To make virtual data transfer as efficient as possible, WACKER employs an e-business strategy of using a single provider to connect all external customers. This is why WACKER joined ELEMICA – the chemical industry’s leading transaction network.

ELEMICA also acts as an IT service provider, translating various message formats into the “ChemXML” standard format.

Nevertheless, ELEMICA membership is not necessarily an attractive and effective option for all WACKER customers. Since the early 1990s, WACKER customer Forbo Eurocol BV – a Dutch developer and producer of adhesives for construction and industrial applications – has used EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) for communicating with its own customers.

The customer-order-based system has now been expanded to encompass purchase-order transactions with the supplier WACKER.

In harmony with WACKER’s strategy of not installing individual point-to-point connections, the ELEMICA transaction network again provides a service, this time by translating Forbo Eurocol BV’s EDI messages into the ChemXML format expected by WACKER’s SAP system.

“In translating EDI to our standard ChemXML via ELEMICA, we found a solution that complies with our customer’s requirements and enables us to maintain a single standardized path for incoming orders,” say Thomas Hübner, E-Business manager at WACKER, describing the mutually beneficial communication tool.

Data transfer via EDI could also make communicating with WACKER more efficient for other customers who aren’t members of ELEMICA, according to Hübner. The only requirement is that customers should have their own ERP system. Hübner and his team will gladly help customers decide which option is best for them.