Supply Chain : Save Time And Money With EDI

EDI, in a nutshell, is a way to communicate facts and figures between computer applications electronically, with little to no input from a real person. It is the backbone of most, if not all eCommerce, and all manner of software exists that can facilitate it, be it via the Internet, email, or even special connections between locations. You can do more with EDI than get invoices and buy things over the Internet. Automatically, companies are able to check on their inventory, get status updates on an order, and send and receive money, immediately notifying the customer that a payment has been received with notified invoice statuses. Automatic transactions can do all that and more. Here is a small purchase the way it was done before EDI. Someone buys a product, filling out a purchase order. It is sent in the mail after being printed, and four or five days later the supplier gets it. She will enter the data into the inventory system of the computer, and the inventory staff will prep the product and ship it. After that, the invoice is printed out and mailed separately. All of this takes upwards of a week to do, when with EDI, you could shave that time into a matter of minutes. In the same day, a product could be ordered, paid for, processed and shipped out, allowing for quicker delivery. What’s more, you do not have to manually enter the order once you get it. EDI can help with these things and more, decreasing labor time and eliminating errors in manual data entry that can lead to inaccurate orders and shipping, not to mention charging. You can work through an order more quickly, allowing you to work on another order right afterward, thus increasing productivity. Processing an order has never been quicker, and there is no backlog in data entry. With the right system, you can put through an order in a single day. According to studies, turnaround time decreases 40% when you implement an automatic system for this type of work. EDI can give you the leg up you need when offering goods to sell, or services to render. Each segment of the transaction can be sped along with the help of EDI, making the customer, the distributor, the seller and the supplier all much happier. Most Fortune 1000 companies have EDI in their systems, and that is not going to change as the years go on.