08/04/2019

EDI more than just automating your supply chain

Looking for ways to improve processes is critical to any business, particularly in the areas of efficiency and cost reduction. Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) allows the exchange of business information directly between the software of your business and your customers and suppliers. It automates unnecessary manual processes while streamlining supply chain transactions. Companies commonly implement EDI to:
  • Gain better visibility into the supply chain
  • Reduce errors in exchanging paper or PDF documents
  • Reduce costs
  • Increase information security.
Let's have a look at these benefits in more detail.

Gain better visibility into the supply chain

With a manual purchase order and invoice, can a buyer answer questions like:
  • Can the supplier fulfil my order?
  • When will the goods be shipped?
  • When can I expect my goods to arrive?
  • What is in each package I am about to receive?
In short, no. But all of these questions can be answered through other EDI messages exchanged in near-real-time. Often companies will exchange more than just a purchase order and invoice; they’ll exchange purchase order responses (which tells a buyer if the supplier can fulfil the order), advanced shipping notices (which tells the company how the shipment is packed and when it will arrive) and more.

Reduce errors in exchanging paper or PDF documents

Traditional procurement has many manual processes that are prone to error. Human mistakes occur for a number reasons including:
  • Inputting incorrect numbers or values
  • Missing or skipping key steps in the process
  • Transferring the wrong purchase order information
Here is an example of traditional procurement for a PO to Invoice process:
Buyer manually enters the purchase order in their software Buyer sends order to supplier via email Supplier manually enters the purchase order in their software Supplier manually enters the invoice in their software Supplier sends invoice to buyer via email Buyer manually enters the invoice in their software
With EDI, processes are automated reducing manual errors. For example, when a buyer places a purchase order (PO), it can automatically trigger an acknowledgement to let the buyer know it’s been received, and the order can be put into the supplier’s system. Here is an example of EDI procurement for the same process as above:
Buyer enters the purchase order in their software Purchase order appears in Supplier’s software Supplier enters the invoice in their software Invoice appears in Buyer’s software
When the supplier is ready to ship the order, an advanced shipping notice (ASN) can be created and sent to the retailer to advise them of delivery. This can include information like how it’s packed, when it’ll arrive, the shipping company and more. The supplier can the raise an invoice in their software, which can be sent automatically to their customer’s software. Without EDI, all these processes would require manual creation greatly increasing the risk of errors.Through the use of EDI many areas of the supply process are completed with no additional manual inputting of information. Want to learn more about EDI? Download our introduction to EDI whitepaper.

Reduce costs

In low-margin businesses, reducing costs is critical. Think of a company that issues thousands of purchase orders a month. They’ll likely receive at least one invoice for every purchase order issued. Without EDI, that’s a lot of manual handling. Some organisations have put a price on manually processing a single invoice in the ballpark of $30. You can see how it adds up! EDI vastly simplifies the supply chain process through automation. Some examples of costs reductions are:
  • Manual data entry costs: EDI automates many manual data entry processes, reducing the amount of labour required.
  • Transaction costs: No physical sending of documents to your partners reduces costs related to printing, postage and filing.
  • Receiving and shipping related costs: By receiving shipment information from suppliers prior to delivery, you can prepare in advance for receiving goods. By streamlining the receiving process, you can achieve reductions in labour costs.
  • Error correction costs: Errors in the supply chain can result in extra costs being incurred. With the elimination of manual steps in your processes, errors are reduced. If errors do occur, they can be found and corrected much faster.

Increase information security

In today’s business environment, information security is a prominent issue. Sending sensitive information through unsecure channels can add risk to your business. You could be sending these via email, post or even SMS, which can easily be sent to the wrong person or even intercepted. EDI can send this information more securely than conventional methods. Using secure message communication types such as Secure File Transfer Protocol (sFTP) or AS2 decreases your risk. EDI adds a layer of authentication to the process which is required for the information to be sent. It also limits the connection to specific partners reducing the risk of your sensitive business information being sent to the wrong recipient.

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EDIRetailersSuppliers

20/09/2018

What to look for in a supplier portal

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.
A supplier portal is a web-based portal that facilitates collaboration and allows suppliers to trade with their customer without having to implement fully integrated EDI. It allows the retailer to get the full benefits of EDI.
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.
EDIRetailers

31/07/2017

The key to efficient transport bookings and deliveries

When it comes to EDI, a lot of us think about procurement-related messages – orders, invoices and sometimes even product data. But I’d like to shift your thoughts to another use for EDI… transport messages. As a consumer yourself, you’ve probably received notifications when your shipment has left the warehouse, when it’s about to be delivered and even when it’s been delivered. In the B2B world though, things are quite different.
Many companies have very little visibility into where their shipments are and when they’ll arrive.
Sure, they may have received an ASN (advanced shipping notice), which may state the expected delivery date, but it generally doesn’t mention the time, nor does it account for any shipping delays. This means your receiving staff need to be ready all the time, interrupt their work or take themselves away from other tasks they should be working on. If no staff are available to receive a delivery, or if too many deliveries arrive at once, shipments may even be turned away. This is costly to any business, not to mention the impact to customers and your reputation. By establishing EDI connections with your transport companies, you can book shipments (transport instructions), query its whereabouts (responses) and have notifications triggered at various stages of the journey. You’ll be able to plan for the arrival of shipments, manage your staff’s time more effectively and you’ll have the ability to let customers know when their goods will be delivered. For those of you who use drop shipping, you can use this data to give your customers a seamless omni-channel experience, letting them know where their products are and when they’ll arrive. For companies who send a large amount of goods, you’ll never have to logon to your freight company’s portal again.
Use these transport messages to book and track everything from your existing ERP or freight management system.

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EDIRetailersSuppliers

19/05/2017

B2B predictions in retail and supply chain for 2017 and beyond

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.
EDIRetailers