EDI ordering system

Keeping clear and efficient communication channels with your trading network is always important. But with supply chain issues affecting many business sectors due to the ongoing ripple effects of both Brexit and the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s more vital than ever.

When it comes to sharing and processing business documents, an automated EDI ordering system is the recommended solution for helping to keep trade moving. Let’s consider the benefits of an EDI ordering system and how you can get started with one that’s right for you.

An evolving solution

Standing for Electronic Data Interchange, EDI is a software solution that enables you to share essential documentation with your trading partners. In previous years, EDI tended to be used mainly for orders, invoices and ASNs (Advance Shipping Notices) but increasingly other message types, such as sales reports, have begun to be supported too. That’s a real help if you are looking to capture and analyse data to review how your sales activity is going, what impact your marketing spend is having and, if you are a manufacturer with multiple routes to market, the comparative value and ROI your various distribution and retail partners are bringing you.

Keeping it simple

You may be a start up, say a niche food manufacturer with a single contract agreed with a large retailer putting through rapid orders. Or perhaps you are an established, mid-size online retailer with a long list of suppliers and a need to reconcile warehouse stock held in different locations to orders, ASNs and invoices.

Either way, you have a need to process and communicate important business information with your trading partners. This is what an EDI ordering system does for you. And the better the system, the faster, cheaper and more accurately it will work.

Crucially, you want to keep things simple. You just don’t have time to go under the bonnet of a new IT system. Instead, you will want your provider to do all the heavy lifting on your behalf so you can get on with what you do best.

In a nutshell, an EDI ordering system automatically maps the required data output from the source file into the relevant EDI format for you.

As soon as it is up and running, you and your partner or partners can be trading electronically secure in the knowledge that you have a robust, agile, scalable and high-performance platform supporting you.

Managed services

Transalis eDI™ is an online platform harnessing Software as a Service (SaaS) from digital supply chain technology provider Transalis. The platform offers managed services under which Transalis performs all day-to-day EDI operations on your behalf so you can exchange essential messages with your trading network.

Whether you type or input individual orders manually, or do a bulk upload, Transalis eDI™ uses ‘narrow AI’ technology to ensure everything is processed correctly and without error.

As well as speeding up the process of placing orders, using Transalis eDI™ as your EDI ordering system can reduce errors as it is possible to use product catalogues to reference the input information and where an error is spotted, reject the order before it is sent.

Choice of products

Transalis EDI software is offered in bundled solutions suited to differing business needs and supply chain complexities, from SMEs to international corporations. Transalis eDI™ is transparently priced, offers complete order data visibility, and increases business efficiency.

Web EDI

If you are just starting on the EDI journey, Web EDI is an ideal solution. It is aimed at SME manufacturers and producers who are new to EDI or have been mandated to connect to a retail partner’s system.

Web EDI is part of a suite of Transalis products for automating EDI. All of them give you certainty on budget through a transparent, fixed-price annual subscription model which, in the case of Web EDI, stays the same regardless of the data volumes being sent, with the price available on request.

Integrated EDI

Integrated EDI connects your own ERP, accounting or warehouse system to your trading partners, so orders and invoices flow automatically. It suits manufacturers building their trading network who need to demonstrate compliance to win and service contracts. Integrated EDI is priced on request.

Enterprise EDI

Companies with more expansive trading networks may prefer Enterprise EDI to benefit from a fully managed EDI platform with a wider selection of features, message formats and integrations for your business. An annual subscription for Enterprise EDI is priced on request.