Traditionally the building industry has always lagged behind many other industries with respect to the adoption of electronic trading techniques as a means of transferring business documentation. Research conducted by Dr. Martin Jackson over the last seven years has confirmed this suggestion. 

His research also identified a virtual ceiling for the volume of trade conducted by builders’ merchant’s suppliers of 80%. It was this figure that was adopted by NMBS as the upper threshold trading limit for incoming supplier levels of business documents (invoices/credit notes). 

In June of 2008 this target was reached with subsequent months pushing the boundaries even further. Currently, October 2008, the volume of electronic traffic, that includes tradition EDI, XML, and WEB-Forms, has hit the heady heights of 82.7% (91% by value). 

For more details on how you can become part of this phenomenon please contact Sue Oliff on 0116 2614907 or email sue.oliff@nmbs.co.uk.