The process of receiving an order is a bit different from uploading your inventory information as this is the only process in which you will be receiving information generated by your trading partner.
Dsco provides multiple avenues for you to get your new orders from the platform. Which option is best for you depends on a number of factors. You may need to discuss the various options with your IT and operations departments to determine the best option for your needs. Below is a quick overview of the available options.
Supplier Order Processing Options Comparison
Option | Ease |
Manually Process Orders through the Dsco Portal |
✪✪✪✪✪ Very Easy |
Download/Upload Orders through the Dsco portal using a Dsco Excel file |
✪✪✪✪ Fairly Easy |
Download/Upload Orders using the Dsco Data Mapper tool |
✪✪✪ Somewhat Easy |
Download/Upload Orders using flat-file exchange |
✪✪ Somewhat Difficult |
Process Orders using the Dsco API |
✪ Very Difficult |
Process Orders using EDI |
✪ Very Difficult |
Manually Process Orders through the Dsco Portal
Ease: 5 Stars
This is the fastest and easiest option for those only needing to process one or two orders very infrequently. The Dsco portal enables you to view your orders one order at a time where you can copy and paste your order details into your own systems. Once you have taken what you need you can select the Acknowledge button to tell the system to move the order to Shipment Pending status where it will stay until you are ready to add shipment information to the order. You can also manually cancel or update an order with shipment information in the Dsco portal. As soon as you've updated the order, your trading partner will be able to see that update.
More information can be found here: Managing Orders
If you have a lot of orders to process you may want to choose one of the following options.
Download/Upload Orders through the Dsco portal using a Dsco Excel file
Ease: 4 Stars
This is the fastest and easiest option for processing a lot of orders very quickly. Simply select the Download button at the top of the NEW ORDERS (https://app.dsco.io/orders/new) page to download your orders into a Dsco Purchase Order Excel file. The Dsco platform will automatically move the downloaded orders into the Shipment Pending status where they will stay until you are ready to add shipment information. You can use this same method to upload cancellation or shipment information. Simply select the Upload button to add that information to Dsco.
If you have your own CSV or TAB file format you would like us to put your new orders into you may want to choose the next option…
Download/Upload Orders using the Dsco Data Mapper tool
Ease: 3 Stars
This is a great option for suppliers who can accept a CSV or TAB delimited file containing their new orders. The Dsco Data Mapper tool will walk you through the process of mapping the Dsco purchase order data to your own format. Once the mapping has been completed you can download your order file through the Dsco portal and the orders will be moved to the Shipment Pending status where they will stay until you are ready to add shipment information. You can use the same Data Mapper tool to upload shipment and cancellation information using your own custom format.
More information on Using the Dsco Data Mapper can be found here: Using the Data Mapper Tool
Dsco provides every account with their own SFTP account which can be used with the data mapper tool and the flat-file exchange system.
If you have an IT department that will be building an integration to Dsco using the Dsco specifications, you should choose one of the following options below...
Download/Upload Orders using flat-file exchange
Ease: 2 Stars
Dsco supports flat-file exchange using a variety of flat-file formats, including CSV, TAB, PIPE and even XLS. Simply follow our Dsco Data Schema guide to accept a file that matches our specifications and set up an automated job within the portal to schedule the export of your new orders at the appropriate times. You can also set up an automated import job to import your inventory, shipment, and cancellation updates. You can also run the job manually at any time using the Run Now option.
Dsco provides every account with their own SFTP account which can be used with the data mapper tool and the flat-file exchange system.
If you have programmers who will be building an API integration between your system and the Dsco platform, you should choose the next option...
Please note, at this time Dsco does not support .XLSX files. You should save your Excel files using the .XLS extension.
Process Orders using the Dsco API
Ease: 1 Star
The Dsco API allows suppliers to get their new orders, send confirmation that the new orders have been downloaded, and upload shipment/cancellation information. Choose this option if you have programmers on staff who are experienced with REST API’s. This is a very advanced and technical option as your programmers will be creating custom scripts to interact with your system as well as the Dsco platform in a programmatic way.
More information on connecting to the Dsco API can be found here: Getting Started with the Dsco V3 API
If you currently utilize EDI to process orders you may use the final option below...
Process Orders using EDI
Ease: 1 Star
Dsco supports the exchange of 850 Purchase Order, 856 Shipment Notification, and 870 Status Update EDI documents over SFTP and AS2.
This option is perfect for you if you already utilize EDI in your drop-shipping operations but wish to remove the VAN from the equation. If you do not currently utilize EDI, we strongly recommend using one of the previous options mentioned above.
More information on using EDI with Dsco can be found here: Using EDI
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