RVCF Retail Survey Summary: ASN Error Notifications
Error notifications can either be “push” or “pull”. Push notifications include EDI transactions and email notifications sent from the retailer to the supplier. Pull notifications include data that can be found on the retailer’s portal such as scorecards. Vendor scorecard information can include non-compliance information related to ASN and shipping label issues.
When surveyed by RVCF, a majority of the retailers and suppliers responded that ASN business error notifications are commonly sent in a report via email rather than EDI. When retailers use EDI for error notification, the supplier has to translate, process, reformat, and send the information to the right contact or department for action.
The advantages of email error notification include:
- It can be delivered to the correct party.
- Often a ‘generic’ email address is used (e.g. custservice@domain.com) and associates are assigned to monitor the mail box.
- It is possible to send the appropriate email address in the Contact Segment of every ASN, to make sure the right email address is used for ASN error notification.
- Multiple parties can be included; business and technical teams can be copied on the same error/issue, helping with escalation.
- The email report is human readable and does not require translation.
- The email thread can be used for tracking the issue.
- Clear communication in the email can help with getting to the root cause.
The disadvantages of email notification can be the lack of receipt acknowledgment from the receiver and the issue of email address synchronization between the supplier and retailer.
The issue with both EDI and email error notification is that the language used to describe errors has not been standardized and is different for every retailer. It is often not specific enough to understand what to do to fix the problem.
EDI Transactions designed for error notification include:
- 997 Functional Acknowledgements
- 824 Application Advice
- 864 Text Message
- 812 Debit / Credit Adjustment
- 861 Receiving Advice / Acceptance Certificate
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