Document Retrieval and Submission on IBMi 

The Challenge 

One of our customers was asked, by their customer, to submit copies of documentation through an online portal: 

• Delivery Notes 
• Invoices 
• Shipping Declarations 
• Origin Documentation 

Rather than this being a manual process, taking up the time and resources of sales & admin staff, MNIS were asked to arrange an automated transmission of these documents. 

The Solution 

The client provided an FTP server within their environment, to allow our customer to submit documents without going through the portal. 

Our customer was already using Cobwebb CPPD and Designer for their document creation, so why reinvent the wheel? We added new conditions into the document  templates, to check if they matched the requested client. If the check found they were, then an additional copy of the document would be saved in PDF format onto the IBMi server. 

The client also had specific file naming convention requirements, which was possible using a program on the IBMi returning data to CPPD. 

A batch job was then created on the IBMi to check the folder for any new documents, and if found then transmit to the FTP server specified. 

The Benefits 

The main benefit of this process was time saved for the staff involved, rather than having to manually locate and transmit documentation for every order, they could rest easy knowing the system would handle it for them. This also had a knock-on benefit that it removes any chance of documentation being forgotten. 

Once the system was implemented it was offered to more clients. Several took up the offer, but requested that documents be emailed instead of transferred over FTP. We were able to make these changes quickly, all that needed to change was naming conventions and where to send the files.