Trading Partner Connect allows you to search the available inventories of your trading partners for stock that you need. However, what you call 1/4" Washer another business might call Bob's Washer, and yet another might call 158024.
The solution to this problem lies in a process called item rationalization. Item rationalization is the means by which Trading Partner Connect allows you to match your inventory against that of a trading partner safely and accurately.
When two trading partners agree to rationalize their inventories, their information is sent to the Trading Partner Connect hub database. Here, like items are matched up and joined together. Since requests pass through this database, one trading partner could enter a request for Bob's Washer, and the recipient would see a query for 158024. However, since this conversion takes place within the Trading Partner Connect database, no one outside of your own company becomes privy to your item codes, and the transaction is secure.
Once you have rationalized an item in a given manufacturer's line, the integration of Trading Partner Connect and your business system will automatically generate a rationalization request for any future items you add to your system that belong to that line. Thus you will not need to manually request item rationalization for every new item you add to your inventory, just for items that belong to new manufacturing lines.
Note: When you modify an item's ID/code, UPC number, or supplier part number/manufacturer code, your spoke system automatically sends a document, to the hub to delete the item's existing rationalization. It also sends a rationalization request document to re-rationalize the item with the new information. This automated information exchange helps keep item information up to date and reduces the chance of error because of mismatched data.
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