Tag Archive for: EDI provider

How to Choose the Right EDI Provider for Your Small or Medium Business

Choosing the right EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) provider isn’t always straightforward, and we, at EDI2XML, get it—it can feel like a big decision. Over the years working with businesses in a variety of industries, especially retail and transportation, we’ve seen a wide range of needs and challenges. That experience has taught us one thing: there’s no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to EDI.

Choosing EDI Provider

Search online, and ask other business owners, and you will come across a plethora of EDI providers, there are many options, and each provider promises to make your business operations smoother, faster, and more efficient. But how do you really know which one is right for your business?

Here’s the truth: the key to finding the best EDI provider isn’t about choosing the most popular name or the biggest provider. It’s about understanding your unique needs and choosing a partner who can meet them.

We have been involved in electronic data interchange for over 20 years and have seen what works and what doesn’t. Here are a few tips based on real-world experience to help you make the right choice.

Start by Taking Stock of Your Needs

Before you even start comparing EDI providers, spend some time thinking about your business. What’s driving your need for EDI? Are you trying to meet a new trading partner’s requirements, or is it about automating tasks that are eating up your team’s time?

For example, we have worked with small retailers who just needed to exchange a couple of EDI documents, like purchase orders (EDI 850) and invoices (EDI 810). On the flip side, we have helped larger companies integrate EDI into their ERP systems for a full end-to-end solution. The point is, that knowing what you need helps you figure out which providers are worth your time.

Ask yourself:

  • What types of EDI transactions do I need?
  • How many trading partners am I dealing with, and what are their requirements?
  • Do I need this to integrate with my existing systems, like Shopify, QuickBooks, Salesforce or SAP?

When we work with clients at EDI2XML, these are the kinds of questions we ask upfront. Our team makes sure you get exactly what you need without overcomplicating the process.

Useful: If you find it challenging to assess your EDI needs, book a free consultation with our experts. They will help you identify your requirements and determine the most effective solution for your business.

The Right EDI Provider: It’s Not About Size, It’s About Fit

When choosing an EDI provider, the size and nature of your business play a significant role. Large corporations with complex operations, multiple trading partners, and high transaction volumes often benefit from partnering with a large EDI provider. These providers typically offer enterprise-grade solutions designed to handle extensive integrations and high levels of customization.

But for smaller companies, especially suppliers who need EDI to fulfill requirements from a large retailer or trading partner, these big providers can feel like overkill. These larger providers often come with higher costs, lengthy onboarding processes, and services that exceed what a smaller business actually needs.

A small supplier doesn’t need an expensive, feature-packed solution designed for a Fortune 500 company. What they need is something straightforward, cost-effective, and tailored to their specific use case—like the ability to exchange a few essential EDI documents, such as purchase orders (EDI 850) or invoices (EDI 810).

In cases like this, a more tailored, flexible EDI provider is often the better choice. At EDI2XML, we specialize in helping small and medium-sized businesses implement EDI solutions that are cost-effective, easy to use, and perfectly aligned with their trading partners’ requirements.

For example, if you’re a small manufacturer trying to meet the EDI requirements of a large retail chain, we can set up an EDI solution that keeps things simple and affordable.

Look for an EDI Provider That Speaks Your Language

EDI can get technical fast, and we have seen businesses struggle with providers who just throw jargon at them. It shouldn’t be like that. You want a provider who can break things down in plain language and guide you through the process.

One thing we pride ourselves on at EDI2XML is making EDI accessible, even for clients who are completely new to it. Whether you’re a small business owner or a team manager, we’ll walk you through everything—no tech talk needed.

Useful: Download Guide: Intro to EDI

Check for Integration Options and Scalability

This one’s a biggie. Integration is what takes EDI from being just another system you use to being a tool that works with your business. Whether it’s your ERP, accounting software, or e-commerce platform, the right provider will make sure everything connects seamlessly.

But it’s not just about today. Think about where your business is headed. Will the provider be able to scale with you? Can their solutions adapt if you take on new trading partners or enter new markets?

We have seen clients get stuck with rigid systems that couldn’t keep up as their business grew. It’s one of the reasons we focus on flexible, scalable solutions at EDI2XML.

EDI integration

Compare Prices without Compromising Quality

Budget matters, especially for SMEs. We have seen it a lot—small companies start by looking for the cheapest option, or often free online EDI converter. Sure, it’s tempting to save money, but the reality is, you usually get what you pay for. And with something as critical as EDI, you’re not just risking your business operations—you’re also putting your data security on the line.

Look for providers that are upfront about their pricing and can offer a good mix of affordability and solid service.

With EDI2XML there are no hidden fees. Our goal is to provide cost-effective solutions that really add value. That is why we offer various EDI solutions such as Fully Managed EDI Services and Web EDI Service for which we provide a free trial period, so you can see how EDI Web Service works before committing.  However, in both cases, you receive full support from our specialists.

Don’t Overlook Support

This might sound obvious, but it’s worth emphasizing: choose a provider who’s there for you when you need help. Things can and do go wrong with EDI—files don’t transmit, compliance requirements change, and errors creep in. Having someone you can call makes all the difference.

At EDI2XML, we’ve built a reputation for being hands-on with support.

Let’s Talk About Your EDI Needs

With over two decades of EDI implementation, we’ve seen the challenges companies face when trying to implement EDI and have successfully helped them overcome them.

Whether you’re a retailer managing purchase orders, a shipping company coordinating deliveries, or a business in another industry, we’re here to help.

Our company works closely with customers across the U.S. and Canada to provide EDI solutions that are a perfect fit for any business.

We’re not just another EDI provider – we’re your partner in making your business work electronically. Contact us for a free consultation with our experts and see the difference!

EDI

 

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Fully Managed EDI Service for Outsourcing B2B Communication

In today’s highly competitive business market the efficiency gained through EDI implementation and integration is enormous. EDI (for electronic data interchange) allows companies to interact effectively with their business partners and opens new doors for small businesses to collaborate with large companies.

There are various types of EDI solutions, it can be either locally installed on-premises or cloud-based. Our company as a leading EDI provider offers all types of EDI services:

Each of the above EDI service models has its specific benefits. In today’s article, let’s look at the fully managed EDI service, and why companies can benefit from this EDI service or solution.

What is EDI?

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is the electronic exchange of business documents using a standardized format. EDI allows business partners to exchange business documents electronically rather than paper or e-mail.

Despite the widespread use of EDI in business, some companies still do not use EDI. They can be limited by the complexity of setting up their EDI flows and processes, or the lack of the necessary IT skills to do such an implementation. All these problems can be solved by hiring an outside EDI service provider that can take care of fully managing their EDI processes and its integration to their internal ERP/CRM system.

What is Fully Managed EDI Service?

The fully managed EDI service offering provided by EDI2XML means that we will fully manage the EDI operations and integration on the behalf of the customer.

Customers using our Fully Managed EDI Service do not need to install any software or hardware, we will setup and configure the process flows, take care of the data routing, and be responsible for data format transformation and integration.

With our fully managed EDI service, we will take on a wide range of responsibilities that are usually performed by an internal IT department and deliver a turnkey project when onboarding a client’s partners.

During the execution of any EDI project, our team will perform the following activities:

  • Initial analysis of the entire EDI Integration Project.
  • Work with the client to define the points of connectivity between both platforms.
  • Perform the communication testing, between the EDI2XML integration platform and the Trading Partner.
  • Configure the EDI2XML platform, according to the Trading Partners’ specific requirements.
  • Perform connectivity and full-cycle testing with the trading partner.
Fully managed EDI Service

EDI Managed Services for B2B Integration

A fully managed EDI service is ideal for companies that need to use EDI, but don’t want to spend time and effort to do the implementation themselves, or don’t have necessary EDI skills and specialists who can do it. They, therefore, need a partner (EDI service provider) who will take care of all the configuration and integration of EDI into any on-premises or cloud-based ERP or CRM system.

Advantages of The EDI Fully Managed Services

With an EDI managed service provider such as EDI2XML, you no longer have to worry about your EDI transactions because the EDI provider will professionally handle electronic data exchange on your behalf, so you can focus on growing your business.

Managed EDI

– No overpayments. For businesses, this is much more profitable than integrating EDI on-premises.

– Reliable level of security. The EDI3XML platform is hosted on our private cloud, in a state-of-the-art secured data center in Canada.

– No client-side installation. End-users do not need to download and install anything on their computers.

– Minimum requirements for user devices.

– EDI Fully Managed Services delivered by highly qualified EDI experts. Your company can benefit from the technical expertise of the EDI provider staff. You don’t have to deal with the cost of additional training for your own IT department or hiring additional EDI specialists.

– Possibility to seamlessly integrate EDI transactions into your business management system. We have implemented many projects to integrate EDI with Salesforce, SAP, Oracle’s JD Edwards, Shopify, and other business systems. This integration between EDI and ERP/CRM eliminates the need to manually enter data for each EDI transaction.

Useful reading: How to Change Your EDI Service Provider

EDI Fully Managed Service Price

Each month, our clients pay what we call the “ceiling” value, that is fixed in $ value, and includes a specific volume of data. At the end of the month, the monthly fee is re-evaluated based on the logs. So, depending on the volume, the price will be pre-calculated based on pre-packaged pricing packages per month, that increase (or decrease) dynamically based on the volume of data processed during a specific month.

In other words, when the monthly amount of data processed exceeds a certain threshold, the customer will be billed based on the respective pricing plan. It works both ways: when the volume is increased and when the volume is decreased.

Request our EDI Pricing Package here for more information.

EDI Outsourcing

Our company is a successful EDI service provider operating in North America and connecting trading partners worldwide for over 20 years. Our clients are large companies as well as small businesses from various industries.

Due to our level of experience and expertise, we helped each of our clients to choose the most optimal EDI solution for their business and qualified enough to handle all kinds of EDI scenarios.

Contact us for your first free consultation with one of our EDI integration experts.

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How to Change Your EDI Service Provider

This post was updated to reflect current trends and information.

Today, companies switching from one EDI service provider to another, is not different from someone changing his mobile operator.

Successful companies are always looking for better services and conditions. They are not afraid to change their EDI service provider, considering they add a value with their new selected choice.

Typically, the main reasons for leaving the “old” EDI service provider:
  • The speed of service and SLA is not adequate to the company.
  • the price is no longer justifiable.
  • poor support service.
  • frequent failures.
  • technological weaknesses.
  • lack of expertise and difficulties with integration.

It happens that the contract between the EDI provider and the client was concluded a long time ago, and after a while, its terms were disadvantageous for the company.

There are cases when the client has accumulated a critical number of claims that he is ready to change the EDI service provider, regardless of the investment.

Sometimes, big retailers recommend their partners to work with a particular EDI service provider, hence, they go by that recommendation, since they do not have enough time to select the most reliable EDI provider more carefully, and they get stuck with that service provider for long, and living the good and the bad….

How to Choose the Right EDI Service Provider

Primarily, to change the EDI service provider, you need to carefully select a new one. This step requires careful study. Here are the qualifications that should be looked at when looking for a new EDI service provider:

A.  The technology and qualification of the EDI provider

Companies often use a variety of business systems (SAP, Oracle JD Edwards, Salesforce, etc.), as well as e-Commerce (i.e. Amazon, Shopify). It is important that the new EDI service provider has the optimal solution for integrating EDI processes into these systems.

B.  Ability to offer diversified and comprehensive services

Secondly, it is desirable that your EDI provider can offer comprehensive diversified services that relate to EDI. For example, a good EDI provider, that offers integration services such as e-commerce integration, and direct integration with leading ERP/CRM systems, in addition to EDI is a very important criterion and one more plus in favor of the provider.

C.  Great technical support and quick response time to “resolve”
EDI provider support

Third, comes technical support. The EDI service provider must ensure that an experienced technical team is always available for any type of request. It should be available to respond quickly to resolve issues (when it happens) within a very reasonable time frame, tolerated by the business. Of course, company experience plays an important role.

Since companies with many years of experience in their field, thanks to their experience, often have more effective solutions.

Where to Start and How to Prepare to Change EDI Provider

Before a potential provider submits a quotation, he will certainly request important information upon which he would want to build his pricing. It is worth preparing the following in advance:
  • EDI standard used (i.e. X12, EDIFACT, RosettaNet, HIPAA/X12, XML, CSV, etc.)
  • Number and name (when possible) of trading partners.
  • Type of documents for each trading partner (Order, Order Acknowledgment, Invoice, etc.)
  • Direction of each document (incoming or outgoing).
  • Communication Protocols (i.e. AS2, FTP, sFTP, VAN, RNIF…)
  • Integration interface to the internal system (i.e. direct integration, API, XML, CSV or Json messages)
  • Type of deployment of the solution, the company is looking for (i.e. On-premises, Cloud based)

If you want to get an EDI quotation from our company, please fill in our EDI Evaluation Sheet available here and send it by email to: support@edi2xml.com

After receiving the necessary information, the future provider gets down to the “drawing board”; based on the above information, the service provider will analyze the business process, and offer the most profitable options for EDI integration.

Here are the EDI integration services our company EDI2XML offers:

Fully Managed EDI Service: with this option, there is an on-boarding one-time fee, and a monthly fee. Our team at EDI2XML takes care of all your EDI project, and we offer a “turn-key solution”; we take care of all the setup, configuration, transformation, testing, certification with your EDI partners. Our monthly pricing packages are dynamic, they go up and down based on the volume and you are not locked in any tier.

EDI2XML web services: our REST API to convert X12 to XML and vice versa , is much more cost effective, and meant for companies who got their own technical resources to work with REST API (call and consume HTTP Rest Web services); In such a scenario, it is the way to go for the following reasons:
  • Self-service solution
  • Low cost per KC
  • Support is included with the subscription without any additional fees
  • Quick entry: you can be up and running in less than an hour, and it is proven; we provide everything to your developers to get started, a java client with its source code and instructions on how to work with.
  • We offer the schemas (xsd) of the XML format our API expects, and all what you need to do is to format your data according to that format and you will be up and running.
  • We offer a [15] days free trial, without any commitment.

EDI2XML On-Premises: is our offering to deploy our solution on customer’s premises.

How to Get a Discount

Chances for a discount increase if:
  • the company moves to a new provider having more than one trading partner.
  • The company has a significant volume of transactions.
  • The company requires integration with internal business systems (JDE Oracle, SAP, MS Dynamics, etc.)

How is the Process of Migrating to a New EDI Provider?

The transition from the old to the new EDI provider consists of two parts: formal and technical parts.

The formalities normally take between 2 to 5 business days before signing the agreement.

The technical part depends on the integration option selected and the volume of technical work involved:

– EDI web services. In this case, you do not even need to sign a contract. The connection is very fast within an hour, you can exchange EDI documents with your trading partner.

– Integration options such as Fully managed EDI service or On-Premises EDI Services or Integration with business system may take more time.

Do You Want to Start?

So, do you think it is time to change your EDI provider? However, you still have doubts. Not sure, which EDI solution is right for you? Contact us for a free consultation. Our EDI experts will advise you on the most cost-effective EDI solution according to your business processes.
Free EDI consultation

Related Posts:

What is EDIFACT? | UN / EDIFACT standard overview

Electronic Data Interchange: Key Information You Need to Know

What Are the Differences Between ANSI X12 and UN/EDIFACT

EDI Translation Software “On-premises” or “As a Service”

This post was updated to reflect current trends and information.

As soon as there is a requirement for EDI implementation and integration, company executives, along with their IT personnel, begin by determining how they will comply with their EDI business partner to exchange EDI documents. They will need to acquire EDI translation software, initiate testing, and so on. This however is a complex and lengthy process, which many executives do not look forward to. Difficult questions arise, such as, “Shall we outsource to an EDI service provider? Shall we do it ourselves “on-premises”? Shall we do the translation and conversion of EDI “as a service” using an outside provider?

Which of these options is the best and most affordable way to go?”

Why Do We Need To Translate EDI

As you already know, EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) is the standard to exchange business data between business partners in a very proprietary EDI format. Your business partner would send data such as a P/O (EDI 850), an Inventory Inquiry/Advice (EDI 846), or any other EDI transaction, based on his own terminology of business parameters. It is then up to the “receiving party” to take the sender’s EDI data and information, translate it into a well-understood format, which the receiver’s system will be able to use and process. With EDI2XML, we translate the EDI format of incoming documents to a much simpler, more structured XML format so humans, namely the IT developers, and systems can easily work with.

Translate EDI “On-premises”

Normally, translating incoming EDI documents “on-premises” requires a lot of parameters before launching such a project. As a starting point, a good level of expertise in EDI, EDI communication, and systems integration is required. Integrators should also have a fairly advanced knowledge and expertise in how the company’s software system (ERP, CRM, etc.) works and how to integrate and push data into that system.

While the ability to integrate with the most commonly used ERP and CRM systems does not create any major challenge for experienced IT developers, the main problem is having a high level of proficiency in EDI implementation.

Another major task for the “on-premises” translation is, in most cases, the need for the company to invest on hardware, software licenses, and services (internet, dedicated IP, VAN) to be able to exchange EDI documents with their business partner.

Useful Reading: What are the advantages of using EDI2XML?

Translate EDI “As a Service”

With the emergence of cloud-based IT services and the affordable plans offered by service providers, the ability to translate EDI “as a service” in the “cloud” and deliver the end result to the ultimate destination, has become a more productive approach.

Typically, an EDI service provider offering EDI translation “as a service” will:

– Act as an intermediary layer between the EDI sender and EDI receiver

– Receives the EDI incoming document (i.e. 850, 860, 864,…) on behalf of the “ultimate receiver”

– Extract the data received in EDI format and translate it into a standard format (i.e. XML)

– Transmit the XML data to its ultimate destination for Integration OR integrate directly into the software system of the ultimate receiver.

To send EDI documents out, the EDI service provider will be acting also as an intermediary hub between business partners and do the following:

– Receive data in XML format to be sent to the business partner from the sender through FTP or sFTP

– Translate data received and convert from XML to EDI format

– Transmit that EDI data to the destination

Dive into the world of EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) with our insightful video explanation. Explore the video

Advantages of EDI Translation “As a Service”

With the EDI translation in the cloud offered as a service, companies have a lot of great advantages:

– Quick implementation cycle

– Secured and proven platform to exchange EDI with partners

– No initial investment on hardware or software licenses

– Get up-and-running quickly: your projects are on-time and on-budget

– Use the wealth of expertise your EDI service provider has in EDI

– Let your team of IT professionals focus on integrating XML files into your system rather than learning EDI

– Predictable and static recurring monthly fee for the service

– Possibility to move to “on premises” mode any time

– Ability to integrate to your system directly without your internal IT resources

Discover how you can streamline and simplify your EDI projects with EDI2XML Fully Managed Services

The Best EDI Solution

Most companies usually lean towards the “on-premises” option when they have “internal policies” and security measures in place or are a large enterprise with their own team of IT experts.

The “as a service” option is much more advantageous for small to mid-sized enterprises, where they may have a lower number of exchanged EDI transactions.

As the “as a service” option’s low initial investment and quick deployment are attractive features, every situation is different and should be dealt with on a case-by-case basis with one of our EDI experts prior to making a final decision.

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