infor.com
concierge
infor u
developer portal
Home
Groups
Lawson - Supply Chain Management Customer Community [READ ONLY]
GHX
cpashley
OUr organization recently had a presentation from GHX. I am looking for information from any members that are currently or have used GHX for its MSCM division. Here are the following questions: Has GHX met your companies needs? Do they continue to meet your needs? Before using GHX did your company utilize all of Lawson's applications for EDI vendors?(e.g. MA540) Thanks in advance for your input.
Find more posts tagged with
Infor Lawson Supply Chain Management - Discussion
Comments
unknown
have used GHX for years...one of the greates values we have purchased...use 832, 810, 855...great to have a screen that shows all of the PO's, their status, responses from the vendors, can send emails to customers informing them of their PO status...great tool.
cpashley
Pat - did GHX provide the training to the procurement and accounts payable staff for the transition into using all aspects of EDI? How many EDI vendors do you currently work with?
unknown
yes...GHX will train everyone...and there are training sessions on-line for new folks or refreshers...and folks can become GHX certified...on-line. We currently trading with about 85 vendors. A large percentage of our PO lines go through GHX.
cpashley
Thanks, Pat. You have been very helpful and informative. I appreciate you taking the time from your day. Have a nice day!
Stace Webley
I will back up what Pat has said. Our organization uses the 810, 850, and 855 through GHX. I don't know what we were doing prior to GHX because I wasn't here, but having gone through all of GHX's certifications and being exposed to it and training others for the last couple years I think they are well worth the money. The dashboard for procurement and AP is excellent to view PO's and invoices plus line exceptions and acknowledgements.
I have done all of my training online and know the tool very well, so it isn't necessary to have a person onsite after you go live. In my two years here I've only seen a rep once, but they have responded well to e-mails and support tickets.
I would be cautious about purchasing contract center or other offers outside of the basic package. These tools seem very helpful, but they have the risk of being under utilizided or not adding enough value. We've always wanted Lawson to be our source of truth for contracts and not a third party. I will say that MetaTrade is worth the cash though.
jon-athey
We have been on Lawson since 2004 and we used McKesson Matkon prior to this. We've been transacting via EDI since the early '90s. In 2002 we contracted with GHX and were transacting 850s, 855s, and 810s with maybe 6 vendors. At that time the cost was about $3000 per IDN but when they jumped to over $10,000 per IDN two years later we dropped them. Back then they didn't really have the menu of services they have today. There was no GHX My Exchange, there was no MetaTrade, and there was no contract analysis. It was really just another third party EDI mailbox and I didn't think we would get that much bang for the buck with such an increase in cost. We revisited GHX in 2009 and with their new services thought they might be a good fit for us again. We requested capital $ to begin the assessment process but there were too many competing needs for capital so it was always moved to the bottom of the list. I'm still not completely convinced the ROI is there with GHX even with their array of products. We have a contracts team that loads all of our GPO and negotiated local contracts in Lawson so most (about 70%) of our supply cost is already validated against our contracts. And nearly 75% of our PO lines are issued via EDI, fax or e-mail already so most of the efficiencies gained would probably be in the AP process. Not that this isn’t desirable, I’m just still thinking about that bang for the buck. Because, in reality, the only true reduction in cost would be a reduction in FTEs and I don't see that as being likely.
We recently contracted with Edict Systems to expand our EDI. They have some of the same services that GHX offers like contract price validation on invoices, fax to EDI conversion, web based portal for discrepancy resolution but at a much lower initial and annual cost (and no $ up front just to **** our processes). I know it's difficult to switch gears when you've already invested a lot of time and energy into vetting GHX and I'm not trying to sell Edict but I think there are some good and less costly third party EDI companies out there if you're willing to trade the Cadillac for a Chevy. We currently trade with 12 vendors via EDI (mostly direct connection) which represents about 42% of our PO lines. And we have identified another 33 potential new vendors that Edict will contact and set up testing. This will get us close to 60% of our PO lines sent EDI if all vendors convert successfully.
Global Exchange Services (GXS) is another company that says they offer some of the same services that GHX does.
cpashley
Thank you Jon and Stace for this information. I am thinking that I will be asking more questions after the Executives get a chance to review your information.
unknown
We are fully integrated with GHX and had GXS prior - GXS at the time had none of the more robust services but what eventually tipped the scales to GHX was the fact that they were integrated with Premier. We now have the Exchange, NuVia and CCX (Contracts) - I would agree with John. Edict is their "competitor quote" equivilent.
As of January 31st, we have 95 Integrated EDI vendors and 115 MetaTrade vendors. The bulk of the load was done by GHX for us and they then trained us not only on their registration center but also gave us upload maps and training on ED10 and ED40. I would second Stace's reccomendation for MetaTrade - it's well worth it.
They are pricey though.
kim-gonzalez
FYI,
If you are going to send PO comments through GHX, make sure to limit them to 256 characters or it will remove the GHX confirmation link that MetaTrade vendors receive.
Quick Links
All Categories
Recent Posts
Activity
Unanswered
Groups
Help
Popular Tags
Infor Lawson Human Resources Group - Discussion
Infor Lawson Technology Group - Discussion
General Discussions
VISUAL - Enterprise General Discussions
Infor Lawson Supply Chain Management - Discussion
Process Automation (IPA) - General Discussions
Pegasus - Partner General Discussions
Infor Lawson Supply Chain Group - Discussion
Infor Lawson Financials Group - Discussion
Infor EPM Discussions