Environmental Lighting Technology

Environmental Lighting is better known as Ott-Lite Technology. They manufacture and distribute natural lighting products to the global market. Their customers include a long list of major retailers including: Wal-Mart, Lowes, Home Depot, Office Depot, Jo Ann Stores, JC Penny, Staples, and many others.

The Challenges

The complexity of large retail EDI exchange requires a solution that gives complete visibility to the data cycle in its entirety and that has interactive tools that empower users to fully meet their compliance obligations.

Environmental Lighting’s previous EDI solution for MAS 200 required a third party translator, which was cumbersome, difficult to use, and the two systems lacked any real integration. This left a substantial information gap when trying to view their EDI processes as a whole.

The solution’s trading partner maps provided little in the way of flexibility, and visibility to data was limited, making most troubleshooting difficult and in some cases, impossible. Even the smallest changes to a trading partner’s EDI requirements resulted in the need for an entirely new template, which took weeks to receive. Then once it was installed, there were numerous problems that took several more weeks and numerous hours of discussions with the solution provider before it was working.

With these kinds of challenges, bringing up new EDI customers could require months of work, which was not an acceptable option for Environmental Lighting. Additionally, a lack of adequate tools that would allow them to locate and resolve minor problems only reinforced their decision to find a better solution.

The Edisoft Solution

Environmental Lighting turned to Edisoft in 2004 and soon implemented Merchant for MAS 200, a fully integrated all-in-one EDI solution. This immediately eliminated data disparities that are common among solutions that require multiple pieces from multiple providers. Additionally, Merchant allowed Environmental Lighting to easily view and manage detailed mapping without the need for weeks of development.

With Edisoft’s new Merchant Visual ASN solution (a powerful shipment management system that allows users to visually pick, pack, label, and ship), Environmental Lighting benefited further from a scalable and reliable utility for building and administrating EDI advance shipment notices.

The Results

“Edisoft has been a great partner and has played an important role in helping us to successfully grow our major retail business over the past three years,” explains Patrick O’Horo, VP of Operations and Information Technology at Environmental Lighting. “In my role of managing both operations and IT, Edisoft has provided a critical bridge in helping our organization get the job done.”

Environmental Lighting found that Merchant always met, and often exceeded, their expectations, providing a real return on their investment by saving them both time and money. “We have often recommended Edisoft to others looking for an EDI solution,” O’Horo admits. “I believe that you cannot find a better solution without spending considerably more money and dealing with large, cumbersome applications that are difficult to operate and maintain.”