Crossgate Helps Kellogg’s Meet Brazilian Nota Fiscal Eletronica (NF-e) Mandates for 2010
Integrated e-invoicing solution helps global manufacturer manage an aggressive timeline for compliance with SEFAZ mandates
Atlanta, Georgia, May 3, 2010 Crossgate Inc., the global expert in business-to-business integration (B2B), completed the implementation of a turnkey e-invoicing solution for the Kellogg Company within six weeks.
Regulatory compliance laws for electronic invoicing are changing in Brazil, and the world’s leading producer of cereal had a tight timeline for enabling an e-invoicing solution to meet the deadline set by the Ministry of Finance (SEFAZ). The Kellogg Company needed to find a managed B2B solution for sending and receiving the XML formats required by the new regulations, and they wanted to implement the solution with as little impact as possible on their existing IT infrastructure.
The new SEFAZ regulations require companies to prepare outgoing invoices in an XML format and have them authorized in real time before shipments can be delivered. Kellogg has a consolidated global SAP landscape, but with only six weeks until the new mandates would go into effect, they didn’t have time for a lot of customization and configuration, They wanted a very robust solution that integrated seamlessly with SAP without impacting their current landscape. Crossgate’s B2B 360 Services and e-Invoicing Network was the perfect solution for Kellogg.
Crossgate’s turnkey NF-e Services is fully integrated with SAP and offers real-time integration with SEFAZ. "Our experience with Crossgate was extremely positive as a solution partner to implement the Nota Fiscal Eletronica in Brazil derived from completing a challenging project with a tight deadline and a complex customized ERP,” said Eduardo Zendejas, EDI IT Analyst for Kellogg. “The solution was deployed with minor impact to our current operations and ERP, very much as plug and play software.”
With Crossgate’s NF-e Service, each nota fiscal e-invoice (NF-e) is converted to the government-required XML format, validated, and transmitted to SEFAZ for comparison to their master data. If the address information doesn’t match, the NF-e is not approved and the master data must be corrected manually before the invoice can be reissued. Kellogg hadn’t cleansed their master data for customers in several months, but Crossgate’s automated solution was able to clean their master data quickly so that it would be ready when the new mandates went into effect.
Kellogg realized an immediate ROI from Crossgate’s turnkey enablement because it eliminated expensive internal application augmentations and fully complies with the Nota Fiscal Eletronica initiatives. And another important benefit for Kellogg is that the service is managed with a local office staffed by people who speak the local language. “Crossgate’s expertise in the NF-e requirements from a legal perspective and the technical side were a big win, but it would not be possible without the commitment of their assigned resources,” said Zendejas. “Language barriers were non-existent, and that allowed us to interact easily with our peers in the US, Brazil, and Mexico.”
Regulatory compliance efforts can be time-consuming and difficult, but Crossgate’s B2B 360 Services and e-Invoicing Network made it easy for Kellogg to meet the SEFAZ deadline, and the implementation was completed within six weeks. “With two months to deploy the solution and avoid a business disruption in Brazil, Crossgate demonstrated being the best choice for Kellogg Brasil LTD,” said Zendejas. “Today, being a month since go-live, our business is operating normally. Not only that, the benefits of a lighter business process are tangible, resulting in more effectiveness and a better user experience."
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