CASE STUDY
E
ddie Stobart, a leading UK supply
chain, transport and logistics company,
counts some of the country’s best-
known brands as its customers. Founded
in 1970 by Edward Stobart, the business
operates across a broad array of industries
including ecommerce, manufacturing,
industrial and retail.
At the heart of this successful logistics
business are Eddie Stobart’s software
systems which play an integral role in
its sprawling supply chain. In such a
fast-paced industry in which margins
are notoriously thin and information is
the lifeblood of business, Eddie Stobart
recognises the importance of technology,
whether in order processing, inventory
tracking, warehousing management or
vehicle telematics.
As with any modern supply chain company,
reliable integration technologies, specifically
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and B2B
partner network management, are critical.
Eddie Stobart had been working with a
variety of traditional EDI providers but
downtime, long project timelines and a lack
of innovation prevented the company from
quickly onboarding customers and building
on the relationships the company had
worked so hard to establish.
To help it meet the evolving needs of
customers – those it had served for many
years and those it had recently acquired –
Eddie Stobart knew it was time for change. It
found its answer with Dell Boomi.
Boomi, a world leading integration cloud
company, provided Eddie Stobart with the
ideal platform for modernising its EDI and
integration processes, helping dramatically
improve the operations of its B2B trading
partner network and bringing greater
speed, flexibility and efficiencies to the
entire business.
The need for speed
When it comes to logistics, speed is king.
But Eddie Stobart’s EDI services were
threatening to slow the company down.
Eddie Stobart had been relying on an
outsourced managed service to run its EDI
network and integrations. As part of that,
the company typically used a rigid and slow
waterfall methodology to make updates to
its trading partner system, greatly limiting
how quickly it could respond to business
demands and partner needs.
EDDIE STOBART
KNEW IT WAS
TIME FOR
CHANGE. IT
FOUND ITS
ANSWER WITH
DELL BOOMI.
“This process was not only lengthy, it
hindered innovation,” said John Court, Eddie
Stobart’s Chief Information Officer. “For a
business with the growth and ambition of
Eddie Stobart, we needed a better approach
to integration that would bring more speed
and agility to our business.”
Eddie Stobart is a 24/7, end-to-end supply
chain operation, running 365 days a year. The
logistics company operates roughly 2,500
vehicles, 4,000 trailers and 26 distribution
centres throughout the UK and continental
Europe, providing services to a range of
national and international customers.
Being able to offer round-the-clock support
is a vital part of its value. But when it
came to managing its ever-expanding and
increasingly complex EDI network, the
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