Construction Toy Company K'NEX Brands Implements nuBridges Exchange Software for Trading Partner Network

Chosen for its flexibility, ease of use and price, nuBridges Exchange provides reliable, secure data exchange at a fraction of the cost of prior EDI VAN arrangements

ATLANTA, March 3 -- nuBridges, the secure eBusiness authority, announced today that K'NEX Brands has implemented a nuBridges Exchange(TM) software hub to conduct business electronically with its trading partners, including Target, Toys "R" Us and Wal-Mart.

Implementing nuBridges Exchange in its own data center has enabled K'NEX to offer its partners a secure and direct AS2 connection in place of third party electronic data exchange value added network (EDI VAN) services. nuBridges Exchange now handles 80 percent of the construction toy company's transactions, and has significantly reduced the company's cost of doing business.

Like many other manufacturers, K'NEX communicated with most of its retail customers through an EDI VAN during its first decade in business. When Wal-Mart implemented an AS2 hub at its data center several years ago, it encouraged all of its suppliers to implement their own AS2 "spokes" as well, and communicate directly with Wal-Mart over the free public Internet.

When tasked with choosing an AS2 solution to comply with Wal-Mart's wishes, Tony Kratowicz, K'NEX's Senior IT Director, evaluated products based on the findings of The Drummond Group -- a B2B software certification firm that certifies interoperability between software products. After installing and evaluating several certified AS2 solutions, Kratowicz chose nuBridges Exchange based on its flexibility, scalability, ease of use and price.

"We found that the feature sets of the major AS2 providers are similar, but what it came down to for us was how easy it was to install and configure nuBridges Exchange," said Kratowicz.

Initially adopting the software to communicate with Wal-Mart U.S. and Wal-Mart Canada, K'NEX quickly realized the benefits of using AS2. "As soon as we set up nuBridges Exchange to communicate with Wal-Mart, we saw a huge cost savings and we were sold on AS2 technology," said Kratowicz. "With AS2, the costs are fixed once you're set up, and it's a highly secure point-to-point communication. Not only does it reduce the cost of communicating with our trading partners dramatically, but it makes it much easier to budget with AS2 because it eliminates the variable per character transmission fees you pay to a VAN provider."

nuBridges Exchange is now K'NEX's de facto communication standard for external EDI data exchange, which includes orders, order acknowledgements, order changes, advance ship notices (ASN), invoices, payment remittances and point-of-sale (POS) transactions. Today, the company communicates with 80 percent of its retail partners using nuBridges Exchange.

K'NEX runs nuBridges Exchange on a Windows Server with a dedicated Internet connection. The cost to implement AS2 for K'NEX was the cost of the server hardware, the license fees for typical Windows Server software and nuBridges Exchange, and the ongoing costs of the Internet connection and annual software maintenance fees.

Kratowicz found that nuBridges Exchange integrated effortlessly with K'NEX's ERP system to automate the order process. "Because AS2 communicates much like a VAN or FTP communication, it is very easy to receive the data coming through nuBridges Exchange in a format compatible with our ERP system," he said. "It runs 24/7 and requires no manual interaction."

"To say the cost savings of using nuBridges Exchange is 'much lower' than using other VAN vendors to communicate with our trading partners doesn't sum it up," said Kratowicz. "Our costs to drive our business through a VAN were quite high and with each retailer who adopts AS2, we're seeing a corresponding decrease in EDI operating costs. To put it into perspective, we recently converted a trading partner where our share of the charges for data transmission with that one customer over a VAN for a single month was more than the cost of the license fee for nuBridges Exchange."

"K'NEX Brands is a textbook example of how on-premise AS2 software for secure data exchange can lower the cost of transacting with trading partners as compared to EDI VANs," said Kim Addington, chief marketing officer for nuBridges. "That's why nuBridges Exchange provides reliable and secure managed file transfer and B2B gateways for some the world's largest big-box and online retailers - they have thousands of trading partners, and the savings are exponential."

It is interesting to note that in addition to AS2 hub and spoke software solutions, nuBridges also offers EDI VAN services. "We have many types of customers - some are 100% EDI VAN, some are 100% on-premise AS2, and many are hybrid," commented Addington. "We offer a complete spectrum of e-Business solutions including AS2, FTP and EDI VAN so our customers can entrust all their e-Business communication needs to nuBridges. Our VAN offering is low-cost, 'high touch' - we target the segment of the market that wants competitive pricing combined with really great personalized customer service."

More about nuBridges Exchange

nuBridges Exchange is a suite of software modules for digital information transfers within and across enterprises to speed supply chains, protect data in motion, reduce transaction costs and eliminate IT integration and file transfer issues. Comprised of manage file transfer and B2B gateway software, nuBridges Exchange provides companies with centralized control, secure transport, system-wide visibility and guaranteed delivery to facilitate business-critical operations with trading partners.

About K'NEX Brands

K'NEX Brands is one of the most innovative and fastest growing construction toy companies in the world. Founded in 1992, the privately held company makes and sells what has become one of the world's leading integrated construction systems for children, which are designed and manufactured at K'NEX's headquarters and manufacturing facility in Hatfield, Pennsylvania. K'NEX is also the exclusive distributor of BRIO(R) trains and toys in North America, and designs and manufactures Lincoln Logs(R) sets under license from Hasbro. The company also designs, manufactures and sells products developed specifically for use in schools under the K'NEX Education brand. Winner of over 200 international awards, the company's toys are sold in over 20 countries through major retailers, online stores and independently-owned toy stores. More information is available at www.knex.com.

About nuBridges

nuBridges is a leading provider of software and managed services to protect sensitive data at rest and in transit, and to transfer data internally or externally with end-to-end security, control and visibility. nuBridges encryption, key management, managed file transfer and B2B integration solutions are used to comply with security mandates and to digitally integrate business processes among enterprises, systems, applications and people. Over 3,000 customers depend on nuBridges secure eBusiness solutions to encrypt millions of credit cards, exchange billions of dollars in B2B transactions and enable countless business-critical file transfers, including Wal-Mart, Amazon.com, Timberland, American Eagle Outfitters, Belk, Bon Ton, Wachovia, Sun Trust, AIG, CheckFree, Bank of America and Verizon. nuBridges is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. More information is available at www.nubridges.com.