Whether a business partner is suggesting EDI, or you want to start an EDI project based on your digitization agenda, it is important to develop a clear strategy around EDI, to make the right partner and solution choices. If you lack a long-term strategy, you will start to build the wrong foundation for the future, often leading to expensive and tricky migration projects. Here is a take on the 5 key topics to consider when making an EDI strategy for the future.
Insourcing vs. Outsourcing
In the past decade, it has been a clear trend that most companies are aiming for EDI outsourcing. Especially those companies that have had a more re-active EDI strategy when it comes to business partner activations have seen that the need for specific EDI-related knowledge and capacity heavily fluctuates due to the ad hoc nature, which makes it difficult to reach the necessary focus and productivity level within the internal IT-team. Also, the lack of best practices and uniformities around such integrations done by several team members is a challenge, leading to complexities during the operational phase when maintenance and problem-solving activities need to be executed under pressure since business-critical processes are at risk.
Companies with a more active EDI strategy, who truly believe in the necessity and strategic advantage of EDI could see this differently. They might have organized themselves in the appropriate way to develop a strong digitization pace and not have to depend on a partner to deliver these integrations. We also assess how migrations of an installed base of years of integration work can be transferred to more future-proof and cost-effective environments.
SAAS vs. On-Premise
Also here, we hardly encounter companies that still wish to have an EDI solution deployed on their IT infrastructure. Companies that still pursue this direction are mainly driven by a low-cost strategy, often inherited from the past. The step towards a new and more future-proof solution will make it the ideal moment to consider the real benefits of using state-of-the-art infrastructure with flexible global data storage & retention options, global interoperability meaning that you get instant access to a large variety of EDI platforms, Value Added Networks (VAN), and other important data hubs. Advanced data security and compliance measures are also more difficult to implement locally.
At Quyntess, we only offer SAAS-based solutions but are interested in understanding your thinking around On-Premise preferences, and might still meet your standards through a more tailored proposition like a separate and dedicated SAAS environment or considering a more demanding SLA regime.
Which communities and processes to prioritize?
Of course, making up your mind about the scope of your EDI project is crucial too. We typically see more investment and priority going into the 'order-to-cash' process, with integrations to key logistics service providers and suppliers lagging behind. Also, sub-contractors, if applicable, is a group that is often neglected or is integrated in a way that might be too simplistic.
In the end, all business partners with significant transaction volumes and consequently importance should be your EDI targets. We do advise focusing on one business partner group and one process set at a time, since you will be able to leverage your efforts in a better way, also leading to better ROI. Make sure you have your basic processes well covered before you move into more advanced or exotic ones.
EDI, Web-EDI or both?
We strongly advise you to consider both! And ideally find a partner that can offer both as one integrated solution, as you will encounter a lot of providers where these are separate worlds. At Quyntess, we do offer such a modern concept of 'hybrid EDI'.
The benefits of hybrid EDI are multiple:
- It allows you to reach much higher levels of digital in your end-to-end supply chain. On your end, it will look like you have everyone connected via EDI, although your business partners have the choice between classic EDI and web-EDI, or a combination of both.
- It helps you to improve the exception management on classic EDI transactions, through web-based collaboration and alignment, and in this way avoid unstructured data exchange through email and phone call channels, without any audit trail of how these exceptions have been handled.
- It allows you to develop a much higher pace in transitioning to a more digital and professional way of communicating and collaborating with your external business partners, and to measure their performance and compliance because of the highly digital and data-driven character of your supply chain. Quyntess can help to make a realistic plan for phasing and timing advice.
How to make a business case?
This is not an easy thing to do, and the complexity heavily depends on the scope, your current way of working, how easily you can collect precise information and the realistic timings that are associated with the transition. We can help you to get on the right track.
