EDI and Digitalization: A Key Business Strategy for A. Espersen

A. Espersen is a world leader in the production of fish products, which they supply to McDonald’s throughout Europe. Espersen was founded on Bornholm in 1937. Today A. Espersen employs approximately 3,000 people in their production in Denmark, Lithuania, Vietnam and Poland, where their largest factory is located, as well as in offices in Denmark, the UK, France, Germany and Sweden.

A. Espersen has a turnover of approximately DKK 2.7 billion a year, and no less than 70 thousand tons of fish are processed at their factories every year. The company has Infor M3 as its ERP system, where it has integrated TrueCommerce’s EDI solution. A. Espersen exchanges approximately 1,200 EDI documents per month (including orders, invoices and transport documents) with their 24 trading partners, which include both suppliers and customers in more than eight different countries. A business of this magnitude requires an efficient and scalable process for commerce.

The rising inflation and increased energy prices can be particularly felt by large manufacturing companies with multiple factories and significant exports. This development in the market is one of the reasons why A. Espersen chose to make EDI part of their future business strategy.

Data Is the Key to Success

As the first important step in the EDI strategy, A. Espersen has had to clarify which challenges they wanted EDI to solve for them, as well as what data they wanted to exchange. René Nielsen points out: “You have to remember that you are not just exchanging some data in tables and fields – in the end, it is about physical goods that need to be moved from one place to another. So it is critical that the data is in order.”

It is therefore essential to comprehend the complexity of the data to be exchanged, as well as the consequences that erroneous data can have, such as missing or incorrect deliveries. Therefore, a significant portion of the preparation for EDI implementation has consisted of securing and defining the necessary data. Once this work is in place, significant gains can be made in EDI. René Nielsen says, “When EDI works, we don’t spend any time on it. We can see that monitoring takes up less space in our IT department, we have eliminated a lot of manual work, and the data quality has increased.”

The Value of Outsourcing

A. Espersen has chosen to outsource their EDI to TrueCommerce, as they do not see EDI as a core area for their internal IT department. “We have chosen TrueCommerce as our strategic partner to help us on this journey. We have a really good collaboration with TrueCommerce, and they have been very flexible,” says René Nielsen.

By outsourcing its EDI, A. Espersen frees up time for their employees to focus on other priorities in the company.

The company’s top priority is to streamline its business and ultimately improve both the top and bottom lines. To achieve this, a business must strengthen the relationship with its customers and suppliers, and this is exactly where EDI plays an important role. René Nielsen, for example, points to how EDI has improved their customer service.

A. Espersen chose to document their processes and clarify their need for data, and this exercise has given them a better understanding of what the purpose of EDI is for their particular business. In this way, it will also be easier to train new employees or set up new customers if everyone in the organization is familiar with the same processes.

In a company, there can be many different internal roles and departments that are affected in one way or another by EDI. René Nielsen points out that the organization calmed down and that the projects became much more streamlined as soon as the roles and responsibilities were clearly defined and the EDI connection was set up.