What is EDI?

Electronic Data Interchange

EDI is the traditional way computers have exchanged standardised business documents electronically for decades. EDI software eliminates the need for human intervention between companies choosing to exchange documents and data electronically, rather than with paper. This reduces human error and increases speed of communication. The parties exchanging data electronically are called Trading Partners.

Why is EDI important?

Standardisation across a digital supply chain ensures all trading partners benefit from easily understood, digitised information.

• Minimises errors
• Maximises efficiency
• Reduces delivery time
• Speeds-up invoice payments

How it works

Without EDI:

• Orders raised manually
• printed Paper orders sent by fax
• post or email Orders re-keyed into Customers’ systems 
• Invoices raised manually
• printed Paper invoices sent by fax, post or email

With EDI:

• Orders raised automatically, digitally 
• Orders sent/received digitally in seconds 
• Orders received digitally into Customers’ systems 
• Invoices raised automatically, digitally 
• Invoices received digitally into Suppliers’ systems

The process is: real-time, secure and seamless

EDI improves so many processes

Orders:

• External/internal orders 
• Responses 
• Changes 
• Cancellations

Invoicing

• Invoices 
• Debit notes/ credit notes 
• Tax summaries 
• Remittances

Master data

• Price lists 
• 3rd Party information 
• Product data 
• Catalogues

Shipping

• External/internal shipping notes 
• Receipt advices 
• Instruction to despatchers 
• 3PLTransport instructions

Planning

• Inventories 
• Sales data 
• Forecast data 
• Vendor Managed Inventory

As well as

• Quotes 
• Business Intelligence 
• Returns instruction 
• HMRC RTI Payroll

Benefits of EDI

• UK grocers save £650m a year through the use of EDI* A further £200m could be saved by adopting despatch advices notes*
• EDI saves businesses at least £14 per order and £8.50 per invoice* Adopting EDI despatch advices saves a further £12 per despatch advice
• The Danish government saves the equivalent of 2,000 man-hours per year* E-invoicing cuts 10 mins of time per invoice, saving UK retailers £100m a year*
• Paper-based manual trading processes are costly, inefficient and not sustainable.
• Up to 5% of data on a typical paper invoice is inaccurate*

Getting started

Powered by OpenEDI™, Tranalis EDI is the next generation cloud EDI solution. Transalis EDI allows the exchange of business documents, including structured and unstructured data, digitally across multiple devices. Using our secure, agile, cross platform Digital Delivery Network – Transalis DDNetwork™. 

Contact Transalis for a no obligation free process review and you could be trading electronically within days.

* (GS1 UK)