The future of EDI is now

Now there’s more information

There is now a richer offering of document types, message formats and ways of exchanging these messages than ever before and this is bringing with it significant benefits on both sides of the trading relationship in equal measure.

The single document type has typically just been the Invoice message, but this is now being joined by Orders, Acknowledgments, Shipments and Receipt documents and the impact that these additional messages are having on improving the supply chain is quite staggering. This enhanced information flow is now providing full visibility at every stage of the order lifecycle. At any point in the supply chain, both sides of the trading relationship know the exact status of the order, they know when it’s been accepted, delivered, booked in and paid for, updating systems in real-time and available through collaborative web portals sharing a common view.

The single message format has been long viewed as outdated and is now frequently being replaced by newer more flexible formats such as EDIFACT and XML, and standards for these formats are starting to be formed, as being driven by GS1 UK.

Now it’s at a lower cost

The old expensive VAN mailboxes for batched sending of the messages are now being replaced by internet based protocols for the exchange of data in real-time and at very low cost and all done in the cloud by new innovative and responsive providers such as EDI PLUS.

Now it’s in real-time

And it’s this new breed of provider that is driving much of the change. No longer is EDI just an enforced way of trading, dialling up to send and receive data via batch process at fixed intervals throughout the working day. Now as events happen data is exchanged and turned into essential real-time information which is empowering the supply chain and trading relationships like never before.

EDI is no longer just the method for sending an invoice to accounts, it is now an integral part of the entire supply chain and essential for today’s businesses to gain real competitive advantage.

The benefits of this new way of working are too great to be ignored.

Adopt the future now.

Contact us today and we’ll show you how.