EDI Solution

An EDI solution is generally a solution to a company’s EDI needs. This can be to fulfill customers’ EDI mandates or manage a rapidly growing supply chain.

EDI solutions can include EDI integration into backend ERP, accounting, warehousing or supply chain management systems. In addition, an EDI solution will include communication, translation and mapping functionalities. Most vendors for EDI solutions actually survive by providing consulting services rather than basing the EDI solution on pre-configured software. The difficulty for someone in the market for EDI solutions is to know whether they need mostly software or mostly services, since most vendors seem to claim the same benefits.

Once the decision has been made to purchase an EDI solution, the decision of “from whom” will become prominent. Regardless of the type of solution, an number of factors should be considered in selecting an EDI solution. These factors include:

• Standards supported
• Ease of use and customization
• Software maintenance
• Special features
• Technical support
• Vendor experience
• Platforms supported

The EDI solutions deployed should support all standards in use within your company and within the trading partner’s company. At a minimum, the EDI solution should support X12 and the industry subsets of X12, and the same for EDIFACT. The EDI solution should also be able to support multiple versions of the EDI standards since not all trading partners will use the same version.

Since trading partner mapping – identifying the optional segments and elements to be used in transaction sets – is done with each trading partner, the EDI solution should be easy to customize for each trading partner. In fact, in addition to having an easily customizable EDI solution, EMANIO provides EDI kits that facilitates initialization and trade with several hundreds of major trading partners.

Because standards will change, the EDI solution will need to be adaptable. In selecting an EDI solution, consider the cost and timeliness of standards upgrades. Most EDI solution vendors modify packages as standards are modified, but how those modifications are provided to customers varies. Ensure that your EDI solution is easily upgradeable.

Depending on the particular EDI application, special features such as encryption techniques, control reporting and audit reports may be important in the EDI solution.

One of the most important features of any EDI solution is after-sale support. Services to look for include: a vendor hotline staffed with knowledgeable technical people who can provide quick answers to problems and account representatives who are willing to assist in installation of the EDI solution and issues after it is installed. Ask for references!

Another factor to consider with an EDI solution is the stability and experience of the vendor. Does the vendor have experience in your industry, with your application? There are many small vendors of EDI solutions in the market but few that can be considered stable or experienced.

In general, an EDI solution is purchased for a specific hardware platform, usually PC based, although some companies require multi-platform EDI solutions.

The EDI Solutions available to small and mid-sized businesses can range widely in capabilities and price. When selecting an EDI Solution, it’s important for the small and mid-sized organization to make a careful evaluation of the EDI Solution’s features and cost. An EDI Solution that provides the best price often has very few features. An EDI Solution that includes many high-end features is often very costly and may turn out to be overkill for a small business.  Selecting an EDI Solution on the basis of cost alone is as great a mistake as selecting an EDI Solution with features that may not ever be used.

The right balance of features vs. price for an EDI Solution will depend on your individual needs.  An EDI Solution must provide the necessary features and support for trading partners that will allow you to comply with your retailer mandates. If your EDI Solution makes it difficult to implement new trading partners or to comply with new documents, the pain of maintaining the EDI Solution will far outweigh any savings in its low price.  On the other hand, an EDI Solution that is so feature- rich and so difficult to use that it requires months of learning may sit unused, defeating the whole purpose of acquiring the EDI Solution in the first place.

EMANIO Trading Partner® 7 was designed to be an EDI Solution that provides the perfect balance between affordability and features.  At EMANIO, we believe that most businesses want an EDI Solution that will do most of the work – letting the business focus on its core competency rather than on EDI.  Our EDI Solution provides this level of “zero-effort” EDI through automation.  Our EDI Solution allows the business to automate the entire process, whether the EDI Solution is used for manual “rip-and-read” operations or as part of an Integrated EDI Solution that brings EDI data to the back-end system.