Why OEMs need a system of exchange
Your ERP holds your side of the order, your network carries the PO and the invoice, and your data provider sells you lists. The work of executing the order with your suppliers still runs on email. This post explains where each tool stops and where Indax takes over.
André Guardia · CEO and co-founder, Indax
· 12 min read
Summary. Public data providers know who a company is, but not what it is buying. Internal tools know your own orders, but stop at the edge of your company. B2B networks and EDI record the PO, the invoice and the payment, while the execution of the order still runs on email. Indax is the layer where the order is executed and coordinated. It holds the public record and the commercial data of every company in your chain in one shared data model, with permissions that each company controls. You and your suppliers pay the same subscription, and there is no fee on the order.
Four kinds of tools, one gap
An OEM already pays for software on both sides of every order: a network to send POs, an ERP to hold them, and a data provider to find the next customer. Each tool does its job. None of them is the place where an order is worked between two companies, and that is where your buyers and sellers spend most of their day.
B2B networks and EDI
The PO, the invoice and the payment. The work around them stays in email.
System of exchange
Indax
The full context of every order, shared across companies with permissions. No fee on the order.
Internal tools
Your own data only. They stop at the edge of your company.
Public data providers
Lists of contacts and projects, often weeks old. Nothing on the order.
B2B networks and EDI: the transaction layerAcross companies, internal data. SAP Ariba Network, Coupa, SPS Commerce and EDI value-added networks, plus project44 for carrier tracking.
These networks record the transaction between a buyer and a supplier: the purchase order, the order confirmation, the ship notice, the invoice and the payment. They do not record how the order is executed and coordinated. That includes the RFQ clarifications, the spec revision, the promise date that moved and the reason it moved, the certificate, the expedite and the status of the work. Buyers and suppliers spend most of their time on these items, and they handle them by email, even at companies that send every PO through Ariba.
How Indax helps: keep your network for the PO and the payment, and use Indax to execute the order around them.
Internal tools: limited to your own companyOne company, internal data. Palantir, Glean, Epicor, Infor, OutSystems and Acumatica, plus procurement agents built for a single buyer's team.
ERPs, low-code platforms and enterprise search organize your own records well, but they stop at the edge of your company. When a PO leaves your building it becomes a PDF, and the supplier builds its own copy of the same order in its own system. Two companies keep two records of one order and reconcile them by email.
How Indax helps: you and your supplier work from one record of the order, and each company controls what the other can see.
Public data providers: lists, not ordersOne company at a time, public data. Dodge Construction Network, ConstructConnect, ZoomInfo, Thomasnet and Dun & Bradstreet.
These providers sell lists of contacts, company profiles and upcoming construction projects. Their coverage is often weeks behind the permit, and it is weak on equipment projects inside existing plants. They do not see what happens next: the RFQ, the quote and the order. A list tells a sales rep whom to call. It does not help with the order that follows the call.
How Indax helps: Indax reads filings as they are published, and links each project to the RFQ, the quote and the order that follow it.
Indax: the execution and coordination layerAcross companies, public and internal data. Indax combines the public record of every in-scope company with each company's own email, CRM and ERP in one shared data model, with permissions between companies. Your team executes and coordinates orders in Indax, on top of the networks that record the transaction. Between you and your supplier, Indax shares the full context of the order, not only the PO and the payment.
What moves between companies
| Networks and EDI | Internal tools | Public data | Indax | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| PO and invoice | Yes | Inside one company | No | Yes |
| Order, shipping and payment status | Partly, as fixed documents | Inside one company | No | Yes, in real time |
| Promise dates, and the reason they changed | No | Inside one company | No | Yes |
| Specs and certificates | No | Inside one company | No | Yes |
| RFQs, quotes and their clarifications | No | Inside one company | No | Yes |
| Who the counterparty is: plants, permits and projects | No | No | Lists, weeks behind | Yes, as filed |
Why OEMs choose Indax
Four reasons Indax works for an OEM and its supply base.
- It is useful before your suppliers join. Most networks give a buyer nothing until its suppliers connect. Indax starts with the public record, which already includes every supplier and customer with an in-scope facility. Your sales team gets value on the first day, with no integration. When a supplier connects, its data attaches to a company that is already in Indax, so there is nothing to set up between you.
- Every company uses the same data model. To share a record with a supplier, you grant a permission. There is no mapping project. EDI needs a separate map for each trading partner and each document type, which is why most suppliers are never connected.
- Your teams keep the systems they already use. Indax reads your email, CRM and ERP. Nobody moves to new software, and the context that never reaches a transaction document (the email thread, the PDF, the spreadsheet) is captured.
- Fair terms for your suppliers. Your suppliers pay the same subscription as you do. There is no fee on the order and no charge per seat, so suppliers have a reason to stay on the network.
| Model | What a supplier pays |
|---|---|
| SAP Ariba Network | 0.155% of annual transaction volume per customer relationship, capped at $20,000 per relationship per year, plus an annual subscription based on document count |
| EDI value-added network | Fees per transaction or per kilocharacter, plus onboarding for each trading partner; all-in estimates of about $1.20 to $3.00 per transaction |
| Indax | The same subscription as the buyer. No fee on the order. |
A fee on the order gives a supplier a reason to leave the network after the first transaction. A subscription that answers the supplier's own questions gives it a reason to stay. The network also becomes more useful as it grows: a supplier that another OEM has already connected is ready to work with you on your first day.
Questions OEMs ask
We already use Ariba or Coupa. Why add Indax?
Ariba and Coupa record the transaction. Indax is the layer above it, where the order is executed and coordinated. Ariba records that an order happened; Indax is where your team and your supplier work the order.
- The transaction is recorded, but the order is executed by email. The PO, the confirmation, the ship notice and the invoice move through the network. The work between those documents does not: the RFQ clarifications, the spec revision, the promise date that moved and the reason, the certificate, the expedite and the partial shipment.
- That work lives in systems Ariba does not read. It is in each company's inbox, CRM, ERP and files, on both sides of the order. Ariba sees the documents that a buyer's procurement system sends. It does not read the supplier's email or systems, and it does not identify the companies, sites, people and projects behind an order. Indax does all three, on top of the public record.
- Coordination needs one neutral record. Your company, your suppliers, your distributors and your customers all work from the same record, and each one controls its own permissions.
- Indax works with your network, not against it. The documents that Ariba and EDI carry already arrive in your ERP and inbox, which Indax reads. The PO and the invoice become records in Indax, and Indax adds everything around them. Keep Ariba for procurement and payment, and use Indax to execute and coordinate orders.
Can't our AI assistant do this by itself?
A model can only answer from the data it receives. A record shared between companies needs a public record that is updated every day, a way to identify the same company, site and order across systems, and permissions between companies that both sides trust. Assistants from Microsoft and Google read one company's data, and none of them includes the public record that identifies your counterparty. Your agents can call Indax through MCP, so the assistant you already use gets access to the shared record.
We already have Palantir, or a strong ERP. Isn't that enough?
Palantir builds a data model inside one company and stops at that company's boundary, like other internal tools. A single supply chain also runs on many ERPs: an OEM on SAP buys from suppliers on Epicor, Infor, Odoo and spreadsheets. A shared record has to work across all of them, with permissions between companies that each side controls.
We buy lists from data providers. How is Indax different?
A list is a snapshot of whom to call. Indax reads filings as they are published and continues after the call: the RFQ, the quote and the order are linked to the project that started them. Today Indax covers 2 million facilities, updated every day from 53 state and local sources and 8 federal sources.
Sources: Ariba fees: SAP Ariba support, "How is the Ariba Network transaction fee calculated?" and "What are the Enterprise Account levels?". EDI cost estimates: Orderful, "EDI transaction fees explained" (a vendor source).
