SPC Electronics automated 50% of transactions and saves 20-25% on personnel costs with EDI

About 8 years ago, SPC Electronics decided on EDI because they considered it to be trustworthy, it saves a great deal of work and it provides a continuity that an employee can hardly ever achieve. Automating 50% of transactions not only improved efficiency, it also created benefits in terms of less manual labor, lower error rates and decreased personnel costs.

SPC Electronics AG has been operating on the Swiss market for over 25 years as an exclusive importer and distributor of various high-quality brands.

“A very important point is the quality of the data: if we enter data manually, there is always an element of uncertainty. Is everything you enter correct, because people occasionally make mistakes. Machines don't.”

Caleb Capuano, Managing Director

At the very beginning of SPC’s history, they still worked with Excel and pivot tables. Exchanging and capturing data was all done manually. It was a huge effort and it was never up to date. In order to make processing more efficient and save costs, SPC decided to look into EDI. They chose Descartes because it is an established company in Switzerland with an excellent reputation.

The solution was to transmit the right data at the right time in the right rhythm, and that has been achieved. Up to now, EDI has only partly been implemented because not all of the customers are participating, as they are not yet ready technologically.

An estimated 50% of transactions are now processed using EDI. On the customer side, they are very advanced. The next step will be to connect to their suppliers as well.

The introduction of EDI resulted in SPC being able to save on personnel costs. They have been able to reduce staff by 20-25%. What was previously done manually is now automated.

Another very important point is the quality of the data: with manual data entry, there is always an element of uncertainty, because people occasionally make mistakes. Machines don't.