Alan White Kicks Off Major New B2B Initiative

Furniture World Magazine

FurnishNet, a leading provider of Internet-based supply chain solutions, announced today that Alan White, a leading upholstery manufacturer with plants in Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi and a design office in Tennessee, has signed with FurnishNet to provide Internet-based supply chain solutions for automating transaction exchange between the company and its retail clients. The company has targeted both its Top 100 retail client base as well its growing population of mid-sized and independent retailers. Documents to be processed electronically over the Internet include purchase orders, acknowledgments, shipping notices, and invoices. The agreement with FurnishNet includes moving all Alan White EDI retail trading partners, currently at 20 companies, to FurnishNet then a strategic roll-out of Alan White's non-EDI enabled trading partners. Retailers already connected to Alan White through the FurnishNet exchange include RC Willey, Raymour & Flanigan, and Jordan's Furniture. "When we looked at ways to improve our supply chain operations and make it easier for our clients to do business with us, it became clear that traditional EDI was simply too complicated and expensive," said Keith Feuerhaken, Executive VP of Sales and Marketing at Alan White. "By partnering with FurnishNet we are able to provide all of our clients, regardless of size, an affordable, electronic transaction exchange service to drive down costs and speed up order processing." Alan White has targeted reduced paper work, less manual data entry, fewer phone calls, and faster order turnaround as major areas of savings for the company and its clients as benefits of electronic transaction exchange. "Using FurnishNet instead of traditional EDI alleviates the mapping headaches we and our clients have experienced in the past," said Feuerhaken. "We're also reducing our infrastructure costs and eliminating traditional VAN Network charges." Standardizing Alan White's EDI operations on FurnishNet will drive time and cost out of the supply chain and reduce the time it takes to connect new trading partners. The ability to communicate electronically with more of their customers allows Alan White to take a more proactive, strategic approach to encouraging supply chain automation within their customer base. FurnishNet's solution for Transaction Management speeds the accuratetransmission of purchase orders, purchase order acknowledgements, advance ship notices, invoices, and many other transaction types. By integrating e-mail, web applications, electronic data interchange (EDI), and XML into a unique "Any-to-Any" exchange, FurnishNet is able to translate business transactions into appropriate formats for theimmediate electronic flow of information between business partners ofany size, running on any corporate system. This reduces errors and costs and shortens delivery cycles to improve customer service. About Alan White: Alan White is a family owned upholstery manufacturer founded in 1953 with manufacturing plants in Alabama, Arkansas, and Mississippi and a design office in Tennessee. Alan White has predominately focused on top 100 retailers, from whom it derives about 90% of its revenues. The company is currently aiming to expand its dealer base with mid-sized and independent retailers. About FurnishNet: Over 550 of the nation's leading retailers and manufacturers are using FurnishNet's electronic document exchange solution to streamline their supply chains. For more information or a list of connected manufacturers, please call 1-800-854-2263, or visit www.furnishnet.com