuable suggestions over the years have driven development at ESIS and helped make HOM the sophisticated system that it is today.