Hi All,

I thought it would be great idea to start a Buyer’s guide for Sage Software users. We often get into opportunities with customers with various levels of EDI related knowledge, some know EDI inside and out, can write Maps or some have no idea what EDI is.

Let’s start with the basics what is EDI ?

EDI stands for Electronic Data Interchange, which is just a set of standards for Computer-to-Computer exchange of information either within an organization or another group like a major retail chain store. Think of the old way of doing purchasing, someone types out a Purchase Order and drives 3 miles away to drop of the order, that company then manually types the same document into the system and the order gets fulfilled somehow. EDI automates some of that functionality and removes the double entry and more importantly prevents errors to a certain degree. I’ll go into that in more detail later on as with EDI there are Web-Form EDI solutios that have a manual element to them.

How is an EDI document such as a Purchase Order (850) sent electronically? There are a number of ways to do that and the eBridge platform can support these functions easily for you. An EDI document can go via FTP, Modem, eMail, HTTP, AS1, AS2 etc.

An EDI Document usually has just the same amount of information a standard paper version has, the main difference is taking that data and getting it into the right system electronically either with printing out the EDI document received in a Web-Forms solution or integrating the systems together with an eBridge Software solution.

For more information on EDI check out Wikipedia’s link below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Data_Interchange

It’s a great resource for finding out about a how the data flows and such.

Wayne Thompson
Account Manager- Sage Software Products

Direct: 905-635-3309
Tel: 905-631-8333 ext. 247
Fax: 416-946-1805

wthompson@ebridgesoft.com

www.ebridgeconnections.com

EDI Buyers Guide, General EDI, Integration, The ePortal Web-based Transaction Engine, eBRIDGE Blog edi, EDI Integration, trading partner integration

Costco Wholesale is a chain of retail warehouses that operate internationally with 53 million members spread across 5 million businesses. In order to open up your products to Costco’s clientele you will need to meet the Costco’s EDI requirements:

810 Invoice
820 Payment Order/Remittance Advice
824 Application Advice
850 Purchase Order
860 Purchase Order Change/Cancel
864 Text Message
875 Grocery Purchase Order
880 Grocery Invoice
997 Acknowledgment Document

Here is some info on a few of the EDI documents that are new to the series. An EDI 820 document advises the payee of the details of the payment including any adjustments that have been made. The EDI 860 informs the vendor of any changes / cancellations that need to be made a purchase order by the customer. The EDI 875 is a purchase order for grocery products and the 880 is the accompanying invoice.

eBRIDGE Software has successfully supplied both integrated and non integrated EDI solutions for both Costco Wholesale and Costco Wholesale Canada. We have helped many small and medium sized businesses become EDI compliant. If you are looking for an EDI solution for Costco then give us a call. We can help you out by providing you with 15 years of knowledge and experience when it comes to EDI and how it actually reduces costs and increases productivity and sales!

Thanks,
Jay Isaak
MS Dynamics GP and SL Integrations
1-800-775-6921 x269
jisaak@ebridgesoft.com

EDI - Our Customers Trading Partner Series, EDI Translation, General EDI, Integration, The ePortal Web-based Transaction Engine edi, electronic data integration, trading partner integration, trading partner series

Bed Bath and Beyond was started back in 1971. BBB focuses on selling domestic merchandise and home furnishings. With over 800 stores BBB has quite a large footprint in the retail market. Below are the documents that BBB trades with their vendors via EDI. For information on their implementation guides you can go to the Bed Bath and Beyond Vendor Support Site.

850 – Purchase Order
816 – Organizational Relationships
860 - Purchase Order Change
864 – Text Message
810 – Invoice
856 – Advance Ship Notice
UCC 128 Shipping Label

The two documents above that have not been covered in the previous editions of the trading partner series are the 816 and 864. The 816 (organizational relationships) provides the address of all the locations that you may need to bill or ship to along with the code that both BBB and you will use to reference these locations on a PO, invoice or ASN. The 864 is a text message. This document will provide you just basic information about the stores like the holidays they are closed.

eBRIDGE Software has helped many client become EDI compliant with Bed Bath and Beyond. We have mapped and tested against their EDI specs to ensure that all situations are covered. If you are currently dealing with Bed Bath and Beyond and looking for an EDI solution (web forms or integrated) then give us a call and we can explain eBRIDGE Software’s EDI solution for Bed Bath and Beyond.

Thanks,
Jay Isaak
MS Dynamics GP and SL Integrations
1-800-775-6921 x269
jisaak@ebridgesoft.com

EDI - Our Customers Trading Partner Series, EDI Translation, General EDI, Integration edi, electronic data integration, trading partner integration, trading partner series

A Value Added Network, often referred to as an EDI VAN, is a private network dedicated to the secure exchange of EDI business documents.  Trading partners obtain an account with an EDI VAN such as GXS to which this account serves as an electronic mailbox for sending and receiving electronic business documents.  With an EDI VAN, not only can you exchange documents with your trading partner, you can also exchange them between VANs.  This is often referred to as an ‘interconnect’.  These interconnects benefit companies by providing them access to a larger base of trading partners throughout the world.  In addition to an EDI VAN, Internet-based EDI enables companies to exchange EDI documents over the Internet using secure methods of encryption.  While there are similar business benefits for both methods of exchange, the determining factor of which method to use depends on the specific partner agreement. Optimally, each trading partner needs to use the same mode of transport, whether that mode is an EDI VAN or Internet EDI.  Larger businesses will require that their suppliers use the same method of communication for electronic document exchange. 

At eBridge our ePortal solution uses the Internet as a secure method of exchanging business documents for EDI with your trading partners.  This has several advantages over traditional EDI VANs. 

• No transaction based fees; just one monthly payment regardless of the number of transactions processed;
• Remote access where ever there is an Internet connection;
• Interconnections with other EDI VANs

If you have more questions about the differences between traditional VANs and Internet-based EDI, feel free to comment or contact us at 1.800.755.6921.

Regards,
Dave Malda

Marketing Coordinator

General EDI edi, electronic data integration, van

GHX was created in 2000. Their goal is to standardize the way that the heath care industry transacts by managing the transactions and data format for all their partners. A single connection to GHX gives you the ability to send electronic documents to over 3,600 hospitals and suppliers. GHX requires the following base EDI transactions if you are a supplier that is joining GHX.

850 - Purchase order

855 - Purchase order acknowledgment

856 - Advance ship notice

810 - Invoice

With GHX, you will go through an extensive testing process where they will validate several best and worst case scenarios. This testing process is a little more thorough than most trading partners, but the benefit is that you will not have to retest any documents when adding a new partner that connects to GHX.

If you are looking for a solution that has been tested and proven on the GHX network then give me a call or head to the eBRIDGE website to see eBRIDGE Software’s EDI solutions for GHX and many other trading partners.

Thanks,
Jay Isaak
Sales Rep – MS Dynamics GP and SL Integrations
1-800-775-6921 x269
jisaak@ebridgesoft.com

EDI - Our Customers Trading Partner Series, EDI Translation, General EDI, Integration edi, electronic data integration, trading partner integration, trading partner series

1.Number of transactions.  Investigate the number of transactions your company will be performing on a daily basis.  Do you expect it to increase significantly over the course of the next couple years?  Select a solution that provides a monthly rate regardless of the number of transactions.  This will allow for easy budgeting when looking at EDI expenses for the upcoming fiscal year. 

2. Accounting Package. How many accounting packages does the EDI provider support?  Do they integrate with financial systems at all?  Make sure you select a provider that has plenty of experience integrating with different accounting packages – this ensures expertise and reuse of existing maps and connectors which will increase speed of implementation.

3. Scalability. Does the EDI provider integrate with other systems?  What about customer relationship management (CRM), eCommerce (Webstore fronts), supply chain management (SCM) systems?  Selecting a provider that supports all of these will allow you to focus on growing your business and eliminate the hassle of dealing with 2-3 separate integration providers.

4. Remote Access and SaaS. Can I access my EDI documents online?  Allowing for remote access has plenty of advantages and software as a service (SaaS) provides companies with a reduction in IT spend and resource allocation that are required for on premise solutions. 

5. Trading partners. Investigate to see if the EDI provider has already done EDI with your trading partners?  Having knowledge and experience with your trading partners EDI requirements will allow for swift implementation.  

Of course there are many more factors to consider when investigating an EDI solution for your business.  If you have any  comments, or would like to add other key issues - feel free to leave a comment on this blog post or call us at 1.800.755.6921 if you have specific inquires.

Thanks,

Dave Malda

Marketing Coordinator.

General EDI, Integration, The ePortal Web-based Transaction Engine, eBRIDGE Blog edi, implementation

Walmart is one of the largest retailers in the world so it is pretty obvious that Walmart would implement an EDI system to handle the amount of orders they make on a daily basis. If your company is interested in transacting via EDI with Walmart, make sure that you are compliant on the following transactions:

850 - Purchase Order
856 - Advance Ship Notice (ASN)
810 - Invoice

Walmart also requires that a UCC-128 label is affixed to each carton that goes out on a shipment. By scanning the bar code on the label Walmart knows what items and the quantities that are included in the box based on the information you provided on the ASN. It is very important that your company has a reliable system in place to handle the 856 (ASN) and the UCC-128 labels. Any errors or delays in the information will result in charge backs to your company.

If you are looking for a solution that can stand up to Walmart’s EDI requirements then give me a call or head to the eBRIDGE website to see eBRIDGE Software’s Walmart EDI solution.

Thanks,
Jay Isaak
Sales Rep – MS Dynamics GP and SL Integrations
1-800-775-6921 x269
jisaak@ebridgesoft.com

EDI - Our Customers Trading Partner Series, EDI Translation, General EDI, Integration edi, trading partner series

Why is XML integration so important?  What value does XML integration provide to your company when selecting an EDI solution?  These are all very important questions to consider when selecting or moving to an EDI partner.

As businesses increasingly use the Internet and software as a service solutions (SaaS) to exchange data with customers and trading partners, the value of XML as a desired format for data exchange has shown a host of benefits.  

Organizations that have traditionally used EDI as the mode of communication for all of their B2B transactions now often find themselves required to submit or receive data in XML. Converting EDIFACT or X12 to XML can be an arduous, time-consuming, and costly process, often requiring external consultants or departments not familiar with EDI syntax to write transformation code.  So making the correct choice upfront is critical to both short term and long term goals set by your organization.  Here are just a few examples of the benefits of XML integration:

More benefits of XML Integration:

• Easily communicate directly with your trading partners:  Eliminate costly value added networks (VANs) who do not support XML integration;
• Scalability to future demand/technologies: XML integration is very extendable, your company will continue to grow even as the ever changing technical world rapidly advances;
• Easy integration with business systems: XML is becoming a more widely accepted format making for easier integration into other systems.

At eBridge, our ePortal software as a service solution uses flexible and soft-coded XML technology as well as support for numerous EDI formats (ANSI X12, EDIFACT, etc.), thereby resulting in an independent and flexible Integration Solution that effectively integrates with your financial system while meeting your company’s unique internal business processes.  To learn more about our ePortal solution and it benefits – Click here.

Dave Malda

Marketing Coordinator.

EDI Translation, General EDI, Integration, The ePortal Web-based Transaction Engine, eBRIDGE Blog The ePortal Web-based Transaction Engine, xml integration

When looking for a good EDI solution, one of the dependencies is to understand what your needs are for your business and trading partners. At a high level, a good EDI solution should be user friendly and intuitive, allowing a user to perform EDI tasks with little or no training.  A good EDI solution should also be relatively easy and quick to implement into production between your EDI trading partner(s) and ERP/accounting system.  Depending on the complexity of your EDI requirements you may require consulting services from your EDI software provider.

When choosing an EDI solution, it is key that you research all vendors thoroughly. There are many different product offerings in the market, all claiming to offer the best EDI solution. Remember, this is going to be a system that controls much of your communication with some of your most important customers or suppliers, it’s important that the EDI solutions are investigated well. Some of the items to research are:

·  Handling non-compliant documents - how do I handle incorrect documents?

·  Remote accessibility - is the solution web-based?

·  Easy partner management - can trading partners be added easily?

·  Is there VAN fees associated with moving documents or one monthly charge?

·  Accessible audit trail - is it easy to look up transactions and document trails?

·  Can I manually enter or reprocess orders?

·  What accounting packages does this solution integrate with?

·  Is this a system our business can grow with?  Do they integrate with customer relationship management (CRM), ecommerce (Webstore fronts), and supply chain management (SCM) systems?

·  Implementation time to production - How long will it take to implement this system?

These are just some of the items to look for when researching an EDI solution.  Do your best to understand what the EDI company and solution(s) offers and how will this solution help you grow and run your business more efficiently? 

To learn more about eBridge solutions and services we provide – Click here

Regards, 

Dave Malda
Marketing Coordinator

General EDI, Integration, eBRIDGE Blog CRM, eCommerce, edi, Integration, SCM

When doing business with larger organizations you are almost always required to implement an EDI solution.  There are a host of factors that make it necessary to do EDI (electronic data interchange) with larger companies.  These factors included both strategic and operational reasons and have been around for decades.  Here are just a couple of examples of the strategic and operation benefits companies take advantage of:

Strategic:

•  Decreased operating costs;
•  Improved cash and inventory cycles;
•  Rapidly integrate trading partners into business processes.

Operational:

•  Invoices are sent out and in your partners hands in minutes;
•  Increased security in delivery of message and transaction processing;
•  Reduce double entry of data, eliminate data errors;
•  Reduction in inventory levels;
•  Reduced paper, postage and sorting activities. 

By taking advantage of the strategic and operational benefits of implementing an EDI solution, customers and suppliers have been required to do business via EDI.  In almost all situations larger companies will not enter into a business relationship without the other party conforming to the EDI standards set by the larger company.  Depending on the number of transactions per month, the customer can choose to implement an EDI system which automatically handles incoming documents i.e: 850s (Purchase Orders) and 997s (Functional Acknowledgement) or they can choose to enter information manually via a web form. 

At eBridge Software our solutions have functionality built-in to handle automatic and manual entry (rip and read) of data.  To read more about our software solutions and how your company may benefit Click here. 

Regards,

Dave Malda

Marketing Coordinator

General EDI, eBRIDGE Blog edi, Integration, trading partner