Don't get locked into SPS's black-box managed service model
Cleo delivers end-to-end B2B integration with no-code trading partner onboarding, direct back-office integration, AI-powered intelligent exception management, and full visibility—without surrendering control of your integrations.
It's time to stop waiting on vendors.
Vendor-Controlled Onboarding
SPS operates a managed-services-only model, meaning your team cannot directly control onboarding timelines. Every new trading partner requires coordination through SPS resources, which are often constrained by internal bandwidth.
Inconsistent Service Quality
Because SPS is heavily service-driven, outcomes depend on the quality and responsiveness of assigned teams. This can create variability in delivery, inconsistent implementation experiences, and delays in issue resolution.
Lack of Control & Flexibility
With SPS, making changes, updating mappings, or adjusting workflows typically requires submitting tickets and waiting in vendor queues.
Fragmented Ownership of Outcomes
Your team still bears the business impact of delays, errors, and partner issues, but without the direct control needed to resolve them quickly.
The difference is not just integration. It is business control.
SPS's one-size-fits-all approach forces your business to rely on its timelines, tools, and support.
Vendor-Controlled Onboarding
A managed-services-only model leaves you dependent on vendor timelines and staffing capacity, often turning promised onboarding schedules into delays you cannot control.
Limited Visibility
Minimal insight and transparency into operational performance, including dashboards that may not provide the current context teams need.
Inconsistent Service Quality
Reactive support and uneven delivery quality can result in slow issue resolution and ongoing operational disruption.
Unpredictable Costs
Mandatory testing fees, mapping charges, and change processes can make total cost of ownership far less predictable than the initial contract.
Automated Trading Partner Onboarding
Connect trading partners in hours using pre-built integrations, AI-driven EDI mapping, and intuitive drag-and-drop technology, without waiting in a vendor queue.
Real-time Visibility & Unified Performance Intelligence
Gain a unified, real-time view across orders, shipments, and invoices to prevent compliance failures, reduce chargebacks, protect margin, and align teams through one operational dashboard.
Responsive Support
Access 24/7 support with a guaranteed human 1-hour response time.
Predictable Pricing
Benefit from transparent, straightforward pricing with no mandatory testing fees, hidden mapping costs, or surprise extension charges.
Control the integrations that control your business.
Cleo combines direct operational control with managed expertise, so your team can choose how each integration is built and supported.
Automated Trading Partner Onboarding
Pre-built trading partner integrations, canonical data models, AI-assisted EDI mapping, and no-code/low-code tooling help accelerate partner enablement across AS2, SFTP, APIs, and other protocols.
Real-Time Visibility & Unified Performance Intelligence
Event-driven visibility spans orders, ASNs, invoices, acknowledgments, SLAs, exceptions, and business outcomes such as chargebacks, fill rates, and revenue impact.
Responsive, Operationally-Aware Support
24/7 support with defined SLAs and a guaranteed 1-hour human response helps teams investigate mappings, connectivity, and partner-specific issues faster.
Compare the capabilities that affect daily operations.
The right choice depends on whether you need a retail-focused managed EDI service or a broader platform that gives your team more control over onboarding, integrations, visibility, and change management.
Why customers moved from SPS Commerce to Cleo.
Lunchskins and Byrne Dairy both looked beyond managed EDI to gain stronger alignment, support, visibility, and control over their integration operations.
A better fit for the way the business operates.
After experiencing inefficiencies with SPS Commerce, Lunchskins chose Cleo Web EDI for a solution better aligned with its processes and support needs.
From a three-year SPS implementation to a seamless Cleo go-live.
After document failures, support issues, and mapping delays with SPS, Byrne Dairy moved to Cleo and launched 15 Oracle Fusion trading partners at once with end-to-end visibility.
Results: 50% faster onboarding, same-day issue resolution, and 20 hours of manual work saved per week.
Cleo achieves real results.
Examples from teams using Cleo to improve onboarding, reliability, and issue resolution.
Reduction in SLA Error Rate
Verst lowered its SLA error rate from 4% to 0.24% while expanding its ability to support API requirements and EDI mandates.
Read Case StudyFaster Onboarding
New partner onboarding dropped from as much as eight weeks to less than three days.
Read Case StudyReduction in EDI Issue Resolution Time
Duraflame reduced time spent resolving EDI issues and freed teams to focus more attention on new business.
Read Case StudyWhat teams say about their EDI experience.
“Every time a document fails it has to be retransmitted, going against our transaction count. It is in their best interest to keep the platform broken.”
“We are not allowed to touch anything within a map. We have to open a ticket, request an update to a map, go into a queue, wait days to get a response...”
“Cleo has provided much greater flexibility across our critical operational systems. With EDI and API capabilities in a single toolset... we are laying the required foundational elements for our business to properly operate at a global level.”
A demo built around your integration priorities.
The source page pairs the demo offer with the protocols and integration approaches teams commonly need to evaluate.
- EDI (X12 / EDIFACT)
- API / REST
- AS2 / SFTP / MFT
Built to make partners easier to do business with.
Strong integration should improve communication with both customers and partners while supporting long-term operational relationships.
The existing page reinforces that message with a customer perspective from a technology leader who has worked with Cleo for a decade.
Comparing other B2B integration vendors?
Explore how Cleo positions its platform against other EDI and integration providers.
TrueCommerce vs. Cleo
Compare approaches to support responsiveness, integration control, and day-to-day operations.
See the DifferenceOpenText vs. Cleo
Compare platform technology, visibility, modernization, and support models.
See the DifferenceIBM vs. Cleo
Explore migration, modernization, integration flexibility, and operational agility.
See the DifferenceGo beyond retail EDI document exchange.
Connect trading partners, applications, data, and business processes through capabilities that can expand with your integration strategy.
EDI/API Integration
Automate EDI and API communications within a unified integration environment.
Learn moreCleo's WebEDI Portal
Support streamlined order fulfillment for partners that need web-based EDI workflows.
Learn moreSupplier Portal
Connect and collaborate with non-EDI suppliers and vendors through structured digital workflows.
Learn moreSupplier Testing
Validate EDI-capable partners and help move them toward production readiness and compliance.
Learn moreRelationship Management
Use stronger visibility and proactive alerts to manage supply chain relationships more effectively.
Learn moreCleo Network
Connect trading partners and systems across a broader ecosystem of supply chain relationships.
Learn moreCleo AI
Apply embedded intelligence across platform operations, network activity, and supply chain workflows.
Learn moreB2B Gateway
Connect and move data using AS2, FTP/SFTP, managed file transfer, and related protocols.
Learn moreEvaluating Cleo and SPS Commerce?
Common questions to consider when comparing the two approaches.
What is the main difference between Cleo and SPS Commerce?
The core difference is architectural and operational control. SPS Commerce operates as a managed-service EDI provider where onboarding, mappings, and issue resolution are vendor-controlled. Cleo combines EDI, APIs, and backend systems in an end-to-end integration platform designed to give teams direct control, visibility, and automation capabilities.
What are the disadvantages of SPS Commerce compared with Cleo?
Businesses evaluating SPS Commerce may find that its service-led model gives them less direct control over trading partner onboarding, mapping changes, workflow updates, and issue resolution. Timelines and outcomes can depend on vendor staffing and support queues, while testing fees, mapping charges, and change requests can make total costs harder to predict. Cleo addresses these concerns with self-service, managed, and hybrid operating models; direct control over integrations; real-time operational visibility; and more predictable pricing.
Why do companies switch from SPS Commerce to Cleo?
Organizations typically switch when they want more control, visibility, and scalability. Cleo is positioned around automated onboarding, real-time monitoring, and a unified platform intended to improve issue resolution and make operating costs more predictable.
How does trading partner onboarding compare?
SPS onboarding is vendor-driven and queue-based. Cleo uses pre-built partner templates, AI-assisted EDI mapping, and no-code/low-code tooling to support onboarding in hours or days without requiring vendor intervention for every change.
Does Cleo require deep EDI expertise?
Cleo abstracts integration complexity through reusable mappings, canonical data models, and intuitive interfaces so both technical and non-technical users can participate in managing integrations.
Request a custom demo tailored to your goals.
See how Cleo would support your trading partners, systems, transaction volumes, and preferred operating model. The demonstration is tailored to your current SPS environment and migration priorities.
See self-service and managed services together.
Use the demo to evaluate how Cleo can support EDI, APIs, onboarding, operational visibility, and the service model that best fits your team.
See what proactive integration management looks like.
Get a tailored look at Cleo's self-service platform, managed services, and EDI/API capabilities.