Advanced Data Exchange, which specializes in building electronic trading communities, says its CommerceMail product is the first supplier relationship management solution that enables enterprises to use the simplicity of an email-based workflow to manage 100 percent of their trading partners quickly, efficiently and accurately.

Connecting with thousands of suppliers electronically has been a challenge for supply chain integration for decades. That's why many suppliers resisted the cost and complexity of electronic commerce and electronic data interchange initiatives of their larger customers, according to ADX. The only way to exchange orders and invoices with small, non-technical or occasional suppliers has been through the phone, fax, postal service or more recently, portals. In fact, says ADX, survey results from KPMG Consulting report that 79 percent of businesses still use fax for supply chain operations.

With CommerceMail, however, buyers send orders directly from their ERP system, while suppliers receive and return business documents directly through their email system. The entire workflow from both parties is integrated, managed, secured and EDI-compliant. Because it is SaaS-based, CommerceMail eliminates EDI complexity, the need for technical resources and slashes the cost to participate for millions of businesses new to EDI, the developer says.

"We developed CommerceMail to help companies connect with the millions of businesses around the world who don't have the time or resources to support complex e-commerce technologies," says Dave Parker, CEO of ADX. "Faxing has been the backbone of supply chain connectivity but it has reached its end of life. In today's business climate, email is the killer app for supplier relationship management-it opens up EDI to 20 million more businesses in the U.S. alone."

Visit www.adx.com/CommerceMail