Buying groups and networks
Give your network cross-dealer inventory and paired orders
Meridian is software for buying groups and dealer networks whose members each run their own business but want to sell each other stock without working a phone tree. Members search each other's inventory under trust rules they set, and a cross-dealer order writes the paperwork on both sides at once. Every member keeps its own books and its own customers.
The stock is already in the network. Finding it is the problem.
A group's real advantage is that somebody in it has the part. Most of that advantage gets spent on phone calls, because no member can see another member's shelf and nobody wants to hand a competitor their whole inventory file.
Cross-dealer inventory search
A member searches across the network from inside the same part picker the counter already uses, instead of working down a list of contacts.
Trust is set per relationship, not per network
Ring-based trust governs what each member exposes to each other member. Two member dealers in the same group can have a different arrangement with each other than either has with a third.
A cross-dealer order writes both sides at once
When a member buys from a member, both halves of the transaction get created together: the selling side and the buying side. One dealer cannot end up holding an order the other dealer does not have.
- Paired paperwork created on both sides in one action
- Inventory, ledger entries and the audit trail all move with the order
- A partner PO runs the same workflow as any other order in the system
Members stay independent
Membership is not a merger. Each member keeps its own customers, its own pricing, its own inventory and its own ledger. The network layer sits above those and exposes only what the trust rules allow. A group that asked members to pool their books is not a group anybody joins.
What the group office should know before it starts
Every member runs Meridian. The network layer does not bolt onto a member's existing system, so cross-dealer search and paired orders work across the members who are on the platform and not across the ones who are not. For a group rolling out in stages, that is the thing to plan around, and it is worth saying before a demo rather than after one.
Every member gets the whole system underneath
Cross-dealer search only works against live stock, and paired orders only stay consistent when both ends share one model. So each member is already running per-location inventory, repair orders and a real ledger. Joining the network switches on a capability. It is not a separate product to buy.
Show your members what the group is worth.
Tell us how many member dealers you have and how they trade with each other today, and we will show you what cross-dealer search and paired orders change.
What each member is running underneath
- Enterprise edition
Multiple entities, intercompany, and partner networks in one package.
- Parts inventory management
Per-location stock, bin locations, price tiers, and more than one supplier per part.
- Multi-entity accounting
Several legal entities under one umbrella, with intercompany transfers and settlement.
Questions
- Can members see each other's inventory?
- Only as far as the trust rules allow. Ring-based trust is set per relationship, so what one member exposes to another is a decision those two members make, not a network-wide setting.
- What happens when one member buys from another?
- Paired paperwork is created on both sides in a single action, moving inventory, ledger entries and the audit trail together, so neither side ends up with half a transaction.
- Does every member have to run Meridian?
- Yes. The network layer does not sit on top of a member's existing system, so cross-dealer search and paired orders work across the members who are on the platform. A group rolling out in stages should plan around that.
- Do members share books or customers?
- No. Each member keeps its own customers, pricing, inventory and ledger. The network layer exposes only what the trust rules permit.
- Is the network a separate product?
- No. Members run the same system, with per-location inventory, repair orders and the full ledger, and network membership is a capability within it.
Start with one conversation, not forty.
Tell us how your group is put together and which members trade with each other most. We will walk through what the network layer changes and what it would take to roll it out in stages.