Building Your Community
If you're looking to do business electronically with as many of your existing trading partners as possible, WebDI can provide a point of access for information exchange within your business community. For example, perhaps you no longer want to exchange paper purchase orders and invoices with your suppliers. You can quickly and easily establish electronic connectivity with all of your suppliers via WebDI.

We'll work with you to understand the goals of your trading community, including:

• The type of information you want to exchange (e.g., purchase orders, invoices, or other information).
• The number of trading partners you want to communicate with.
• How quickly you want to bring trading partners into the community.

Your trading partners can sign up for WebDI online, and, depending on their system requirements, we can often have them exchanging information with you in a matter of days. If your community will include trading partners who aren't electronically enabled, then we'll build custom forms that your trading partners can complete online and send to you, so that the information is still delivered to you in your format. These forms are built around your business rules, and can incorporate built-in error checking and validation. WebDI's low-cost and ease of implementation will allow you to achieve a larger pool of electronic trading partners in your community.

Marketing Your Community

Encouraging your suppliers and customers to communicate electronically requires marketing the WebDI solution to them, and we can help you develop a package to do just that. Steps in creating the marketing package for your community might include:

• Development of a positioning statement for your community. This explains to your trading partners the benefits of communicating electronically with WebDI.
• Creation of a trading partner implementation letter (usually distributed via e-mail). This letter communicates your mission statement, as well as the actions your trading partners should take to implement WebDI.
• Creation of marketing support materials, such as invoice stuffers, e-mail, etc.
• Additional communication with your trading partners. This might include broadcast e-mails, direct mail campaigns, or telephone contact.
• Development of materials to orient your trading partners on what's involved in implementing and using WebDI. This can include in-person seminars, online instructions, system demos, etc. For a brief overview of how your trading partners can join your community, refer to the Join a Community section.
• Development of your corporate branded sign-up and demo site.
• Creation of reports on your trading partner activity. As we execute your marketing plan, we'll regularly report on your trading partners' compliance