In today’s world of shipping and logistics, it is imperative for businesses to employ the right set of software tools to manage their logistics and distribution related activities, so that they can achieve high productivity and improved customer experience. Electronic Data Interface (EDI) is the most popular form of data exchanges in the supply chain industry due to its ability to switch businesses from traditional ways of working to a streamlined way.
In a recent survey, EDI accounted for more than 72% of B2B data exchanges in 2021 alone, making it the most popular method for B2B transactions in the supply chain industry. So, why is EDI becoming so popular, and how can it benefit your business?
Let’s look into some of the most compelling benefits that EDI delivers to your supply chain
1. Streamlined Communication
Legacy processes can cause jerks along the transactional path, leading to more human errors and communication obstacles. EDI makes all your interactions with other businesses effortless and easeful by making document transfer simple, instant, and error-free, thereby improving operational efficiency and customer experience.
2. Accurate Shipments and Fewer Errors
The more data entry steps in a process, the more human errors there would be. Since EDI eliminates the need for re-entering data, it automatically reduces errors and allows you to produce highly accurate shipments, thereby improving your vendor scorecard and making you an attractive trading partner.
3. Flexible Order Volume
With purchase orders and invoices highly streamlined with EDI, you can scale orders as per your need without sacrificing your company’s reputation as a fast and reliable partner. By reducing customer pain points like incorrect orders, delays, and returns, along with tracking inventory movement, and providing order statuses, EDI gives your staff more time to build relationships with customers.
4. Payments
Not only documents but even payments can be done digitally through EDI, as it supports most of the payment gateways like PayPal, Google Pay, etc. Also, credit card and debit card payment systems of respective banks are getting integrated with EDI software.
5. Power of Analytics
Speed, agility, and scalability are probably the key factors for the success of any business. EDI solutions will constantly update you with emerging cloud computing technologies. Unlike on-premise servers, cloud-based EDI gives you infinite scalability and access to real-time updates to keep up with the constantly shifting B2B demands.
6. Cost and Time Saving
Typical repetitive tasks that apply to the processing of paper documents such as printing, copying, filing, storage, and postage, etc., result in much higher costs, that can be eliminated when you upgrade to an EDI solution
7. Greater Accuracy
When humans enter data or handle documents, the risk of errors entering the equation increases exponentially. Since all the information is exchanged electronically, EDI eliminates those risks, which means the results are accurate and ensure faster confirmation.
Getting Started with EDI
EDI offers many benefits for your business and gives you the capability to extend your company’s reach to a broader network of trading partners. When considering EDI for the first time, it’s important you choose the right provider who can help you get started and scale up as your business grows.
