ACOM's EZConnect Puts Stamina Into Trading Partners Communications at Fitness/Nutritonal Products Company.

Business Editors

FAIRFIELD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 23, 2004

MLO Products, Inc., manufacturers of MLO and GeniSoy specialty fitness and nutritional products, has installed the EZConnect EDI-XML electronic data interchange software suite from ACOM Solutions, Inc., and has begun exchanging purchase order and invoice documents with trading partners, it was announced today by William D. Cropley, ACOM vice president of major accounts, and Glenn Golnick, MLO's director of information systems.

With roots tracing to the 1960's, when fitness advocate and body builder Millard Williamson developed an effective and good-tasting weight-training bar, MLO now markets an array of products nationwide to major grocery and drug chains, department stores and specialty nutrition and health food outlets, most of which now encourage, if not insist, that suppliers execute transactions electronically.

MLO Products had acquired an EDI solution previously, later to find that the solution lacked sufficient business rules flexibility to allow the company to adapt quickly and inexpensively to varying customer situations, according to MLO EDI administrator Chris Rickard. MLO recently replaced that solution with EZConnect, which is much easier to use, enables the company to map its own trading partner documents rather than employ consulting services, and provides much needed flexibility in specifying operational and control details.

ACOM's modular suite of eCommerce applications and integration tools enable automated data translation and connectivity between businesses and their trading partners as well as within user organizations. Uniquely, the EZConnect eCommerce engine supports many different data standards, including all U.S. and international EDI standards (X12 &-EDIFACT), as well as all Internet (XML) standards and extensions. In the MLO Products application, EZConnect utilizes data from the eBackOffice ERP suite from ACOM business partner Epicor, accessing the data through a dedicated SQL Server database.

"Under the previous solution, we were restricted to hard-wired business rules that locked us into procedures pre-set by the developer," Rickard said. "For example, we were unable to isolate discrepancies between what our ERP solution expected to see and what was present in X12 EDI documents sent to us by trading partners. EZConnect forwards incoming documents to its dedicated MS SQL Server database, which can detect and log discrepancies between trading partner documents and their eBackOffice counterparts. If discrepancies are found, they are routed to an operator for individual follow-up."

Following installation of the system, ACOM provided training in mapping X12 EDI documents, including the Inbound Purchase Order (850), and the Outbound Invoice (810), as well as in advanced capabilities, administration and process control

"It is easy," he said. "Anybody can learn it in a week."

With EZConnect, Rickard has become EDI self-sufficient, able to meet customer requirements and also to reduce expenses related trading partner transactions. He has mapped the two initial documents for about a half-dozen of the company's trading partners, with a like number to follow.

About ACOM Solutions

ACOM Solutions, Inc. is a leading provider of B2B E-Commerce management, document management, payment management and purchasing management solutions integrated with enterprise applications such as ERP and CRM, to enhance back-office and B2B processes for electronic, internet and paper-based commerce. Now in 20th year of business, ACOM is a leading software organization with offices and solution partners worldwide. ACOM maintains corporate headquarters in Long Beach, CA and iSeries (AS/400) division headquarters in Duluth, GA. ACOM also has regional offices located in several major U.S. cities. For more information, visit www.acom.com.