Benefits of a fully managed EDI solution for businesses in the post-COVID-19 era

Aligning with the current economic change is inevitable as well as challenging for businesses to maintain. Companies have pressure to adopt technology and enhance their IT infrastructure to improve efficiency, productivity, and accuracy.

There is no doubt that technology saves time and effort by automating manual processes. Additionally, companies can save a lot of money that either way is spent for processing data, identifying errors within the system, real-time reporting for strategic decision-making, and providing reliable product and service delivery.

In this article, we will be talking about one such technology that is essential for B2B processes and swift document exchanges – EDI solutions. Moreover, we will also discuss why you need a fully managed EDI after the pandemic.

EDI to Drive Digital Transformation

Technology and innovations go hand in hand. Organizations who are constantly trying to streamline with the constant change must realize the impact of the technology on their business, partners, customers, and employees.

A survey by Deloitte in 2020 on digital transformation showed that the companies that are further along with digital transformation are more likely to perform better financially. They are more likely to improve profit margins, customer loyalty, product quality, and employee satisfaction.

The further study explains that companies with better digital maturity saw enhanced employees and customer engagement.

Certainly, digital transformations aim to simplify as well as make tasks cheaper and faster, allowing the companies to put their focus on critical operations, innovation, and growth.

The digitally transformed organization impacts all areas of business by better positioning it for managing inventory, order shipment challenges, and more all cost-effectively.

How EDI Can Help With Digital Transformation?

Many have viewed EDI as a burden while it has helped many with the tangible benefits. Integrating EDI services allow companies to grow their business with –

Accuracy – The data transmitted through EDI is not manual but rather computerized which does not demand human intervention. With manual and redundant data eliminated, EDI can help you streamline the entire process ranging from internal integration to building stronger relationships with traders.

Efficiency – The electronic data interchange method is far faster than any manual information transmission. Companies can be more efficient by preventing manual work while streamlining the workflows. Additionally, EDI can automatically convert incoming data into actionable items without the need for much human interaction with the system, saving a lot of time.

Visibility – Companies can seamlessly share essential information with their supply chain traders hassle-free. With insights into product sales, inventory status, component/parts, demand forecast, and more of the products, companies can improve their visibility allowing suppliers to plan and respond to changes. Additionally, they can also prepare themselves for larger orders and better their moderate inventory levels.

Security – One of the major benefits of business transformation digitally is to enhance security. EDI has evolved with time, even in terms of security, with requisite data encryption and communication protocols. HIPAA is one of the examples that enforced security protocols and measures to ensure 100% security of the widespread healthcare system.

Cost-effective – EDI reduces human interaction by automating the information flow, saving costs, such as printing and paper costs, data entry errors, inventory and carrying costs, risk of penalties or chargebacks, and other overhead costs associated with manual documentation.

Actionable Management Information – Shipments, claims, loan applications, inventory status, and others are among a few business functions that help companies keep track of through EDI integration. Moreover, with EDI, companies can mine specific functions, assess for trends, errors, or redundancies, and compile for manipulation and analysis to provide actionable information that can guide management decisions.

Regardless of EDI benefits, many companies still step back from integrating EDI software within their systems. There are a few reasons behind this diffidence, which we have mentioned below.

Limitations With EDI Solution

A few limitations with EDI to be highlighted are –

Implementation Costs

Companies who are not aware of EDI implementation might undergo massive costs for redesigning and implementing software that syncs or is the best fit with EDI.

Preliminary Setups

EDI implementation is usually expensive and carried out by large enterprises. However, it also consumes a lot of time for setting up essential parts. This can certainly hinder the tracking of urgently required events or activities.

Standards Maintenance

EDI consists of numerous standards that industries follow. Hence different trading partners follow different standards as per their requirements. Small companies may find it difficult to integrate EDI with all kinds of standards to exchange data/documents, such as ANSI X12, TRADACOM, GS1 EDI, HL7, and EDIFACT.

Substantial Backup

To avoid any mishap or data loss, companies must keep backup for statistical purposes. Without relevant backup systems, companies can land up with huge financial and reputation losses, and to avoid it, regular maintenance is highly recommended.

In order to deter these limitations and integrate EDI for the scalability of the business, perfect implementation is requisite. Further in this article, we will understand the reasons for you to opt for a fully managed EDI services for its implementation, as well as measures for long-term scalability.

Implementing EDI with Managed Solution

With perfect EDI solutions integrated, companies do not require excessive manpower to run them. A fully managed EDI solution can be trusted for the crucial and timely exchange of the correct documents. Below are strong reasons to convince you about relying on a managed solution for EDI.

Focus On Business

When you do not employ a fully managed solution, you become highly reliable on your internal IT teams for data translation, changing standards, and new developments. Your team must also be proficient in spanning advanced technologies, protocols, and standards to meet business needs. If your internal team is not expert enough to handle these activities, you might end up facing losses.

Instead of relying on the team, rely on a fully managed solution. They will flawlessly translate, scan and implement changes and route the data as needed while aligning accurately with new development.

Complete Transparency

Every business demands insights into their everyday activity to keep track of their progress. A fully managed EDI system acts as a centralized connection hub for businesses as well as partners, delivering a complete view of the integrated flows.

Instead of employing an internal team, the managed system can handle as much as the amount of data needed to exchange, inclusive of its level of complexity. Systems can be strengthened by adding APIs and relevant technologies that can help in taking fast and balanced decisions.

Requisite Scalability

Internal IT resources are usually assigned to manage critical tasks and plan for continuous growth. Regardless of proper planning, companies face sudden disruptions they haven’t planned for.

With the help of a managed solution, companies would no longer need to experience bottlenecks or outages. A powerful platform will scale up and down while following the size and needs of the business without much human intervention. So, the companies will have no strain on their internal back-end or legacy solutions that may struggle with every new format and protocol.

Unlimited Agility and Flexibility

In order to scale, businesses have to adopt and implement new opportunities. Unfortunately, not all companies are able to fulfill the needs that come along with new connections or opportunities resulting in a complex and time-consuming implementation.

A fully managed EDI solution can align with the needs of the new opportunities much faster. The system is proficient enough to work on scenarios regardless of document format, business flow, or others.

No more IT teams needed, no more budget evaluation, no more identifying the current strength of infrastructure or persuading trading partners to stay interested. All you need is one EDI solution to get going for monitoring and maintaining the end-to-end business-related activities without operational impact.

In a Nutshell –

As a business person, you have all the reasons to implement robust EDI managed services. Post-Covid, it has become requisite that businesses should drive their decisions for technology so that in-house systems and legacy solutions do not hold you back and restrict you from reacting to new opportunities.

Not just managed EDI system, for a fruitful implementation, there are a few factors that must be watched, such as –