Compliance Corner,  By Lisa Fauley, VP of EC, COSI, a division of Infocrossing

The beginning of each year usually brings a flurry of new requirements and changing standards, as retailers continually look for additional efficiencies in the consumer pipeline.  The information below is a compilation of many of these changes:

Retailers continue to align themselves with go-forward networks as the year progresses.  Most recently has been Saks announcement on migrating from Advantis to Inovis for all EDI communications.  There will be several phases throughout May of 2006, so vendors are asked to be on the alert.  Questions should be directed to _edidmba@saksinc.com.  

The Bon-Ton has instituted a new transportation management system.  Effective June 5^th routing guides will no longer be in effect for merchandise shipments to The Bon-Ton.  All vendors will be required to utilize their Vendor Portal.  To obtain access Bon-Ton has asked that all vendors complete a spreadsheet that will update your information to TMS.  A link is available on their website for this spreadsheet.  Vendors have been asked to complete the form and email it to tmsinfo@bonton.com no later than May 15^th, 2006.  Once completed Bon-Ton will provide the vendor with a login to access the portal.  If vendors do not complete the masterfile information, they will be unable to route shipments.

Dillards began non-compliance charges on 2/1 if the EDI ASN and/or invoice are transmitted without the 17 digit BOL # and/or valid SCAC.  Charges will also be rendered if a shipment is received without the 17 digit BOL # and form.  This requirement was initially requested two years ago.

Federated has begun the process of merging May Department Stores operations into the Federated umbrella.  May Co. vendor guidelines are now found on the FDSNET website.  Each May Co. division has been given a date whereby vendors are expected to follow FDS Vendor Standards Manual instructions for the division.  For example, the current May Division of Filene’s/Kaufmann’s will become the future Macy’s East/Macy’s Home division, with a planned systems conversion date of 4/30/2006.  On this date as well all FDS Vendor Standards will apply.  At this time the transition is scheduled to take place between April and July, however this may change as time progresses.  With each conversion, Federated will provide a list of former May Co locations for the converting divisions, along with the new Macys/Macys Home location numbers and DC’s.  Each converting location is to be treated as a new store under the pre-existing Federated division.  Federated has stated that each purchase order is your guide as to where and how vendors are to ship that merchandise.  The inbound ASN and invoice must be sent to the corresponding mailbox from which the original 850 PO was generated. 

   Also note that as part of the transition and in an effort to simplify the transition process, the May store groups will revise their expense-offsets to match the Federated rates effective February 2006. 

   In addition, there are slight differences in the retailers handling of standard fields that should be noted.  For example, while you may be sending the full 17 digit VICS bill of lading number for Federated shipments, May Co. will truncate your 17 digit BL to 14 digits, removing the leftmost 3 positions sent in the field.  For both retailers, BOL numbers can not be reused

   Vendors have been asked to continue to monitor www.FDSNET.com for any new information on the Federated-May merger.  The site will be updated as changes occur.  In addition, any questions can be directed to Federated Vendor Services at 513-782-1412. 

Goody’s is adding to their expense offset matrix in recent months.  Effective February 1^st of this year a new offset expense chargeback will be assessed when a vendor makes multiple shipments on an EDI generated purchase order.  Also added mid February was an expense offset chargeback if requests for routing were both faxed and e-mailed within a 24-hour period.  Mid March an expense offset chargeback will be assessed to those vendors that fail to ship ‘Basic/Replenish’ merchandise on both a timely and complete basis.

Gottschalks has issued an interesting notice regarding UPS shipments.  When shipping UPS, the ASN must include the pick up date (as the BOL #) in the REF BM segment of the ship notice.  The tracking # should not be used on the ASN.  In addition, an expense offset will be issued for each carton that is not sent Freight Collect to Account # 6AT829.

JCP – On February 1, 2006, JCPenney issued an EDI 864 updating selected store addresses with a ‘D’ suffix.  This indicates that this is the separate Home Store associated with the main store.  Differentiation is the only use for this ‘D’ suffix… it is not to be used on any EDI transactions from supplier to JCPenney. 

In addition, JCP issued in late March a notice reinforcing their Bill of Lading requirements.  It was noted that the VICS Bill of Lading was required for ALL truckload and LTL shipments but not for small package shipments.  Use of the 17 digit serial number is also expected, and obviously the bill of lading number must match that used on the corresponding ASN.  The correct consignment address, including the 5 digit facility number, is to be used in the Ship To field.  Correct ship from location information, use of your 6-digit JCP supplier number in the ‘additional shipper info’ field, placing the TMS load ID in the CID# field for TMS routed shipments, and using the correct freight description in accordance with the National Motor Freight Classification were all noted as expectations as well.  Non-compliance with these requirements may result in a routing compliance offset for each non compliant BOL of $50 plus an administrative fee of $50.  Questions regarding these requirements should be directed to the Salt Lake City Routing Compliance department at 801-350-2206 or dssl9114@jcpenney.com.

Finally, JCP added edits to their 810 processing effective late March.  Effective March 27^th, 810 invoices received with an invalid or closed purchase order number will be rejected.  This new edit will also validate that the correct Bill to unit and correct subdivision are being returned.  JCP will continue the edit for the invoice date preceding purchase order date.  Trading partners setup to receive 810 invoice reject notices will receive notification of these via the EDI 824 transaction.  Trading partners not setup to receive the 824 transaction will review their rejected invoice information via the supplier internet site.  Contact the Salt Lake City AP Support line at 800-709-9090 with questions.

Kohls advised in November of upcoming changes to ASN requirements.  Effective March 15, 2006, all trading partners must be able to accommodate the carrier authorized number as generated by Kohl’s transportation management system, the ship from address, and the PER segment defining the proper EDI contact email address for the person responsible for researching and resolving any ASN issues.  Details on these new segments can be obtained by reviewing their 856 Map, available on www.connection.kohls.com.

In addition, additional allowance codes have been added to the 850, 860, and 810 maps, effective May 28, 2006.  Please review their recent changes accordingly.

Neiman Marcus has selected InterTrade as their UPC catalog provider, and will go live with this change in early 2006.  Vendors are requested to register in order to participate in the Neiman Marcus/InterTrade catalog, using the following link:  www.intertrade.com/catalog.  There will be a cost associated with registration and testing, as well as a yearly transaction fee when complete with a production catalog.  The yearly fee will carry no limit to the volume of transactions vendors conduct with Neiman Marcus or the number of items uploaded to the catalog.  The InterTrade program manager to direct questions to regarding this program is Ron Birrell at 416-883-6607, ron.birrell@intertrade.com.  In addition, Neimans is issuing guidelines for Neiman Marcus Direct.  Beginning with the basics, each carton shipped to NM Direct must be labeled with all of the following:  PO number, dept number, store number, warehouse location, store name, ship to address, carton lot marking, and ship from address.   In February, packaging requirements by merchandise type were issued.  Be sure to review NM data frequently as they ramp up their technology program for NM Direct.

Mervyns will be undergoing significant changes as they move away from the Partners Online program and Target operations.  Mervyns has partnered with Inovis to assist in this program.  Recertification using the Inovis Compliancelink web portal is required for every vendor, which includes complete retesting including UCC128 label validation.  Until June of 2006, Mervyn’s EDI continues to operate under the Target umbrella.  In June, their new system will kick in.  Therefore all recertification needs to be completed, per Mervyns and Inovis, well in advance.

   In addition,  beginning the week of May 8, some of the data that vendors currently access on Partners Online will transition to the new Mervyns Vendor Partners (MVP) portal.  The new URL for accessing MVP is http://www.mervynsvendorpartners.com.  The first time you access MVP, under ‘vendor registration’ click on the ‘start registration process’ link.  All existing Mervyns vendors must re-register with MVP.  A temporary password will be assigned that will allow use of the website for 14 days.  Further instructions are available on the new site.  Information available on the site at this time will be basic sales and inventory data, updated vendor guidelines for doing business with Mervyns, and links to other resources such as MVM, WebPOM, SMART – Mervyns routing system, and the Inovis-Compliance Link for EDI testing.  Additional information will become available on the new site in future weeks.

Target announced in mid March that they will be eliminating Bisync options for EDI connectivity for Carriers.  Carriers currently using Bisync connectivity with Target will need to migrate to HTTP AS2, Email AS1, or a VAN or Service Provider currently using AS2 with Target Corp, by September 1, 2006.  If a carrier fails to convert by 9/1/06, Target will be unable to utilize the carrier’s EDI status in the match process to the vendor’s 856, which may result in chargebacks to the vendor.  Documents traded by carriers directly with Target that are included in this change are the 204/990, 110, 210, 212, 214, 223, and 820 .  Carriers are to contact cyclone.admin@target.com by April 15^th to provide data and proceed with this request.

  In addition, in June of this year Target will open two new DC’s, 3806 in Rialto CA, and 3809 in DeKalb IL.  Please ensure these new DC locations are added to your systems to facilitate appropriate processing of orders and associated 856 transactions. 

Target.com also  announced the addition of a new facility with orders commencing April 17^th for this facility.  Facility number is TA9Z/0021, with an address of 2305 Litton Lane, Hebron, KY  41048.   The facility will start to accept inbound appointment requests from carriers during the week of May 22, and is scheduled to begin receiving inbound freight on June 5, 2006.

Please note these items are mentioned to give you a ‘heads up’ of what may be coming in the near future.  It is the reader’s responsibility to verify these points with the retailers involved and analyze impact of same within their organizations.