OrderChief and Descartes
A Strong Partnership in EDI for Over 10 Years

Niek Ressing

OrderChief



Meet Niek Ressing, Managing Director at OrderChief. He takes us through the partnership with Descartes.

OrderChief (formerly Semso) has been collaborating with Descartes on successful EDI projects for over 10 years. Time for a chat, we thought, with Niek Ressing, founder, CEO, and head of sales and partnerships at OrderChief.

Today, OrderChief primarily implements EDI projects for Dutch companies in the mid-market, with a strong focus on the food industry. “We see a lot of complexity there: fresh products, specific GS1 processes, store deliveries, distribution centers, and often a WMS or 3PL partner,” says Ressing. “That requires in-depth process knowledge and a stable EDI solution.” At the same time, OrderChief is looking ahead. There are clear ambitions for geographic expansion, with Germany as the logical next step.

“We’re also gradually seeing a shift among decision-makers. Gen Z—the first generation to grow up entirely in a digital world—is today’s budding entrepreneur and tomorrow’s decision-maker. Having grown up with the convenience of apps and platforms like bol.com, they simply no longer accept the complexity of a traditional EDI process. They expect intuitive ease, without any hassle. That insight has led OrderChief to make this its mission: to make EDI accessible and intuitive for anyone with an ERP system.”

“Thanks to its partnership with Descartes, OrderChief can maintain its own focus: ERP integrations. Descartes is the market leader and has extensive expertise in messaging and mappings,” says Niek Ressing. “This enables us to offer our customers a robust and future-proof solution, particularly for Dutch GS1 trading partners.”

OrderChief acts as a link between the customer’s ERP system and Descartes’ EDI network. “The company supports a wide range of ERP systems, including AFAS, Exact Online, Exact Globe, Microsoft Business Central, KING, and Odoo. Because of this, it is relatively easy for a customer to migrate to a different ERP system with OrderChief without having to reconfigure the EDI side. We believe it is important to be able to offer this kind of independence.”

“Our strength lies in taking the burden off our clients,” explains Ressing. “We take the lead. Customers don’t need to have technical knowledge of EDI, but they do need to understand their own processes. We guide them from analysis through to go-live, including the test environment, exceptions such as returnable deposits, and any integrations with logistics partners.”

Over the past year, OrderChief has further expanded its onboarding process. As standard practice, a thorough analysis is now conducted in advance, and the ERP test environment is actively set up in collaboration with the customer. “This prevents surprises during the go-live phase and ensures a more stable start.”

OrderChief is very pleased with its collaboration with Descartes. “We speak the same language and understand each other’s roles and responsibilities. Thanks to the shared standard setup, we can connect customers quickly and reliably,” says Ressing. Once the contract is signed, the project teams coordinate with one another and the onboarding process is launched jointly.

Looking ahead, OrderChief sees opportunities to further advance the collaboration, particularly on the commercial side. “There is potential for greater synergy in sales, for example through more frequent joint outreach to customers. Additionally, there is an opportunity arising from the fact that the new generation of decision-makers expects increased standardization, speed, and intuitive solutions.”

AI is also being explored, albeit primarily in a supporting role. Examples include intelligent support for mappings or an AI-driven interface for monitoring tools, making it easier for business users to gain insight into their EDI performance. “AI can truly add value not in the critical core process itself, but in the surrounding areas,” says Niek Ressing. One thing is certain: we share the ambition to continue supporting our customers in a reliable, scalable, and future-oriented way in the years to come.