Business Case

CNC Project Objectives:
By leveraging current RAPID standards, guidelines, and databases, project objectives mirror those of the AEC project for Order-to-Invoice processes and introduce new objectives concerning the contract process. Stated objectives include:

• Standardize order-to-invoice transaction information passed between trading partners
• Develop standardized contract information exchang
• Automate the contract-to-invoice business processes
• Eliminate dual contract-to-invoice entry among trading partners and reduce errors
• Improve notification response time among trading partners
• Streamline the above business processes by implementing XML-based messaging
  

Current Fertilizer Industry Business Processes:
Contracts are negotiated between supplier and distributor via personal contact, phone discussions, emails, or faxes. Negotiation includes agreement between the two parties regarding product, quantity, pricing, sourcing, and time frame. Once accepted, the contract information must be entered into each of the parties’ respective systems manually before orders can be placed. Orders are then placed against contracts, or as cash orders using current established pricing, via EDI automation or are manually entered upon receipt of phone or fax notifications. Similarly, shipping notifications and invoices are sent via EDI, email, or fax. For each of these business processes, trading partners use their own proprietary identifiers for products, sources, and destinations.
 
Possible Required Business Process Changes:
Participation in the CNC would involve changes to trading partners’ respective systems to allow creation and consumption of the electronic messages being passed. In addition, trading partners will be required to use the accepted standardized codes for products, sources, and destinations when communicating contract-to-invoice information. This can be achieved through cross referencing with AGIIS directories.
 
Recognized participation benefits:
The following are among the benefits that are expected to be realized as a result of participation in the CNC:

• Standardization and automation of the supply chain processes
• Providing a voice in this process
• Improvement of response time as a result of being event-driven
• Customer service improvement by providing real-time notifications during each step of the process
• Reduction of errors which result during dual-entry of information
• Gaining a competitive edge against competitors who are not participants
  

Costs of participation:
The following costs affiliated with participation have been noted:

• Necessary upgrades to existing systems, and new processes as needed, to accommodate sending, receiving, and consuming agreed-upon, standardized XML transactions involving internal resource time
• Costs related to the messaging software
• Costs related to the XML mapping tools
• Costs related to providing secure digital certificates
• Costs related to interfacing with AGIIS database entities
  

Potential threats to project completion:
As with any project, there may be inherent risks if the project is started, but not completed on time. Some of the potential to project completion that have been identified include:

• Other business priorities among participants
• Lack of critical mass among trading partner participant
• Lack of project management
• Varying degrees of participant readiness
• Lack of consensus on standards, tools, and/or processes
  

Possible Implementation Constraints:
Among constraints that may have impact on the project and its timelines are the following:

• Timeline and resource availability to develop the standards for each of the contract-to-invoice transactions
• Business seasonality’s impact on the timeline.
• Availability of resources within each of the participants’ companies
• Data synchronization of unique standard identifiers among trading partners.
  

Potential business impact for non-participants:
Based on the benefits hoped to be gained by participation in the CNC project, non-participation could result in:

• Continued increased costs of manual contract and order entry
• Continued propagation of errors
• Impact on customer relations due to lengthy notification times
• Potential loss of competitive edge with competitors implementing the solution
• Resultant loss of revenue based on the above

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] EDI or Electronic Data Interchange is an approved, published, and maintained formal description of how to structure the data required to perform a specific business function, in such a way as to allow for the transfer and handling of this data by electronic means.
[2] Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a worldwide-standard way to format structured data.
[3] The Ag Industry Identification System (AGIIS) is a directory that contains locations, entities, and products that are used in the Agricultural Industry.