Integrating
your EDI data into a functioning ERP platform is crucial but given
the complexities involved, organizations often struggle to get it
done accurately and in the given time-frame. Electronic Data
interchange of EDI is the transmission of data within an
organizational setup in a structured and retrievable data form that
will allow information to be transmitted without any need for
rekeying. Used for various purposes such as electronic fund transfers
(in institutions dealing with financial aspects), and direct exchange
of business documents like invoices and purchase bills, EDI is an
important aspect of workflow management. Offering a bunch of
benefits, EDI is becoming more available to all businesses, large and
small, thanks to the rapid advancements in the related technology.
Dealing
with EDI errors
A
study reveals that around three-fourth of the companies equipped with
EDI are forced to re-process orders (manually) every day. Translating
such delays and reconsiderations into business expenses, the
companies suffer heavy financial loss. No matter what industry
purpose your enterprise may serve, dealing with EDI errors are big
trouble. In general, handling EDI errors call for the help from
qualified IT staffs who are extremely skillful.
Sadly,
since the IT staffs are often busy and have little idea about the
business products, they often are at their wits' end without the
interference of customer service staffs. From the strategic point of
view, it is not a good idea to involve our IT resources in these
optimization tasks. On the contrary, one can consider moving towards
a cloud-based model to save time and efforts.
How
do EDI errors deteriorate your business processes? The answer can be
found in the bottom line of the problem: more the errors waiting for
resolution, greater is the impact shown on the accuracy of revenue
projection and high-level planning. When your orders get stuck
because of some or the other EDI exception, it will become very hard
to predict revenue, workload and staffing required to process them.
Reducing the strategic advantages, it will be indeed a hard job to
plan things in advance. So what does an organization do?
In
essence, every organization facing such troubles have the following
agenda in mind:
Avoid
IT complexities
Order
processing automation platforms are to be configured that must be
compatible with a large range of IT installations. Instead of
changing the existing EDI or ERP infrastructure, an organization will
prefer incorporating a solution that works with its existing system.
Gaining
visibility with customized dashboards
One
must be able to track all orders (even those containing EDI errors)
in real time and get updated information on such orders that await
approval.
Managing
orders with simple solution
CSRs
need to efficiently process customer orders from a single interface
without being influenced by the submission method.
By
automating your business processes, the problem can be reduced to a
great extent. Combined with a strict workflow management, EDI
exceptions can be handled to yield positive results for all
businesses that are concerned with:
Achieving
100% order visibility across all formats and channels
Processing
orders via a single platform, irrespective of the how the orders
arrived
Automatically
detecting the errors before orders enter the ERP systems.