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Supplier Templates and Best Practices

Supplier Templates and Best Practices

Owned by Aaron Anderson
Last updated: Jan 09, 2024 by Ajay Kaul
2 min read

General

Its very normal for Distributors to require “clarifying information” when integrating with Suppliers. This can range from “mechanical concerns” (such as: When are established maintenance windows? How do I get notified of outages? Do I need to be whitelisted for access?) and some are more “business concerns” (such as: What might it mean when an order is on General Hold?). It is a best practice for Suppliers to take these kinds of recurring questions and proactively put their answers into an integration guide which can be made available for Distributors.

Some real-world sample integration guides from Suppliers:

 

Data / Business Mapping

Order Status API

It is common for suppliers to have more status codes than is enumerated in the API specification; a brief mapping should be provided so that Distributors know where to expect “known statuses” that are used in daily business practices

PromoStandards StatusID

PromoStandards Status Name

Supplier Statuses Represented

10

Order Received

 

11

Order Entry Hold

 

20

Order Confirmed

 

30

Pre-Production

 

40

General Hold

 

41

Credit Hold

 

42

Proof Hold

 

43

Art Hold

 

44

Back Order Hold

 

60

In Production

 

70

In Storage

 

75

Partial Shipment

 

80

Complete

 

99

Canceled

 

Allowed Date Ranges

  • Maximal days back supported for date-range invoice API requests?

  • Maximal days back supported for date-range order status API requests?

  • Maximal days back supported for date-range order shipment notification API requests?

Access Restrictions

  • What is the process for a Distributor to get credentials?

    • What information will be required as part of that process?

  • Are there any geographic restrictions to API’s?

  • Is there a requirement to whitelist IP numbers?

  • Is any kind of rate limiting in place?

    • If so, what are the details of the rate limiting?

  • Are there any other security/access constraints that a Distributor would need to know?

Maintenance Windows

  • When are the maintenance windows?

  • How are Distributors notified of maintenance?

  • Is there anything a Distributor needs to do to get notified proactively?

  • Are there any times of the day when API’s are offline due to scheduled processing?

    • If so, which API’s and what times?