(Last Updated On: September 18, 2024)
  • True textile
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True Textiles Inc.

Find out how this leading North American textile mill of contract fabrics has simplified and streamlined their EDI integration process.

True Textiles is a leading textile mill, providing high performance fabrics, such as panel, upholstery, acoustic and cubicle/privacy curtains, to many different markets including corporate, healthcare, education and hospitality. Since its start in 1865, True Textiles has earned the reputation of being a trusted and reliable source for a wide variety of textile needs.

With expertise in fabric design, yarn production, weaving, weft knitting, finishing and performance enhancements, this American-based company, along with all of its business units such as Guilford of Maine and Teknit, was acquired by Duvaltex Inc., a holding company based out of Québec, Canada, that specializes in textile innovation and development. This acquisition will bring about new opportunities for growth and diversification for True.

When it came to their EDI processes, True Textiles experienced many challenges over the years. Their team was using a combination of different EDI packages and mapping tools, all inherited from past acquisitions. Some were as old as 15 years old and at a certain point, were no longer efficient and practical. The processes involved in managing their EDI transactions or new Trading Partner onboarding processes were simply too time consuming and inefficient.

Another major challenge was that True did not have a consolidated format for dealing with transactions. Everything was customized, Trading Partner by Trading Partner, taking even more time and effort out of their team’s already busy schedule.

Therefore, as the company kept growing and receiving further EDI requirements from new Partners (such as XML translations), management knew that they needed to look for a flexible, affordable and efficient EDI Partner to manage their EDI communication.

With a simple online search for “EDI to XML”, they soon found the EDI2XML website, and learnt about Namtek Consulting Services’ popular EDI2XML Service.

“After we contacted Namtek Consulting Services, regarding their EDI2XML service, we soon appreciated the flexibility that they offered in being able to work with various formats, specifically the formats we requested. Our main goal was to standardize the transaction sets, for all inbound and outbound documents, and letting an EDI Partner deal with taking those standard sets and reformatting them into the specific format that each of our Partners demanded, such as EDI X12, XML, CSV, TXT, etc. We were also looking to outsource all the EDI mapping and all transactional pickups and deliveries.  Bottom-line, their answer to all of our questions and requirements was YES”. – Rick Cowan, CIO of True Textiles Inc.

Mr. Cowan was looking to outsource a lot of the work to their new EDI Partner, essentially subscribing to an “EDI as a Service’ offering. He wanted to relieve his team from most of their manual efforts without having to invest heavily on an on-premises EDI packages. The fact that the EDI2XML Team was willing to take all of their EDI complexities off of their hands, with an affordable and flexible service, they knew they found the right Partner.

The EDI2XML Service is perfect for enterprises looking to implement EDI into their business processes or to simply improve and streamline their current processes. The EDI2XML team, along with the EDI2XML converter, gets companies EDI-compliant in no time and within budget. This service covers it all, from A to Z, no matter a company’s document formats or Trading Partner requirements. It includes;

  • EDI X12 / EDIFACT mapping
  • Trading Partner configuration
  • Standards maintenance
  • XML/CSV/TXT translation
  • Integration with software applications
  • EDI testing and certification
  • Back and forth communication with Trading Partners

The popular EDI2XML Service offers the flexibility and convenience that companies look for.

Before EDI2XML, there was a lot of manual processes that our customer service group was dealing with, by going through old equipment. – Rick Cowan, CIO

The setup time for True Textiles was quick and smooth! The first set of documents requested by one of their Trading Partners was properly mapped and converted within the first week and by the second week, True was already exchanging two documents, Invoice and ASN, back and forth with their first Partner. From that moment on, the EDI2XML Team continued to build and standardize out, with other Trading Partners and documents. All of this was done remotely, without having ever met, in person, the EDI2XML Team. A solid business relationship was built from far.

We are now building new transaction sets with new customers today with the help of EDI2XML. We started with 1 Partner and 2 documents and today we are at 8 Trading Partners, exchanging 6 documents; 850 (PO), 830 (Planning Schedule), 855 (PO Acknowledgment), 856 (ASN), 860 (PO Change), 810 (Invoice). – Rick Cowan, CIO

One of the major improvements that True Textiles has experienced since starting the EDI2XML Service consists of having their internal teams focus on more value-added projects. They have reduced clerical time as well as all the manual efforts that were previously spent on using their old EDI packages. Their EDI process is now much more straightforward and takes less time; there is a higher level of automation.

The biggest change has been bringing an EDI Partner on board to help us and we can rely on to work with our Trading Partners to deal with all of their special requests and formats. The EDI2XML Team at Namtek Consulting Services has been very responsive and very reliable. We have had a couple of challenging Trading Partners but all along the way, our EDI2XML Partner has worked very well with us to accommodate those tough challenges. So far, we haven’t found anything we haven’t been able to overcome. Namtek Consulting Services has been there for us through thick and thin. – Rick Cowan, CIO of True Textiles Inc.