Who runs The Business Edge
Computer Insights has built The Business Edge for the fastening sector since 1997, from Bloomingdale, Illinois. It is the ERP most likely to be running at an independent fastener distributor that has never seriously considered a generic distribution package, because it already speaks the industry's language natively.
Where the manual work actually is
The Business Edge validates package quantities, availability and pricing as a purchase order is entered, which is exactly the discipline a fastener desk needs. That discipline applies once someone is already typing. The work in front of it — opening the email, reading the PDF, deciding which of your part numbers the customer's description means, converting a quantity given per thousand into the pack your item master holds — is still manual, and it is where the day goes.
How orders get into The Business Edge
There is more than one route in, and which one suits you depends on what your site already licenses and trusts. These are the routes worth knowing before any conversation about integration.
Supplier and trading-partner links
The Business Edge already moves documents electronically with suppliers, including a direct Brighton-Best connection that converts data and documents rather than re-keying them. The platform is not hostile to structured intake; the gap is on the inbound customer side, not the supplier side.
Source: www.ci-inc.com
Your own import route, confirmed before anything is built
We do not publish a claimed file format for The Business Edge, because we have not verified one from Computer Insights' own documentation and will not guess at it. Establishing the exact accepted format is part of the Accuracy Snapshot, and it is a question your Computer Insights contact can answer in a single call.
Confirmed with your administrator during the snapshot rather than assumed here.
Where FrontBeacon stops
FrontBeacon reads the emailed purchase order, resolves each line against your item master, and produces a reviewed file in the format your installation accepts. Nothing is written to The Business Edge by us. A person on your desk approves the order first, and The Business Edge remains the system of record for pricing, credit, availability and release.
- FrontBeacon is not a Computer Insights partner and holds no certified integration with The Business Edge.
- The accepted import format is confirmed with you during the snapshot rather than assumed here.
Common questions
- Do you have a certified integration with The Business Edge?
- No. FrontBeacon produces a reviewed import file and your team approves it before anything reaches the ERP. We are not a Computer Insights partner and do not claim a certified connector. For most independent distributors this is the faster route anyway — it needs no vendor project and no change to the ERP.
- Does this replace what The Business Edge already validates?
- No, and it should not. The Business Edge validates package quantity, availability and pricing at entry. FrontBeacon does the work in front of that: reading the customer's document, matching their part reference to your SKU, and making unit and pack conversions explicit before a person approves them.
- We are a fastener distributor but not on The Business Edge. Does this still apply?
- Yes. The fastener-specific work — per-M and per-C quantities, pack conversions, customer part aliases, plating and finish callouts — is the same whichever ERP holds it. See the fastener distributors page for the vertical view.
Related
Running something else? See every ERP handoff.