eBridge has continued to post monthly YouTube videos in order to help share valuable business intelligence with small to mid-sized businesses regarding CRM, EDI, supply chain management and e-Commerce (web store) integration. This month’s video explains how EDI Integration works and the various stages within EDI Integration.
Are you aware of any other key factors to consider when doing an EDI implementation? Feel free to leave a comment.
In order to be successful, any organization—large or small—must run its operations effectively and efficiently. EDI Integration allows organizations to bridge the information gap between companies with different computer systems. In the B2B world, EDI standards remain the dominant protocols due to EDI-related network traffic volumes increasing between 5% and 10% during 2004 (Twentyman, 2004).
Over the last decade, EDI has evolved and changed with the times. For instance, EDI has changed not only how firms do business, but with whom they do business in a global marketplace. However there are mistakes that can lead to catastrophic consequences when employing EDI Integration. Below are 5 pitfalls to avoid in securing a successful EDI Integration implementation for organizations(Emanio, 2008):
Poor planning
Poor understanding of the undertaking
Taking on too much too quickly
Not sticking to your plan
Selecting vendors based only on price
Avoiding this mistake will allow an organization to attain the many benefits of EDI Integration. For example, one of EDI Integration’s primary benefits to businesses is it reduction in transaction cost by improving the speed and efficiency of filling order and fostering closer relationship with both current and new trading partners.
Jessica Twentyman. (2004, November). How EDI is jumping through new hoops. Computer Weekly,24. Retrieved September 29, 2009, from ABI/INFORM Trade & Industry. (Document ID: 777548131).
Business was once, people all in a row.
Filling out purchase orders, reconciling invoices; setting schedules before they could go.
They would sit at their desks and worries would grow
About payments and inventory and orders to go.
Papers would shuffle, confusion would reign
Opportunities missed could stop the train!
But along came EDI - not out of the blue,
And the people were freed from what they did do.
Now with the click of a mouse, nary a push of the pen,
Business moves along with a speed times ten. Orders are received and posted with haste.
Invoices sent with not a second to waste.
Wily inventory and unruly schedules toe the line;
For a well structured ASN can make life so fine.
Remittance and payments no longer cause worry
They are sent, processed, received in a flurry!
Times have changed, they have become integrated,
Our software can help you with what has been fated.
Speed up your business, make efficiency your goal.
See your profits increase on the whole.
From what I can see EDI saves the day,
And lets business move along, that’s all I can say.
eBridge Mapper Software – The Mapper reformats electronic business documents between the trading partner format and the Sage Software ERP format (MAS, BV, BW, PFW etc). It features a highly-intuitive graphical interface for the creation and editing of the maps needed for the reformatting of data. The eBridge Mapper automatically determines the correct map to use based on the format, version and partner code in the input data, and executes the transformation based on the map instructions.
For long term growth or cost control, the eBridge Mapper is a GUI interface, through our optional training course the software can be used to create and map the companies own EDI requirements placing control in the users hands.
EDI Sage Mapper Interface
Robust, Scalable - The eBridge Integration Solution is capable of handling escalating integration requirements to grow with an organization’s needs. New customers can be added quickly and easily. eBridge provides Sage Software users with seamless, automated integration; the bridge allows businesses to eliminate the need for manual data entry and to quickly achieve (in the case of EDI) compliance with their business partners for maximum efficiency, with minimum costs incurred. eBridge for Sage Software is a ready to use solution that provides bi-directional integration of accounting information between your Sage Software ERP and the back-end system implemented by your trading partners, instantly synchronizing sales order and purchase information, payment data, and other business critical information between both systems. This is an Any-to-Any Mapper solution so this will cover all compliance possibilities a customer may be faced either in the EDI world or eCommerce such as Webstore Integration.
For the next segment of EDI Buyer’s Guide I’ll talk about the eBridge ePortal and what this means to customers looking for either a simple integration solution, something with a little more control or a combination of the two.
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