If your business is looking to improve its communications with clients and trading partners, you might have considered installing EDI technology.
EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) allows the exchange of structured business documents using a standard electronic format to reduce costs, automate workflows, process documents faster and experience fewer communication errors.
Sounds good, right? Well, setting it up is a different story. You might not even know where to start or which EDI solution is the right one for you.
This is where EDI specialist companies can hopefully come in to save the day. This article will discuss how these professionals can help your business and get you set up.
What’s EDI?
New to EDI technology? We got you covered. EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) technology in its simplest form allows the computer-to-computer transfer of structured business documents.
The data that is transmitted often contains critical information about business transactions. These documents can typically include buyers submitting a purchase order or suppliers sending invoices.
EDI is also commonly used for advanced shipping notices (ASNs a notification of pending delivery, remittance advice, price lists, catalogues and statements to name but a few…
This ASN data includes the location where the product will be shipped, the purchase order number, and shipping notice numbers.
What Can EDI Integration do for Your Business?
EDI integration refers to the creation of EDI workflows between two trading partners.
It is established first through the EDI documents, protocols, transactions, and endpoints that will be exchanged with your trading partner.
EDI data is converted into a format that your back-end technology, such as your ERP or accounting solution, uses to keep your transactional data accurate and up to date.
The benefit of integrating EDI data into your internal systems is that it enables businesses to automate more operations and in turn save considerable amounts of duplication, time and money.
It basically provides an integrated approach for delivering workflows and improves the visibility of operations. At the very bottom-line, this can in turn hugely improve the customer service experience.
The EDI system automatically reads data from transmitted documents into your internal systems. Instead of an employee having to read and rekey data, which in itself can introduce a huge amount of errors
What’s an EDI Specialist?
EDI developers are software specialists focused on EDI operations. They are responsible for making sure that your EDI system works smoothly.
Their job is to ensure files are safely transmitted across the internet to your trading partners. This is the whole basis of how EDI operates.
EDI specialists are also concerned with setting up and editing SQL Reports. All your corporate transactions can be processed by the SQL database, from which you can then fashion reports of all database activity.
Other tasks of the EDI specialist consist of developing, testing, and implementing transaction maps, whereby all data transmitted is mapped to your internal data.
EDI Specialist companies such as AdvanceFirst Technologies will maintain your documentation, provide updated documents to your helpdesk, and ensure that your firm is up-to-date with the latest EDI standards.
It is a very specialist role and requires at least five years of experience in programming applications and design methodologies, as well as a computer science degree.
This perhaps is the best indicator that DIY is not really an option when it comes to EDI. So if your business has its heart set on its own EDI system, you will need a specialist company to help you out.
Other Types of EDI Professionals you may well need:
Development is one area crucial for your EDI system, but it is by no means the only one. You may need other professionals to support the installation and maintenance of your system.
An EDI Analyst ensures that the system operates as it should and meets the needs of its users. They create test cases and check that data is flowing between business partners without issue. They’ll identify and solve any issues they find.
EDI Coordinators manage and maintain a firm’s EDI system. If you work in a large company, this kind of role is useful to have on staff in-house.
How an EDI Specialist Company Can Help Your Business…
In a hyper-digital world, the truth is that most B2B businesses are already using EDI for many critical transactions.
You might be one of them! But to boost your business with EDI services, an EDI specialist company can much more easily help you meet your needs.
This will enable you to reap the full benefits of automation, improved visibility, control and eliminating unnecessary manual processes.
The key benefits you can hope to achieve through an EDI specialist company include:
Cost Savings
Execute workflows that reduce costs—much less paper and manual processes. no more expenses relating to paper operations, constant printing, storing or reproducing documents.
Speed
Your business can cut processing times significantly through automation. Shipment cycles can be sped up; transactions can be exchanged in minutes.
Accuracy
When employers have to enter data manually, this opens your business up to human error. With EDI that automatically transmits this information, rekeying data is no longer necessary.
Efficiency
EDI documents are quick and accurate, making them the most popular document automation method for enterprises worldwide.
Security
An EDI system can make your business more safe and secure. You can limit access to documents to authorized users only.
Archive tracking and audit trails also make it easy to review who accessed what. You will also be able to securely share data across multiple communication protocols.
Get an EDI Model That Works for Your Business
If you’re looking for an EDI system to save your business and that of your trading partners time and money, nothing but the best should do. An EDI specialist company such as Advance First Technologies can help you identify, install and operate the system you need to ensure all user requirements are fulfilled. For more information, get in touch with us today to discuss your EDI needs. www.advancefirst.com
