Telstra is working rapidly to streamline and automate our own internal purchasing processes in order to make it easier and faster for you, our Contracted Vendors, to do business with us electronically.
Please select the tabs below for information about:
- how Telstra has already embraced eCommerce, through the use of an internal online purchasing/e-procurement tool Meridian, that allows our staff to make purchases electronically rather than being reliant on a paper-based process
Meridian Procurement
MERIDIAN Procurement, is Telstra's internal Online purchasing system, which enables Telstra employees to easily order goods and services from an extensive catalogue of your Telstra-contracted products, by automating the flow of Purchase Order and Invoicing documents.
Feedback from those of you, our contracted Vendors, who already have your products represented on the MERIDIAN Procurement catalogue, has indicated that you have experienced a significant reduction in leakage or 'maverick spend' from Telstra contracts, due to the speed and convenience with which we can now order goods and services from you.
To facilitate the ordering of complex and interactive products and services where you may require more detailed information from us (e.g. business cards, training, flowers, gift baskets and catering), MERIDIAN Procurement even has the capability to link directly to your own website if necessary, to allow you to capture such information directly.
BusinessTone
When you are conducting eCommerce with Telstra via the use of Middleware or the services of an eBureau on your side, and BusinessTone on our side, transactions are conducted in near real-time.
BusinessTone is an application which allows for compatible electronic transfer of data between systems and currently supports the following transactions:
- Purchase Orders and Purchase Order changes
- Purchase Order confirmations
- Invoices
- Adjustment Notes
- Invoice and Adjustment Note rejections
- Remittance Advices
We have also designed BusinessTone to accord with:
- open standards
- platform flexibility to support a wide range of business processes and requirements
- system security.
Messaging Protocols
The BusinessTone messaging component contains a transport protocol and a business protocol:
- the transport protocol used is HTTPS with Client Authentication (please note plain SSL and HTTP are not permitted)
- the business protocol uses standardized XML documents. The XML standards currently supported are ebXML and RosettaNET.
System Security:
As BusinessTone utilises the public internet as a transport layer, exposing business transactions onto the public internet raises important security concerns.
To counter this, BusinessTone uses standard Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) to support the following security measures:
- Authentication - verifying the identity of each party in a transaction - like a signature on a piece of paper
- Encryption - converting plain text into a form unreadable by anyone except the intended recipient
- Non-Repudiation - using digital signatures to prevent any party from denying having performed a particular action.
BusinessTone also ensures that transaction data is secure through the use of public/private key encryption via Digital Certificates.
Would you like to know more?
Please visit the 'eCommerce Additional Information' page and select the 'Downloadable Documents' tab and view the 'Telstra Vendor Readiness and Technical Assessment Questionnaire ' and the 'BusinessTone Activation Form', which contain detailed information on what transacting with Telstra via Middleware or an eBureau entails, and the information that Telstra requires from you to establish such connections. You can also view technical examples in the 'Message Formats, Samples and Schemas' section:
