Managing routes to market: why you need an EDI platform

EDI, or Electronic Data Interchange, is an established and trusted business approach that ensures trading partners and their supply chains run efficiently. Manufacturers, suppliers and retailers keen to grow market share all need strong, symbiotic trading relationships with eachother. With all parties in the supply chain sharing access to an EDI platform the typical time and costs associated with the management of order document exchange are significantly reduced.

A key reason for this is the automation of previously manual processes.

If you or your partners still rely on paper, email attachments or PDFs to communicate order information, the only way to accommodate this is for staff to manually process the documents and duplicate the information into their internal systems. The downsides are obvious: time consuming processes, avoidable cost on the bottom line, and the risk of human error leading to mistakes that have to be rectified later on.

The bigger the trading network, the more communication is required between the partners, whether the relationship is between manufacturer and wholesaler, distributor and retailer, or any other configuration.

Instead, supporting a trading network with an EDI platform and automated processing means that orders, invoices, delivery notes and other essential documentation can be shared in respective IT systems easily, quickly and accurately.

By automating document processing and exchange, an EDI platform can help to deliver long-term cost savings, reduce the administrative burden on in-house teams, free people up to focus on higher-value tasks and projects, as well as support overall competitive advantage through greater efficiency. EDI can also enhance your relationships with trading partners, especially if they are already using EDI themselves.

One toy manufacturer seeking to grow European market share recently asked for help to onboard retail partners to its EDI platform at speed so they can order stock.

Onboarding of new customers was seen as central to developing robust sales growth.

The company approached digital supply chain technology provider, Transalis, who recommended the client provide all new retailers with access to the Transalis eDI™ online platform.

The Transalis eDI™ platform gave trading partners of the toy manufacturer a simple, effective and immediate way to place stock orders, receive invoices and ASNs. And Set-up time for onboarding was reduced from an industry average of several weeks to just 24 hours.

A second phase of the onboarding strategy involved scoping high-order frequency.

Here, the toy manufacturer sought to identify its most valuable customers and recruit them for the roll-out of an EDI connection, thus optimising the ordering process further.

While the Transalis eDI™ platform provided new retailers with the access to order stock, Transalis also implemented a complementary ‘narrow AI’ solution, which routes orders to the correct warehouse.

This functionality has mitigated the need for shipping orders cross-border, reduced time and paperwork and addressed any concerns retailers have about potential Brexit impacts.

Here at Transalis, we have accommodated all the company’s requirements for the implementation and operation of the EDI platform, while making EDI simple to use and ensuring transparent pricing.

Read the full case study: Toy Manufacturer Leverages EDI to Enable Frictionless Growth

All our Transalis eDI™ product bundles are available on transparent, fixed-price deals that deliver substantial savings and support cost-effective partner connections.

We offer a series of bundled products depending on your need. Take eDI Instant for example, which takes away the stress typically associated with procuring a complex IT solution.

This self-service EDI solution is suitable for smaller businesses who are new to EDI and/or have a contract with a big retail brand that mandates EDI connections with its suppliers. For these businesses there is a need to demonstrate compliance to win and maintain contracts with large retailers. As opposed to the typically long onboarding and set-up times with other providers, eDI Instant can be set up in as little as 24 hours, helping to save time and minimise payment delays.

And while eDI Instant is designed as an online self-service solution, users still have access to help from Transalis through its dedicated customer experience and technical support teams.

Transalis believes eDI Instant is the first solution of its kind to offer online self-service sign-up with immediate access to a cloud-based EDI platform.

By using it to onboard new partners far more quickly, SMEs can achieve greater cost-efficiency and effectiveness in their document exchange.

Like all Transalis EDI™ and Transalis eInvoice™ products, eDI Instant is a fixed-cost solution with completely transparent pricing and built-in flexibility.

You can even offer your partners a white labelled version of eDI Instant. Here, the new trading partner can be directed to a branded site where they can sign up and are automatically connected to your EDI network. It’s as easy as 1,2,3.

If you need to make change happen and want the peace of mind of an EDI software process you can rely on, choose eDI Instant.