B2B Technology - Revolutionizing the Flooring Industry

BIG NEWS !  B2B - "Business to Business" - technology, now introduced into the flooring industry, is saving participating retailers an enormous amount of time, while dramatically cutting down billing and shipping errors, all resulting in tremendous cost savings.

What is B2B ?

In November 2001 a group of floor-covering manufacturers, distributors and retailers, along with software specialists, met in a ground-breaking attempt to identify, define and unify new, flooring-industry, Business to Business (B2B) standards. These standards were to provide a business-process oriented, common computer format and language for direct communication between the manufacturing mills, the distributors, and the retailers. Day-to-day business transaction information would be sent back and forth, by way of computers, between manufacturers and dealers without difficulty. Participating companies providing software for both the dealer and the manufacturer would, in turn, design their software to be compatible with each other and the information being sent and received. Since those initial days, a great deal of work by interested parties has advanced these flooring-industry B2B Standards, resulting in a much more cohesive interaction between all involved in the industry. And we continue to identify, define and refine as we encounter additional areas for uniformity and consistency improvement.

Flooring B2B allows price catalogs, product definitions, purchase orders and billing / invoicing information to be transferred directly between manufacturer and dealer. The dealer’s flooring software then integrates the downloaded / imported information, to seamlessly process all the vital transactions of doing business. As one example of numerous capabilities, QFloors™ software automatically schedules payments, and adjusts financial data when manufacturer invoices are downloaded / imported.

The main B2B transactions utilized by a retailer on a daily basis include Price / Product Catalog downloads, sending electronic Purchase Orders, receiving an Acknowledgment of the PO, receiving Advance Shipping Notices, and finally,  receiving and processing Vendor Invoices. Each of these transactions is completed by way of computer files, containing information that is translated / understood between the dealer’s software and the mill’s software. Of course, each must be utilizing flooring-industry software that features this B2B technology, and is compliant with the B2B Standards. The numerous advantages provided by such software are becoming a great, motivating force-for-change for a large percentage of retailers who presently either do not use computers, and / or, who use "off-the-rack", general accounting software.

Click here fcB2B.org for the official, flooring-industry B2B website

At the Forefront

From the outset, Chad Ogden, CEO at Flooring Technologies Inc, has been deeply involved in this flooring-industry B2B Standards project, contributing his professional, engineering-software expertise as well as significant experience in a multi-generational, multi-location retail flooring enterprise. Since those early days of the Standards project, he and his team at QFloors™ have been diligently integrating flooring-industry B2B improvements into QFloors™ software, as well as actively assisting the fcB2B.organization further define, standardize and implement flooring-industry standards.

QFloors™ is one of the first companies to make flooring-industry B2B available to retailers, starting June 2003. Developed and constantly upgraded versions, including Basic, Small Business, and High Performance, allow customers to download price / product catalogs, place electronic POs, and receive vendor invoices. QFloors™ does not charge extra for this B2B technology. It is built into our business-management software, immediately available for implementation. The first task for each, new customer is to sign up for a new B2B account with currently-used, participating vendors. Noteworthy - QFloors™ has the highest percentage of active customers in the flooring industry using B2B transactions on a regular basis. Customer response to these new Standards has been extremely positive. Recently (Sept 2016), for the first time in the industry's history, electronic POs via B2B exceeded the number of otherwise-placed POs. And for the immediate future, B2B use is projected to dominate the processing of those daily transactions associated with both manufacturers and retailers.

What B2B means to the Retailer

• The retailer is able to regularly download price / product catalogs and updates directly from the manufacturer. This greatly reduces data entry time required for subsequent invoicing, and reduces mis-information in the catalogs due to unknown update changes.
• QFloors™ automatically matches vendor's invoices to the retailer's POs, assigning invoice items to the general ledger accounts, and properly scheduling payments.
• POs, effortlessly created within QFloors™, are transferred directly over computer lines, saving hours on the phone and reducing human error. Double ordering, misprints, and many other common mistakes can be virtually eliminated, resulting in additional time and ultimately cost savings.
• Shipping information from the manufacturer is sent electronically to the retailer, and integrated into billing and checkbook screens, significantly reducing data entry time.
• In an instance of a discrepancy, ie, billing, between the PO and the Invoice, QFloors™ flags the retailer so that the discrepancy can be investigated. 
• Billing information is processed smoothly, seamlessly in QFloors™ throughout the various, associated transaction processes.