The Arntz Optibelt Group has replaced their multiple EDI systems from several vendors, previously operated in parallel, with Retarus Managed EDI Services. Arntz Optibelt is one of the leading manufacturers of high-performance drive belts around the world. Optibelt products are used in mechanical engineering, the automotive industry, farming machinery as well as in the household appliances industry. The company employs more than 2,000 people at eight production facilities in Europe and Asia. In terms of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), Optibelt had been running an infrastructure built up over twenty years for more than 200 different processes, many of them highly complex, plus a multitude of connections to renowned automobile manufacturers and international technical distributors. Thus far, the company had been using two EDI converters from different vendors as well as a solution developed in-house. New EDI connections had become increasingly difficult to implement using this environment. The converters could map common formats like ANSI X12 or various XML derivatives only with disproportionate effort and at huge cost. That’s why Optibelt decided to make the change to a managed EDI service provider, so that they would no longer have to run their own converters. At the same time, the ERP system was to be converted to SAP.
“The efficient, neat implementation did not only win us over, but also our business partners.” Alexander Grothe, eCommerce Team Leader at Optibelt
After in-depth analysis, Optibelt decided to go with Retarus’ Managed EDI Services. Right from the start, the project managers at Optibelt and Retarus opted to switch over to an agile approach so closely aligned with the the ERP launch that the SAP requirements for the migration of each of the existing processes could directly be used as templates for the data interchange formats. With Retarus Managed EDI Services, it is now also possible to establish connections with new customers and partners significantly more quickly. Optibelt also benefits from increased efficiency in their paperless administration of delivery schedules and from considerable improvements to their ordering and procurement notifications. Last, but not least the processing of credit notes from large customers was also made easier. Having come to a positive overall conclusion of the multi-year effort, Optibelt has the next project already lined up and is currently working on implementing Retarus Long Term Archiving. This service enables the secure and reliable archiving of all business-critical communication transmitted via EDI – for instance orders, delivery schedules, invoices and credit notes. You will soon be able to download the complete Optibelt case study as a PDF from our website.
