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June 18, 2018

Why is Convectional EDI Bad?


Automated Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is not just a framework for the exchange of business documents. It is a continuous process which enables the automated electronic exchange of documents between business partners. It is a mission-critical capability for exchanging business documents and delivering services. It eliminates cumbersome errors and increases efficiency. Business partners get advantages like faster communication, error-free orders, and minimized cost with an EDI solution.


Automated EDI is the right solution for dealing with the increase in business partners and subsidiaries. This solution enables enterprises to process documents in given specific formats and standards. Enterprises still using conventional methods for sharing documents can stay behind in the race. Whereas, Companies with advanced EDI systems are successfully reducing the operational cost, and driving revenues forward. In this blog, we will discuss some major pitfalls of conventional EDI platforms.

Manual data interchange and related problems

In archaic data interchange processes, the onboarding testing package is communicated via mail. The supplier then tests each document against specifications and asks for changes wherever required. This process is repeated several times until all documents are verified.

Conventional EDI operations are bottlenecks for Business to Business (B2B) operations.

IT teams spend four to five months for building integrations and onboarding flows. The services are delayed until the time IT builds flows for these integrations. The teams don’t have a single interface and they set up multiple sources of truth while building flows. Teams develop a complex web of spaghetti coding where just changing one code ultimately changes the behavior of another code. Users cannot integrate their systems easily with big box suppliers.


Conventional EDI has become yesterdays’ technology. Orders are hard to track with this approach. It causes a backlog of orders and results. The right solution to meet speed up data interchange is Web-Based Electronic Data Interchange. It slows down the speed of B2B operations. Many enterprises don’t have the ability to scale their services horizontally or vertically.

To build integration flows, enterprises need to hire skilled JAVA developers, third-party consultants, or integration experts. Integration costs explode when organizations spend a huge amount of money in hiring these resources. More databases need to be purchased for supporting the data interchange operations.

Because of frequent network breakdowns, enterprises also risk spoiling relations with their partners. The workflows get disrupted when developers change something without knowing what impact it will cause. There is lack of a unified interface to manage and govern sum total of integrations. Frequent breakdowns disrupt business operations and profitability. All these factors increase the cost overheads substantially. 

Conventional EDI methodologies are ripe with debilitating errors like syntax mistakes, invalid invoices, data inconsistencies, payment problems, etc. IT teams invest a huge amount of time in fixing these errors which impact their ability to onboard customer data successfully. Costly errors disrupt the entire supply chain process.

There is also lack of triggers for monitoring the supply chain flows. IT teams set up independent projects or interface for every connection. Managing these interfaces becomes an uphill task for the teams.

All these problems can be circumvented with an automated EDI approach. Teams can build integrations faster which are thrice as strong as point-to-point integrations. It provides robust support to EDI operations and bolsters B2B operations.

Description

Conventional EDI approach has become a yesterday’s approach for Business to Business (B2B) operations. It is not ideal for modern-day B2B operations. Some of its pitfalls have been discussed in this blog.

Author Bio: My name is John Scutz and I am a technology enthusiast at Adeptia Inc. As an active participant in the IT industry, I often like to talk about data, integration, and how technology is helping businesses realize their potential.



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