Four reasons to implement EDI as soon as possible

Usually, when a smaller organization goes through an EDI implementation, it is because of the insistence of a larger trading partner. However, even without an immediate trading partner, any company that relies on trading should make the change. Here is why:

Speed

There is an immediate speed increase to the trading cycle. All internal processes will now use electronic methods of communication and approval, speeding up the point from order entry all the way up to the dispatch of goods.

Customer service

Another area of improvement is customer service. Agents can reliably predict when goods will leave the warehouse and roughly estimate when items will arrive. As and when you replace parts of your supply chain with trading partners that use EDI, your accuracy will improve.

Error rate

Except for initial order data entry, everything else is electronic and will not be subject to the same rate of human error as before. Previously, each system required manual data entry, slowing the entire process down with error rates as high as 20%.

Customer retention

The improvements in speed, customer service, and errors will increase customer retention and prevent vendors from moving to other trading partners.