Tag: edi
Electronic Data Interchange Standards

Electronic Data Interchange Standards

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It is a known fact that the electronic data interchange (EDI) has existed for over 30 years, but many companies have not yet taken advantage of its diverse benefits.

The presence or absence of appropriate EDI standards will be instrumental in determining your success or failure in electronic data interchange transactions. ANSI X12 is the most commonly accepted EDI standard in North America. EDIFACT has been adopted in rest of the other locations.

EDI compliance can be fulfilled by either outsourcing or buying the required components that typically include the following:

Communication software

VAN services

Mail-boxing

Translation and mapping software

Mapping labor

Software upgrades as needed

Ongoing testing with EDI partners

Specific electronic data interchange standards exist for a variety of unique documents that are required for EDI transactions. If you are in doubt, then it would be quite helpful if you can manage to work with an expert EDI outsourcing partner in order to ensure full compliance.

When you are ready to adopt EDI as a tool for operating your business more cost-effectively, here are three of the most viable business process candidates to consider first for EDI implementation:

Shipping and receiving

Invoicing and payment

Procurement

The most logical choice among these three will depend on your immediate requirements.
The basic concepts of EDI

The basic concepts of EDI

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EDI, an acronym for Electronic Data Interchange is about communicating with partners and vendors electronically. When people talk about paperless trading, they are referring to EDI. Placing and receiving the order, financial transactions are examples of EDI.

The actual definition of EDI is the interchange of structured data according to agreed message standards between computer systems, by electronic means. This means that regardless of the type of transaction, be it an order or an invoice, the structure of the data remains the same. This allows for seamless communication between multiple partners. This is maintained between different systems by following set standards.

EDI allows for massive reductions in losses due to human error. Different vendors with different systems will require repeated entry of the same data. This repeated entry of the same data is as high as 70%.

In addition to the operational benefits, EDI also enables some strategic benefits for the organization. The first is the flexibility to shift from one business process to another. For example, it becomes easy to shift to JIT for an organization that has implemented EDI. Second is the ability to quickly respond to changes in the market. Previously, any changes in orders would take days or even weeks. Now, if the order has not been fulfilled, a change can be requested within minutes.

For organizations involved with multiple trading partners, EDI is the only way to go. It presents a fast and secure method of processing transactions that make it well worth the time and cost of implementation.

Web Based EDI Can Make All the Difference

Web Based EDI Can Make All the Difference

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Every company could use some more help when it comes to taking the competitive edge. But that doesn’t mean that what you need is one more software program—unless, of course, you’re considering web based EDI.

EDI stands for Electronic Data Interchange and it has helped many companies, including Wal-Mart, beat out all their competitors. Did it help them offer another service? No, actually, it helped them take advantage of the services they already had.

If you speak to the folks at Act Data Services, Inc. 1-800-ACT-DATA, they can help you better understand it. But, basically, EDI helps all yours programs and software speak to one another harmoniously. By doing so, you can better use them in concert toward your stated goal.

Without EDI, you’re leaving a lot of this in the hands of staff and hoping human error doesn’t intervene. Depending on the size of your company, there could be a lot of moving parts at play, so it would be essential that you always have people trained in who can monitor it all.

But EDI provides one centralized location for everything. The best versions have amazing interfaces that make it easy for your staff to compose the solution you currently need for any challenge.