The EDI Glitch That Almost Destroyed Our Client's Business

What I'm about to describe happened to a client of ours last year. It could happen to you, especially if you sell through large retail networks. So I'm sharing this with all of our friends and newsletter subscribers.

Let's call this client "J".

It's not a person, but a small team of three extremely sharp entrepreneurs. Between them, they know just about everything there is to know about their market. I've seen them crush new competitors who don't even know these guys exist. They're shrewd, ruthless, and always several steps ahead.

But they know very little about logistics.

That's one of the reasons they've partnered with us for 13 years now. We handle the warehousing and movement of goods. They're free to kick serious ass in their domain of expertise, which is retail, marketing, and strategy.

One day, these guys were cold-cocked with a terse email from Nordstrom. This is their largest partner, responsible for almost half their business.

Turns out there was a glitch with their EDI provider, i.e. the software they use to integrate with clients/partners, receive purchase orders, etc. It was causing "gremlins" in the system. Nordstrom was now refusing to place any new orders until it was fixed. What's more, our client had 30 days to rectify the problem, or else their partnership would be terminated.

It gets worse.

Because a few days later, Saks sent them almost the same email.

They did what any reasonable entrepreneurs would do, and reached out to the company that provides their EDI software. After about a week of support tickets, escalating cases, and being passed around through half of their dev team, the software company shrugged their shoulders. "We've looked, and we cannot find anything wrong our end. Good luck! And have a nice life!"

That's when they got us involved.

That evening, I stayed up late with one of our technicians, going through every aspect of this software and its connection with our own warehouse management system with a fine-tooth comb — while eating pizza.

We eventually found the culprit.

It was an obscure setting to do with generating invoices, one that few businesses use these days. I won't get into the boring technical things. In a nutshell, though, the EDI provider was handing this setting incorrectly.

I had to spend 15 hours talking with their engineers on the phone, talking them through how to replicate the error in their development sandboxes, and explaining how it should be handled. They eventually put a patch through and the problem was fixed. My clients were able to respond to those emails from Nordstrom and Saks, and assure them that the matter was resolved.

Their two most valuable retail partnerships were saved.

And I walked off into the sunset feeling really good about myself.

Why am I sharing all this with you?

For two reasons:

First, because stuff like this happens sometimes. Logistics is a complicated business. Things are changing all the time. The people who design, develop, and maintain the systems we depend on are only human.

Just like all of us, they sometimes make mistakes.

Unfortunately, the people in big retail who manage vendor relations are not human. Show up on their radar as a problem vendor too many times, and they'll discard you with zero remorse. And, just like that, it's game over.

You need someone watching this stuff. Someone who understands the nitty gritty of logistics, who can work with your software provider and other vendors when things go wrong. Otherwise, the buck's going to get passed around endlessly until you run out of time and lose your livelihood.

And the second reason?

I'm always telling you that Sweetwater Logistics is an outsourced Chief Logistics Officer service — and that we're for entrepreneurs and business owners who need a partner, as opposed to just a 3PL vendor. This is what partnership looks like at the sharp end.

S.