What benefits can EDI (electronic business communication) bring to your business? We have several well-known references who can testify that the list of positive effects can be made long thanks to versatility and flexibility. Our cloud-based solutions create the conditions for most types of communication, whether with customers or suppliers – Viaduct helps you get started in an efficient and scalable way on your journey towards increased digitization.
AUTOMATION
Viaduct automates and streamlines your manual and administrative business processes through electronic business communication (EDI) and smart e-commerce solutions for customers and suppliers. With the help of our cloud service for business communication, Edionet™, you can, among other things, digitize your e-commerce process, validate and correct business documents and ensure that even your customers or suppliers who are not digitized have the opportunity for digital communication.
How does it work?
1. COMMUNICATION WITH COUNTERPARTS - CUSTOMERS OR SUPPLIERS?
As business evolves and organisations grow, sooner or later it is inevitable that you will have to develop your work processes and digitize parts of your business. Where you choose to start this change varies widely depending on your top priority needs. You need to remain competitive and demonstrate your relevance to the market. Remember to weight your priorities well and focus on the areas that will give you a high return on your investment. Equally important will be to streamline administrative and monotonous tasks to elevate your business and ensure that time is spent on what really matters to your core business.
Is it your own choice to start with EDI or is EDI “forced” on you by a counterparty? Among our customers, there is a 50/50 split on why they start with EDI. Over time, the vast majority have one thing in common – insight and understanding of all the benefits EDI brings both in the short and long term, thanks to the opportunities to build on the solution and communication step by step. Through this, a continuous improvement and streamlining can be provided to the EDI solution.
2. WHAT MESSAGES DO YOU NEED TO COMMUNICATE?
Every company has different needs, but overall there are usually five common message flows; delivery plan, order, order confirmation, delivery notification and invoice. The EDI solution can be configured according to your needs and also per counterparty. Similarly, the solution can be gradually expanded with more flows over time if the need changes.
3. HOW MUCH DOES YOUR ADMINISTRATION AND MANUAL HANDLING COST TODAY?
How much do you spend on manual processing of electronic business communications? Do you also have a lot of errors to deal with because work is entered manually? A common scenario we hear about is that one or more people spend a number of hours daily on order, order response or invoice processing, something that can be made significantly smoother through EDI management. One of the advantages of EDI is that the information sent is structured and set up according to specific requirements and needs. The percentage of errors is almost non-existent compared to manually managed information, which means that it is possible to save a lot of time on reduced error handling in your message flows. Contact us to calculate how much time/cost you can save compared to your manual handling.
4. HOW BIG AND EXTENSIVE IS YOUR TRAFFIC FOR COMMUNICATION?
Of course, the number of transactions you have with customers and suppliers may vary. It can range from a handful of transactions to a specific counterparty to hundreds of transactions every day/week. EDI can definitely come in handy regardless of the scale, but the important thing is to investigate which counterparties you can communicate with as a first step. The more counterparties and the higher the number of transactions, the faster the return on investment.
5. WHAT ARE THE POSSIBILITIES TO INTEGRATE THE SOLUTION WITH BUSINESS SYSTEMS?
EDI in the cloud gives you the choice to either work in a web interface or choose to integrate the solution with your ERP system. There are advantages to both options and one way does not exclude the other. Some functions can be handled in the web interface, for example, management of incoming delivery plans, when review of these is done, import of information and data can be done to the business system. Another function that is handled in the web interface is packing instructions and printing of customer-unique freight flags. In most cases, it is a matter of taste which interface you prefer to work in, but the easiest and fastest way to get started is in our easy-to-use web interface. At a later stage, the solution can be integrated with your organization’s business system.
6. WHERE SHOULD YOU START?
For the uninitiated, EDI can easily be perceived as something diffuse, complicated and overwhelming. It is not easy to start on your own even if you have an extensive IT department. The field of EDI quickly becomes convoluted, and building your own formats and interpreting communication standards tends to quickly drag on in terms of both time and complexity. Fortunately, there is help available – get a remote EDI department. This will make getting started both simple and straightforward.