Task Performance Group
Automating EDI across Enterprises with Azure Cloud

“Our ability to deliver and manage any type of B2B e-commerce data exchange solutions through Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) on the cloud and provide business-rule based solutions is what differentiates us,” begins Mushtaq Merchant, President of Task Performance Group (TPG). Merchant understands the challenges that organizations often witness while shipping important documents, especially in case of large transactions. Oftentimes in the healthcare industry where wholesale distributors generally have large pricing contract transactions to process, a delay in a processing or invoice payment could lead to a significant loss. TPG—an EDI service provider— brings solutions to tackle such challenges in an efficient manner. The company offers its clients the capacity to deal with large transactions along with providing a system that they can rely on.

TPG was initially founded with a focus on B2B e-commerce consulting, but it gradually noticed the need for EDI solutions among its clients and shifted to e-commerce data exchange in 1999. Later, in 2001, the company introduced its core EDI offering—MegaXML software—which provides a 360-degree view of the purchase orders. TPG extends EDI support on the cloud, leveraging Microsoft Azure and allows its clients to access all the information and documents attached to a purchase order 24/7. “It’s crucial for any EDI solution provider to deliver business continuity to the customer and the cloud platform allows us to do that,” adds Merchant. Employing Microsoft Azure enables TPG to assure its clients of uninterrupted processing of transactions as everything is on the cloud.

The company offers a web portal that consists of all the information related to shipping notices and invoices attached to a specific purchase order. The portal even allows the clients to track details as to when those shipping notices and invoices were dispatched.

TPG has developed an activity dashboard, which effectively works as a behind-the-scenes monitoring tool. If a shipping notice is stuck, TPG’s team can work on it to quickly resolve the issue before it becomes a problem for its client.

It’s crucial for any EDI solution provider to deliver business continuity to the customer and the cloud services allow us to do that

Every two minutes, the dashboard provides insights about everything housed in the cloud infrastructure. TPG assures the flexibility to work with any ERP and IBM legacy system and translates EDI into XML for providing an improved and customized solution to every client.

TPG also assists its clients in managing unique business requirements that their ERP systems can’t handle or requires expensive Add-on. The company develops an understanding of the business rules of such clients and creates a hybrid solution to enable them to work with their existing ERP system. TPG, owing to these capabilities, has garnered a vast client base across industries. One of the company’s most recent success stories involves delivering hybrid “Schedule and Release” business-rule based process for a customer, saving required implementation of expensive ERP Add-on and staff. Another example is that of a retail manufacturer that produces a device sold by over 150 wholesalers and retailers. The manufacturer wanted TPG to batch all of the shipping notices for one particular retailer at the end of the day and send all of them at once allowing buyer and suppliers to efficiently plan their supply chain logistics while their other EDI provider could not provide such flexibility.

Having served a large clientele since its genesis, the company has evolved significantly over the years. In the future, TPG plans to continue adapting new features in the cloud technology. Talking about the firm’s roadmap, Merchant says, “Rule-based solutions are going to be in demand in the future, and that’s what we will be focusing on.”