Onboarding your suppliers to EDI is an exciting time, but it can be challenging, particularly when it comes to EDI message testing. If you’ve undertaken an onboarding exercise before, you’ll know that suppliers rarely get it right the first time around. Testing EDI messages often involves lots of effort from your team to process messages and communicate back to the supplier after each test. We’ve onboarded thousands of companies to EDI and our team have seen first-hand how resource-intensive it is. The good news is we now have a message compliance testing (MCT) tool. It simplifies the testing and compliance process to get you up and running with your suppliers faster. Your team will never have to let a supplier know that they’ve missed out a field again. Just think of the time and cost it could save!

What is message compliance testing (MCT)?

MCT is a service that allows companies onboarding to EDI to test their messages automatically before moving to a production EDI environment. It helps your suppliers to start trading via EDI as efficiently and effectively as possible.

How does it work?

Traditional EDI testing is a manual and resource-intensive exercise. Whether you do it yourself or outsource it, it usually involves sending suppliers all your EDI documentation (like your MIGs) and then testing each message type with each supplier to ensure they adhere to your requirements. This involves a lot of back-and-forth communication which is time consuming for everyone.

Define and setup your process

Our MCT tool lets you define a step-by-step process for your trading partners to test against your EDI requirements. The tool can replicate the different day to day business scenarios that you experience in your supply chain and then replicate them in your testing. For example, this could be:

• Receive a purchase order
• Send back a corresponding purchase order response accepting the order in full
• Send back a corresponding purchase order response rejecting the order in full
• Send back a corresponding purchase order response with a different quantity for one line
• Send back a corresponding despatch advice
• Send back a corresponding invoice

The syntax and business rules will be setup in the background for your suppliers’ messages to be validated against. For example, if you need the date in a particular format or a POR to include the reduced quantity. The process is designed to meet your business requirements and can be as simple or complex as you need.

Invite your suppliers

Once you’ve invited your suppliers to join, they can start the certification process.

Start the certification

They’ll be taken through your process where they can generate messages that they would receive (like a purchase order) and confirm that it can be processed on their side. Then they’ll be prompted to upload their messages to be validated against your syntax and business rules. Unlike manual EDI testing, our software will identify each error and feed the information back to your supplier in plain English. They can fix up the errors and try again.

Watch suppliers’ progress

Our reporting lets you monitor where each supplier is in the process and will let you know if anything needs actioning on your side.

Move to production with confidence

Once the whole flow is completed, you can move them to production with your mind at ease that their messages, business processes and rules will be compliant.

What are the benefits?

For those onboarding large communities to EDI:

• Reduce costs and less internal resources Automating your testing reduces the need for internal or outsourced resources.
• Easily monitor progress Our dashboards and reports make it easy for you to track the progress of your community.
• Increase testing capacity You’re not limited by how quickly your team can support your partners. All your suppliers can test at once.
• Faster problem resolution Your suppliers can find issues in messages and fix them straight away.
• No additional software required Our MCT service is accessible through a browser, anywhere with internet.
• 24/7 access It’s online and can be accessed at any time.

For those being onboarded to EDI:

• Move to production faster You don’t have to wait for anyone to get back to you with your results – see them on screen as you go. Fix the issues up straight away and try again. Once you’ve completed the testing, you’re ready to move to production.
• Troubleshoot errors straight away Errors are shown quickly once a message is sent – no need for back and forth communication.
• Test whenever it suits you It’s online, so all you need is a browser.

How do you get started?

We’ve made the process as easy as possible.

1. Get in touch with us.
2. We’ll document your messages, workflow and business rules.
3. We’ll go away and configure it.
4. You’re ready to roll it out to your suppliers.

We can configure your setup to any file format (including UN/EDIFACT D01B, UN/EDIFACT D96A, ANSI ASC X12, cXML, GS1 EDI and more) and business rules; it’s completely customisable. Click here to find out more. Or if you’re interested in learning more about our MCT tool, request a call back from one of our team.

Getting buy in to your EDI project from others in your business can be a challenge. But it’s a crucial step. Having the buy in from others will give you have support along the way and help make your EDI implementation smoother. We have extensive experience in helping businesses achieve success with their EDI projects. As a result, we’ve come up with some things to think about when engaging with various parts of your business to help you get their buy in. When going through the business, show your colleagues that you’re prepared. And remember to show them what’s in it for them.

Management

Often management is the first part of the business you need to get onboard. So, if you haven’t already been asked by management to undertake your EDI project, here are some things to think about:

Building your business case

It can be difficult to know where to start with your business case for EDI. When calculating your cost savings make sure you include: Orders Calculate the cost of sending a purchase order to your supplier.[vc_column_inner width="1/4" css=".vc_custom_1584660745420{padding-right: 0px !important;}"]

(time it takes to put together email or postage x orders sent x hourly rate)

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+

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printing related costs

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+

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postage costs

The cost of suppliers processing the orders incorrectly.[vc_column_inner width="1/4" css=".vc_custom_1584660745420{padding-right: 0px !important;}"]

number of orders incorrectly processed

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X

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time it takes to rectify the incorrect entries

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X

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hourly rate

Invoices Costs of processing an invoice for payment.[vc_column_inner width="1/4" css=".vc_custom_1584660745420{padding-right: 0px !important;}"]

time it takes to enter invoices into software

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X

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number of invoices

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X

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hourly rate

Costs of fixing incorrect invoice payments.[vc_column_inner width="1/4" css=".vc_custom_1584660745420{padding-right: 0px !important;}"]

Time it takes to fix errors in invoices

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X

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number of invoice payment errors

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X

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hourly rate

Warehouse Costs of updating incorrect data[vc_column_inner width="1/4" css=".vc_custom_1584660745420{padding-right: 0px !important;}"]

Time it takes to update inventory in system

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X

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number of orders with incorrect data

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X

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hourly rate

Once you’ve done that you can use these figures to work out your expected ROI.[vc_column_inner width="1/4" css=".vc_custom_1584660745420{padding-right: 0px !important;}"]

Savings

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÷

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(establishment costs + running costs)

* These calculations are to be used as a guide only

Partner onboarding plan

Getting partners onboard to EDI is critical for the success of any EDI project. Providing a plan to management can often provide assurance to them that ROI will be maximised. Make sure to include how you intend to segment and onboard suppliers. Check out our guide, 10 steps to successful community onboarding.

Information technology (IT)

Your IT team will be one of the impacted groups when you implement EDI. To get their buy in, and to make their lives easier, think about these things:

• Will they need to buy or install any new hardware or software? Some solutions require new hardware or software to be installed. Here at MessageXchange, we don’t require our customers to install any new hardware or software. We simply connect to your existing software.
• Will they need to additional resources to implement EDI? This is dependent on the EDI solution you use. With our technology, your software only needs the ability to import and export messages and exchange them via a secure connection protocol. Check with your IT team whether they can currently do this. If not, what resources will they need?
• Does the provider adhere to your security policy? IT teams are often aware of security risks to your internal systems. Put their mind at ease by showing what measures your EDI provider takes to keep your data secure. MessageXchange is ISO 27001 certified and having developed the software from inception, owns its intellectual property.

Finance

Another area of the business that you need buy in from is the finance department. Costs on the business are a big factor so it’s important to show the savings that will be gained from EDI. Finance teams will also benefit from the use of EDI. It greatly reduces the amount of manual inputting required and can automate a lot of their processes, leading to:

• improved efficiency, allowing staff to work on higher value tasks
• fewer errors: less time and costs to fix mistakes
• reduced costs: no need to printing and archive paper invoices.
• more accurate data for decision making.

Accounts payable

EDI can simplify accounts payables through two- or three-way matching. Rules can be put in place to check the invoice, delivery information and/or purchase order information for accuracy. This saves the accounts payable team time manually looking for documents before approving payments. Some suppliers offer early payment discounts for paying invoices early.

Accounts receivable

An added bonus for your accounts receivables team is reduced payment times. Studies show that EDI can reduce payment times by as much as 20%. This means improved cashflow for your business.

Buying/procurement

One concern for the buying and procurement teams is the impact it may have on their ordering process. EDI uses your existing software to produce and send the purchase orders to your suppliers. Usually the only change to your existing procurement process is that you won’t need to put together PDFs and emails or send purchase orders via post. Plus, through the use of purchase order responses and despatch advices, your teams will have more information at their fingertips like what can be fulfilled and when the order will arrive. And EDI orders can reach your suppliers almost instantly, so you’re more likely to get the stock faster.

Warehouse

Once you’ve implemented EDI, your business operations teams will be able to get the most out of the data received through EDI. Advanced shipping notices (ASNs) or despatch advices will get your warehouse teams delivery information before the goods arrive so they can organise the warehouse crew for receiving goods. This information can then be used to update your inventory levels in your warehouse management systems. The data from EDI can also be used to monitor your suppliers’ performance against KPIs with more accuracy.

Planning

EDI will mean some change for businesses so it’s often best to have a training plan for all departments. This should cover what's being changed in processes, such as:

• how accounts staff will process payments to suppliers?
• how buying teams raise purchase orders?
• how warehouse staff process deliveries?

On top of having a training plan, a contingency plan in place will also improve buy in and trust throughout the business. This assures departments of what to do if, in the unlikely scenario, something goes wrong.

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In the past decade, the retail landscape has seen major changes because of increased competition, new business models emerging, a more integrated supply chain and the increase of online retailing. As the industry continues to evolve, more businesses are getting on board with EDI and realising community enablement is an important factor that needs to be considered. As a result, many retailers, large and small, are starting to look at supplier portals. The first decision that most retailers make is whether to do this in-house or outsource. Building a portal yourself can be costly and time consuming. This is where outsourced supplier portals come in. Some EDI supplier portals support basic EDI documents such as purchase orders (PO), purchase order responses (POR), advance shipping notices (ASN) and invoices (INV). However, supplier collaboration in retail supply chain gets more sophisticated than just exchanging trading forms.

So, what should you look for in a supplier portal?

Supplier enablement and management

The portal should enable all your suppliers and trading partners to get on-board, regardless of their size and technical capability. It should be a place for you to be able to manage the onboarding, offboarding, relationships with your suppliers and more.

No costs imposed on your supply chain

To maximise uptake, your suppliers should bear no cost when joining a supplier portal and trade electronically. In fact, imposing costs is an inhibitor to your suppliers getting on-board your EDI journey.

Advanced technology

This ensures the portal can adapt to new requirements as your business grows and the industry changes.

Continued development

If your portal supplier has a focus on R&D, you can rely on them to keep your business at the forefront of technology. It's likely they'll be introducing new functionality to you regularly.

Security

It should follow the right standards and procedures to handle your sensitive business information.

Customisation

Every business has its own needs, and even your suppliers may have their own needs. A supplier portal should be flexible enough to be customised for your business.

Ability to walk up to EDI integration

Some suppliers may not want to, or be able to implement full EDI integration from day one. Does your supplier portal allow them to start out on a web portal, and walk up to integration when they’re ready?

Bi-directional trade

If you’re in the B2B space, why not consider a portal that can enable you to get EDI efficiency from both your suppliers and your customers?

A central place for all business collaboration

The supplier chain isn’t limited to just procurement messages. Consider these things when looking at a supplier portal:

• Enable trade through the exchange of purchase orders (PO), advance shipping notices (ASN), invoices (INV) and more.
• Allow you and your supplier to maintain real-time product data. This means you will always have up-to-date product data at the time of placing a PO.
• Be a place to source new products and suppliers, to expand your trading network
• Share other business information like MIGs, new store openings and more.

MessageXchange’s complementary service, Colladium, is a central place for all your trading requirements. It enables you to remove the barriers to EDI adoption and collaborate more efficiently with your trading partners. Want to find out more? Check out Colladium here. Or, talk to us today.

The retail industry is in the midst of huge change. There’s an ever-increasing amount of competition from online-only stores, the rising cost of brick and mortar retail space, a bevy of information available for consumers and many shoppers conditioned to find the lowest price. Slow economic growth has forced households to reduce their spending, and retailers are following suit. The flow on effect from this is being seen throughout the whole supply chain, right down to suppliers and manufacturers. With the new financial year approaching, here’s how we predict retailers and suppliers will become even more efficient in 2017 and beyond…

Movement towards the ‘holy grail’ supply chain

While organisations have been using EDI for years, they’ll now start to look to the ‘holy grail’ supply chain. Not only will data flow seamlessly between a company and their goods suppliers, but this information will integrate with other service suppliers like transport and logistics providers. Organisations will try to streamline their business processes as much as possible, so when an order enters an application, everything thereafter follows like clockwork.

Emergence of standards

The Digital Business Council’s eInvoicing standard was released last year, with the network set to go live in the coming months. The initiative presents a common standard, which will reduce the barriers to electronic invoicing for all businesses. With support from Government, this standard is set to grow, just like it has in Europe and South America. We’ll see businesses start to adopt GS1’s transport instruction and response messages to get yet another level of visibility into their supply chain. Organisations will be able to access information from when they ship goods, to when they’re on their fourth, fifth or sixth leg of delivery.

Focus on smaller suppliers

Many organisations have their top trading partners using EDI, but now they’ll start to focus on the others. Very few supply chains use 100% electronic trade, but with new tools like Colladium that address cost the cost of EDI for small suppliers, as well as the issue of cost from supplier churn, companies roll out these solutions to achieve 100% electronic trade.

Integration with more than just suppliers

The data held in EDI messages is extremely valuable. In a typical EDI scenario, the automated process brings great efficiency to your business, but it can bring efficiency and benefits far beyond that. In 2017 and beyond, we’ll see more businesses leverage this data for things like bank reconciliation and extending finance to suppliers. We’ll see EDI, which was once used to bring efficiency to an organisation’s supply chain, now bring efficiency to other areas like finance.