CHARLOTTE, NC Aug. 28, 2000 – Baker & Taylor library customers are now able to place orders and receive invoices directly over the Internet. EDIFACT (the international standard for electronic data interchange) is now available to Baker & Taylor customers, using the Voyager integrated library management system from Endeavor Information Systems.
"This service is another example of our focus on enhancing customer service, of making it easier for customers to do business with us," said Michael Harris, Director of Information Technology Group at Baker & Taylor. "It also illustrates our commitment to making the latest in technology work for us."
Endeavor Information Systems and Baker & Taylor successfully completed testing orders and invoices with Endeavor's Voyager 2000.1 release in early August. Both orders and invoices are transmitted and received by the customer's system via Internet file transfer protocol (FTP). There is no additional charge from either vendor for these services.
Kathryn Harnish, Voyager Product Manager stated, "Loading invoices electronically greatly reduces the time and effort Voyager users spend in manually transferring invoice data into their system. This has the added benefit of eliminating keying errors and frees up valuable staff time."
Hightower Library at Gordon College in Barnesville, was one of the first customers to begin EDI ordering/invoicing with Baker & Taylor. Library Assistant Diane Hollingsworth stated, "We used B&T Link for years as our separate stand-alone ordering program. Now with Voyager EDI, I am looking forward to an integrated acquisitions system that will be easy to use and will be a one- step work process."
The invoicing method is known as EDI (electronic data interchange) – an intercompany computer-to-computer exchange of structured business documents in standard formats. Through EDI, invoices, purchase orders and other common business forms are transformed to a standard data format and transferred between trading partners via FTP across the Internet. The new EDI capability conforms to the EDIFACT EDI standard.
B&T's Interface EDI Liaison, Sara Bate, said, "Baker & Taylor is dedicated to the development of EDI for the exchange of business documents. We will continue to work with standards committees, automated library system developers and our customers to ensure that the EDI process is accurate and trouble-free."
Charlotte-based Baker & Taylor is a global information and entertainment services company offering a wide range of products to libraries and retail stores, including books, videos, audiotapes, CDs and DVDs. For more information on how your company can take advantage of these new services call 1-800-775-3700 or email electser@btol.com.
Endeavor Information Systems, based in Des Plaines, IL, was founded in September of 1994. Over 740 academic and research libraries of every size have chosen Endeavor's high performance library system. Endeavor offers a complete line of library solutions for traditional and digital collections.
For more information, visit our website at www.endinfosys.com
