To get started with EDI, you need to do some preparatory work and consider key factors:
Define Your Needs
The initial step is to define the types of EDI documents you need to exchange and understand the requirements of your trading partners.
Choose an EDI Provider
Do some research to find an EDI provider that matches the needs of your business.
If you would like to know more about EDI, and what you should look for when choosing the best EDI provider for your business, you can read our EDI Buyer’s Guide here: https://www.truecommerce.com/uk-en/resource/edi-buyers-guide/
Integrate With Your Systems
Determine which systems you would like to integrate with, such as your ERP system, accounting system, and/or 3PL warehouse.
Set up Trading Partner Connections
Connect your systems with your trading partners’ systems, such as your customers and suppliers, 3PL.
Conduct Testing
After integration with your trading partners, testing is conducted to ensure that the data flow runs smoothly and accurately.
Implementing EDI helps companies become more efficient by eliminating the need to print purchase orders, reducing manual work in receipting stock, and decreasing invoice matching errors. This streamlines operations and saves valuable time. One customer explained their experience:
“Our merchandising team is more efficient as they no longer need to print purchase orders, less time is spent receipting stock in our distribution centre and we’ve seen a reduction in the number of invoice matching errors.” – Jim Pears, Ecommerce Systems Manager, Feelunique.