Electronic Trading Solution

In support of the 2020 vision, M&S has moved toward providing an electronic trading solution enabling us to communicate with you more effectively and efficiently.

At the heart of our solution is EDI – Electronic Data Interchange; an industry and worldwide standard for electronic business-to-business communication. By adopting this standard M&S is now positioned to truly support a standard way of communicating with you our global supply chain trading partners.

To support all of our trading partners, no matter how large or small, M&S has provided two solutions through which you can exchange business documents: for smaller and occasional suppliers we have our Web-based EDI solution where you can securely receive and send business documents via a web-portal.

For larger suppliers we have a B2B EDI solution where business documents can be sent directly between our business systems without the need for using the Web Portal.

(n.b. For our Franchise Partners, only the B2B solution is available)

If you are a General Merchandise supplier / Trading partner
M&S has enabled electronic messages for its “buy” part of its supply chain; dependent on whether you trade directly or indirectly with us, you can expect to exchange the following business documents:

• Contract
  The contract contains an indication of quantity – it will not be a commitment to buy. For Direct suppliers, the commitment to buy will be via the purchase order.For Full Service Vendors, the contract will be updated with authorisation to cut, which in combination with the approved flow will be our commitment to buy.

• Purchase Orders & Purchase Order Amendments
  The purchase order will represent the formal commitment to buy. The original purchase order may be followed by subsequent updates via the Purchase Order Amendment document.

• Invoices or Self-Bill Invoices
  For Direct suppliers and FSVs (International), invoices for received Purchase Orders may be sent using the Invoice business document; other Full Service Vendors will be managed using self-billing where M&S will send you the Invoice.

• Credit / Debit Memo’s
  Credit / Debit notes will support adjustments to invoiced amounts where there are mis-matches between the Invoice and goods receipted.

The table that follows provides you with a summary of the M&S business documents, and those which you will receive depending on which supplier type you are.

If you have any questions on determining which type of supplier you are, or which business documents you must exchange with M&S, please contact us to further discuss the options for you.

M&S has enabled electronic messages for its “buy” part of its supply chain. You can expect to exchange the following business documents:

• Purchase Orders & Purchase Order Amendments
  The purchase order will represent the formal commitment to buy. The original purchase order may be followed by subsequent updates via the Purchase Order Amendment document.
• POD (Proof of Delivery)
  The proof of delivery will notify the suppliers of the actual quantities received by M&S. Suppliers should submit invoices based on these POD quantities.
• Invoices
  Invoices for received Purchase Orders may be sent using the Invoice business document
• Credit / Debit Memo’s
  Credit / Debit notes will support adjustments to invoiced amounts where there are mis-matches between the Invoice and goods receipted.

In addition to the EDI messages being exchanged above, Food Chilled vendors have been asked to implement the PAV (pick accuracy verification) system and processes, using RFID. Some Food suppliers may already be using PAV. To support the changes we are making, the PAV messages (delivery note messages) will also need to be updated by Food vendors. Information about the specification of the PAV changes can be found via this link.

N.B – Frozen or Wine suppliers who opt for the IWF solution will also receive Purchase Orders and Purchase Order Amendments.

For suppliers that are due to receive legacy messages, these will continue in the current format from the same M&S mailbox.

Food Depot Location codes:

Please note the following;

• EANCOM messages will use SAP 4 digit codes

If you have any questions on determining which type of supplier you are, or which business documents you must exchange with M&S, or please contact us to further discuss the options for you.

M&S has made our invoice document available electronically. Sales orders will continue to be placed via the IRP Solution.

Our B2B partner, GXS, will assist you with the transition onto the M&S Electronic trading solution to enable you to successfully trade with M&S.

The process that you will be guided through by OpenText is very straight forward. Having provided the key contact details of your company to M&S as part of standard M&S trading agreement, OpenText will contact you on behalf of M&S to start this process.

OpenText will capture your existing ability to communicate using EDI, and where required assist you in making the right decision as to which solution you should use when trading with M&S. Once your solution has been chosen, OpenText on behalf of M&S will help you to enable your company to use M&S’ electronic trading solution.

If you choose the Web EDI solution this process is as simple as registering yourself to use the solution, walking through the online tutorial, and completing some initial testing to ensure that you’re ready to go with successfully exchanging business documents with M&S.

If you decide to choose the B2B solution using the OpenText Trading Grid mailbox, then OpenText will support you in enabling this solution. Once registered, a secure mailbox will be configured for your sole use to enable you to send and receive business documents. OpenText will help you establish connectivity to that mailbox from your business systems, along with supporting you in understanding and implementing the EDI Business Document Definitions (messages) that you will be required to use.

M&S understands the diversity of its trading partner base to which we have ensured that we have multiple solutions available to meet your company’s IT capability. M&S can not make the decision as to which solution you should use, however offer the following considerations to assist your decision making:

• Do you have an existing EDI capability? Incorporate the M&S solution into your existing capability whether that is using the Web EDI solution or the B2B EDI solution.
• How many business transactions do you have with M&S per annum? If you are exchanging a high volume (e.g. greater than 100) of business documents (Purchase Orders and Invoices) with M&S each year, the B2B EDI may offer a more efficient solution assuming your IT capability can support this. If you exchange low volumes, the Web EDI solution is likely to be most appropriate to you.
• Are you a short-season trading partner with M&S? If you only exchange small number of business documents with M&S during a small timeframe the Web EDI solution may be the most appropriate option for you.

If you decide to adopt the B2B EDI solution and have not implemented a B2B solution previously then you should further consider the following:

• Do you have an existing B2B technology (also referred to as a B2B Gateway) deployed within your organisation that can receive and send EDI formatted messages?
• Can you integrate the B2B technology with your business applications such that the EDI messages e.g. Purchase Orders, can be loaded automatically into your Order Management System and Invoices can be raised against these and sent to the B2B Gateway technology?
• Do you have experience of implementing the data transformations / mappings that maybe required to enable you to receive and send the EANCOM EDI messages?

If you are still unsure about your options OpenText will be happy to assist you with making the right decision for your company as part of the registration process.

We have developed a Questionnaire to support the implementation approach.

Please click here to go straight to the supplier questionnaire for both GM and Food suppliers

As EDI is a world and industry wide standard we understand that you may already either use OpenText or another B2B provider for your EDI solution. If this is the case then please make OpenText aware of this and they will help manage the transparent inclusion and integration of the M&S electronic solution with your existing capability.

Require more information on using the M&S B2B EDI solution? See our B2B EDI Implementation Guide.

For information on General Merchandise processes, click to view presentation

For information on Food processes, click to view presentation– click to view letter.

Click here for Chilled and Ambient Core Gist Depots
Click here for G L Baker
Click here for Frozen
Click here for Wines
Click here for International M&S Franchise Partners

Using our Web EDI solution? View the OpenText Web EDI demonstration to understand how you can quickly start exchanging business documents with M&S.