Why is EDI integration important to your business?

Electronic data interchange (EDI) enables the smooth, rapid, and structured exchange of important data between businesses. However, businesses have come to realize that manually entering data to be sent via a third-party EDI solution is still fairly time and labor-intensive. To further enhance business growth, companies that use EDI solutions can automatically synchronize all inbound and outbound partner data with their ERP system.

This blog post will shed light on some of the core advantages that EDI integration brings to your business.

Accuracy

Inaccurate information and failure to comply with EDI standards or individual trading partners’ internal policies can result in chargebacks or expensive errors. You might accidentally instruct a supplier to ship products to the wrong warehouse or even lose business by incorrectly processing a major customer’s order.

Sending business information directly from your ERP via integrated EDI technology greatly reduces the chance of making these mistakes. ERP platforms use various methods to validate information against a set of business rules to ensure compliance. Minimizing manual actions during inter-organization data exchange also prevents most errors, which helps your business avoid unexpected costs, reduce customer attrition, and preserve healthy margins.

Increased Efficiency

Compared to stand-alone EDI systems, ERP-integrated EDI solutions don’t require you to dedicate hours or days to manual input. Inbound and outbound partner communication can also be automated by initiating an EDI transaction on a fixed schedule (like sending an end-of-week report) or when a specific set of conditions arises in your ERP system (like requesting replenishment when you’re out of stock). This results in faster order processing and delivery, increased operational agility in response to changes in your supply chain, and improved relationships with suppliers, vendors, distributors, and other trading partners.

Reduced Costs

Automatic, paperless partner communication drastically saves costs by at least 35%. Savings can be as high as 90% with the use of electronic invoices. Rapid EDI communication also helps you control costs by allowing you to reduce inventory levels and shorten order processing and delivery times. However, manually keying business information into a separate EDI system introduces errors, delays communication, and increases labor costs.

Integrating your EDI and ERP systems allows you to send verified, standards-compliant information to suppliers and trading partners without needing to pay a worker to manually key in that information. You can avoid costs associated with SLA violations, performance gaps, and delays by using ERP integration to virtually eliminate manual error and ensure that your documentation process conforms to EDI standards.

Data Security

If an unauthorized person gains access to your business secrets, that’s bad enough, but someone manages to transmit that data, that’s far, far worse. EDI system integration helps keep your valuable business information safe by only granting EDI access to authorized ERP users. Each ERP user can be granted or denied access to EDI capabilities based on their specific role. Since most ERP platforms offer sophisticated auditing capabilities, you can also keep track of who sent or requested a specific document, and when.

Conclusion

Seamless EDI-to-ERP integration makes partner communication paperless, which results in reduced operational latency and errors, reduced costs, and better relationships with business partners. It also enables authorized users to exchange business information safely and securely. To learn more about how EDI integration maximizes the effectiveness of B2B communication, please contact PartnerLinQ.

EDI is the most widely used structured electronic data exchange between organizations. However, not all EDI solutions are created equal. Instead of operating as stand-alone applications that require manual entry and their own maintenance regime, leading EDI platforms integrate seamlessly with ERP software and other business applications to eliminate manual rekeying and duplication of business information.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 is a powerful cloud-based ERP solution. A fully integrated EDI solution can extend this power by directly connecting your implementation of Dynamics 365 to your trading partners’ ERP systems. Decision makers need to choose an EDI solution that integrates rapidly with Dynamics 365 and takes full advantage of Dynamics 365’s analytics, workflows, and other productivity-enhancing capabilities.

In this blog post, we’ll consider several factors that are important for effectively integrating your EDI solution with Dynamics 365:

The advantage of native integration

Some EDI solutions are designed to natively integrate with Dynamics 365. If you choose the correct one of these solutions, you don’t have to worry about compatibility or security issues – everything just works. This is the best way to avoid compromises or complications during or after solution implementation.

Choose a reliable integration partner and platform

If you decide to implement an EDI solution that isn’t specifically designed to integrate with Dynamics 365, choose an integration partner that possesses in-depth experience with integrating EDI solutions with Microsoft platforms. Since Dynamics 365 runs on the Microsoft Azure cloud platform, your partner of choice should be familiar with Azure-compatible enterprise application integration (EAI) tools and methodologies. To minimize business risk and avoid future upgrade costs, the integration platform should be highly secure and scalable.

Onboarding new EDI trading partners

In addition to the many security and regulatory concerns associated with transmitting sensitive data between organizations, each business that you partner with usually has its own set of information policies and standards. While integrating your EDI solution with Dynamics 365, make sure that the integration provides enough flexibility to accommodate these partner requirements.

Eliminate manual processes

The ROI of automating EDI processes varies depending on the frequency and importance of your data exchanges with other organizations. If you send or receive just a few documents each month, a fully automatic solution might not deliver enough value to justify the cost of implementation.

While integrating your EDI platform with Dynamics 365 will automate many manual processes, some ancillary processes might continue to be performed manually. Before you go the extra mile and attempt to eliminate these additional steps, define your specific EDI integration goals and determine the value you expect from automating each manual process. This will give you a clear picture of what you stand to gain from end-to-end automation of supply chain communication.

Data accessibility and privacy

If there are regulations or internal policies that prevent you from storing some types of business information in the public cloud, you will have to take this into consideration while planning to integrate your EDI solution with Dynamics 365. Instead of simply using Dynamics 365 or Azure cloud storage, you might have to implement a hybrid solution. These requirements add cost and complexity, so you should be aware of them before you begin integration.

Conclusion

Organizations that prepare a complete roadmap of the EDI integration process are rewarded with faster time to value, lower implementation costs, fewer delays, and higher ROI. For more information on best practices for integrating EDI with Dynamics 365, contact PartnerLinQ for a complimentary consultation.

“Plastics” was the single word of business advice from a guest from an older generation to the young Dustin Hoffman in the movie, ‘The Graduate.’ One word that all at once seemed to describe every bit of the business knowledge the young graduate would need. Clean, tidy, packaged, and delivered with such precision that 55 years later, a faint social memory finds meaning in the attachment to that word.     

Today’s C-Suite executives have much more on their minds, often far-flung from memories of a film, far removed from a dated vision of a sterile, mindless office, a different view of business life that has emerged in the past 50 years. The 1960s view, brought about mainly by the values of a previous generation looking forward to a modern age and boring almost by definition, has emerged in today’s business environment. A far-reaching, multi-geographic, multi-cultural colossus of a business universe. Typically headquartered in a major city or strategically located, these businesses serve thousands of customers or handle millions of product combinations, shipping from multiple fulfillment centers and growing e-commerce brands. An entirely new definition of a business that could never be reduced to a single word of business advice delivered in a one-off conversation at a party delivered in a single word.  

The story of ‘The Graduate,’ instead of a message about business by way of a single word, is about change, systemic change where creating a stable and sustainable business environment in a complex business world is a real daily challenge. The stability we once thought of as an everyday casual occurrence has changed forever. If we have learned anything from the COVID-19 experience, it is this: nothing we held as fact is the fact any longer, no service that we perform, and no product that we buy, sell, ship, or deliver is protected, and nothing should be overlooked as we seek opportunities to gain a foothold or a business advantage in the “New Normal.”  

This brings us back to our current reality in the new world. A world where giants continue to emerge from increased consolidation even in far-flung markets deep in the interior of this and many other countries. Companies that began as simply as a man and his truck are now run by corporate boards and C-Suite executives who find themselves in Multi-Enterprise Supply Chain Business Networks (MESBN) with multiple companies to run and precious resources competing for funds. Where does one begin? Is it better to reduce costs or increase revenue? Which job gets tackled first, which takes precedent, or is there an opportunity for both? Is enterprise consolidation the first order of business, a process that could take years and resources, or is multi-enterprise collaboration the way to go? What about flexibility? Is there a way to tread on more than one path?  

When a business grows through extension, acquisition, and consolidation, outcomes vary, and results are mixed. Rarely does an extension, acquisition, or consolidation mean a ‘plug and play’ migration meaning that a migration path needs to be defined, and that becomes the responsibility of the C-Suite. Navigating the consolidation path, from ‘old’ to ‘new’ or several to one system, means critical thinking, tough decisions, and balance.  

What becomes necessary is a multi-enterprise collaboration networks and integration platform that supports multi-enterprise collaboration and migration at every stage of execution, whether your business has grown through extension, acquisition, or consolidation. The market at large prefers a solution that is popular with the world’s most recognized brands and leading vertically integrated producers, marketers, and distributors; and one that puts them in complete control of their B2B API & EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) supply chains and delivers end-to-end visibility, limitless flexibility, connectivity & control whether single or multiple enterprise environments exist.   

The market will inevitably reach for a platform that can help bridge the gaps during systemic migration and/or consolidation, ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) to MRP, CRM (Customer Relationship Management) to CMS (Content Management System) makes a little difference. The solution must be compatible with most migration and/or consolidation efforts. The solution must increase supply chain resilience, flexibility, visibility, and control by increasing velocity and improving the ability to respond to gaps or disruption with confidential alerting and insight. The market will seek out a complete solution, sometimes by trial and error, working their way through several solutions over the years, and will seek a solution with extensive B2B API & EDI capabilities that put them in control of their multi-enterprise supply chain business networks. The key to selection is ensuring that the business can continue supporting the existing business while integrating new relationships with multi-enterprise business process enablement and intelligent planning & forecasting.  

The platform selected will use intelligent workflows that provide a robust and cohesive experience and help mitigate supply chain challenges by helping simulate the impact of internal and external drivers, then identify the next best action and help clients adjust the business plan accordingly. The selected platform will support enterprise users by coordinating business processes across multiple enterprises, environments, and solutions already in place.    

The most highly desired platform solutions to bring supply chain resilience will be highly scalable cloud-native multi-tenant multi-geography B2B API & EDI hyper-scalable high-performance SaaS (Software as a Service) platforms that integrate natively with client and partner ecosystems and e-commerce channels for meeting B2B API & EDI challenges. The most highly desired solutions will allow its clients to transform and extend their organization’s supply chain, customer, and partner ecosystem while unifying channels, boosting loyalty, accelerating and advancing collaboration, and turning acquisitions into assets.  

In short, multi-enterprise supply chain business network is essential to create supply chain resilience and connected supply chain ecosystem that can adapt to conditions in flux while continuing to meet customer demand by breaking down traditional silos. PartnerLinQ is committed to ensuring enterprise clients have the tools necessary to embrace collaboration and build supply chain resilience. Contact PartnerLinQ’s supply chain experts and explore how to transform your supply chain ecosystem to be more collaborative and agile.