Baby Bell Telephone Co.
Baby Bell Telephone Co. uses a computer-assisted PtoP process called PRP (purchasing, receiving, payables) that includes an EDI function. An abbreviated description of the purchasing portion of PRP follows. (The description covers only the purchase by field technicians of items to be delivered by suppliers directly to the technicians in the field.)
The company’s field technicians continually need to replace items such as small hand tools, wire, and power tools. (Note: Assume that an external entity called “Field Inventory System” triggers the PRP system by identifying a “Field inventory replacement need.”) They do so by using handheld computers to log into the PRP system. Users have login IDs and passwords that allow them access only to information for which they have clearance. Once logged in, a technician enters the requested item’s stock number. PRP presents the user with a display showing the item’s description, size, and so forth. Information on price, brand, or supplier is not provided to most users because it is information they don’t need to know. To complete the order request, the user visually verifies the information shown in the display, keys in the quantity ordered, and presses the “enter” key.
PRP records the order in the purchase order master data (disk). The order is routed through a wide area network to the workstation of an available order entry clerk in the purchasing department. The clerk enters a code that requests PRP to match the item’s stock number with the supplier code in the inventory master data. The system then retrieves the supplier’s standing data (e.g., name, address, whether or not an EDI vendor, and so forth) from the vendor master data and displays it on the workstation screen. The purchasing clerk next enters another code that either transmits the order electronically to the vendor through an EDI VAN or prints a hard copy purchase order document that is mailed to the vendor, in the case of a supplier that does not have EDI capability. In either case, the purchase order master data are updated to show that the PO has been issued. Hard copy purchase orders are put in envelopes and mailed.