Managed EDI ServicesFull Steam Ahead for Business Integration: Sensor Expert Leuze Relies on EDI from Retarus

In Search of a More Efficient EDI Provider

Leuze electronic Deutschland GmbH + Co. KG, headquartered in Owen/Teck, is an international sensor expert in automation technology. The product portfolio of these “Sensor People” — as they call themselves — includes switching and measuring sensors, identification systems, as well as solutions for data transmission and image processing. In addition, Leuze offers components, services, and solutions for occupational safety. The company’s focus industries are intralogistics and packaging, machine tools, automotive, and laboratory automation. Leuze currently employs around 1,500 people worldwide and sells its products through 21 of its own sales organizations and more than 40 international distributors.

In its search for a new EDI provider, Leuze opted for Retarus. Leuze chose Retarus because of its industry experience, the flexibility and speed of the solution, the convincing price-performance ratio, and the harmonious overall concept. Another aspect was that Retarus has other solutions in addition to EDI that are of interest to Leuze.

100 Customers, 500 Process Connections via EDI

Retarus and Leuze have set their sights high. Over the next two years, the goal is to connect 100 customers via EDI and map 500 process connections/five company processes. To start, around 50 prioritized EDI connections will be implemented. A stated objective is to offer customers another digital sales channel in addition to the Leuze Online Shop.

Retarus has been offering its EDI solutions exclusively as a managed service for over 20 years, providing and operating the necessary EDI infrastructure with software developed in-house, in its state-of-the-art data center in Munich. As an EDI service provider, Retarus manages the entire technical coordination on behalf of its customers with their business partners. The service specialists responsible for the solution are located in Munich, Erfurt, Milan, and Timisoara. Highly specialized EDI Implementation Engineers create on-schedule data mappings, regardless of industry, business process, format, or protocol.

Reducing Sales’ Workload with EDI Portal Connections

Presently, Leuze’s sales department has to deal with up to 35 different customer/supplier portals, all data being entered manually. The aim of the current project with Retarus is to connect a large number of customer portals directly via EDI, thereby significantly reducing the workload for both customers and Leuze itself on the purchasing/sales side and strengthening mutual partnerships in the long term.

This is where Retarus brings its experience with larger EDI projects and the necessary scaling to the table. Three implementers and one project manager have already started working on the Leuze project.

Retarus knows many of Leuze’s customers from previous EDI projects and already operates EDI connections to these customers. This makes the work done for Leuze a lot faster and easier.

Optimizing the Business-Critical Supply Chain

With Retarus Managed EDI Services, Leuze benefits from efficiently connecting its business partners in a way that offers secure transactions, thereby optimizing its business-critical supply chain. Retarus’ EDI experts provide support in the form of consulting and personal assistance and ensure on-time implementation within the EU jurisdiction. Development, QA, operation, and support are all run in-house, meaning that the EDI service provider is also able to provide ad hoc services as needed, even outside of release cycles.

Retarus’ EDI services cover all relevant international requirements. Innovations and changes are implemented continuously and special formats are supported as required. Operating from auditable data centers offers maximum transparency in terms of security and process reliability. In addition to EDI conversion, Retarus offers additional services such as a signing service, archiving service, validation service, file transfer service, capture services, and reporting.

A Blossoming Partnership

Over the course of the coming year, Leuze will switch its existing EDI connections in the sales department to Retarus’ Managed EDI Services. They are furthermore planning to implement Intelligent Capture Services for incoming orders and to introduce EDI in several international subsidiaries and the purchasing department.