Are you missing an opportunity with EDI? February 20, 2008
Posted by mhattoninovis in EDI.trackback
EDI has been around for quite a long time and has historically been viewed as an afterthought in most organizations. It’s like your phone service; you just expect it to be there and always on. I mean, a phone is good for one thing…letting you communicate with others, right? Well, not exactly. These days your phone is so much more. I mean, you can email, access the internet, watch TV, pay for things…I can go on and on, but you get the idea. The phone is a common device that has been leveraged to provide so much more value than we might have ever imagined.
Similarly, EDI is also a basic communication mechanism that, on the surface, hasn’t provided much extended value. Just make sure EDI data is always processing in the right structure and we are done. Well, again, not exactly. It is very interesting that companies are just now beginning to realize how EDI can be leveraged for greater gains within their organizations. By tapping deeper into their EDI data, companies are beginning to find it much more effective to measure and monitor key performance indicators (KPI’s) such as shipment accuracy, substitution rates, partner compliance, and DSO’s that extend well beyond the EDI group, often enabling the business to address potential problems as they arise as opposed to after the fact. And the fact that the EDI data is already there and flowing allows companies to recognize immediate value without a massive implementation effort.
So if you are an EDI owner, talk to other business owners in your company to determine what problems you might be able to help them solve. And if you are a business owner, talk to your EDI owner about helping address some of your pain.
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Sometimes, though, don’t you just want your phone to be… a phone…?
Offering more bells ans whistles and options and gizmos and doo-dads on the concepts of EDI isn’t going to be a BAD thing… at least, not on the surface…. but sometimes, you just want your EDI to be … EDI….
Case in point – the new “AI” – Actionable Intelligence – offering from Inovis… It’s a GREAT way to track and match information to information within the documents you trade with your partners… it can and will certainly alert you to some possible issues with problems you could have in your PO vs ASN vs Invoice vs _______ matching in your system (or whatever documents you trade).
If you start using AI – strictly for EDI related use – it’s a great product. It can even be an effective tool for non-EDI departments and people to use… But then again, maybe not….
What happens when your accounting group and your buying group and your warehouse/DC people start looking at your EDI transactions and the mailbox through AI and they’re not that technically savvy…? What if they are then constantly peppering your EDI person/people with questions about “what does this mean” and “how can we fix that”…?
But you can’t also expect your EDI person/people to do all that work, either…. It becomes a quandry of either too few people having access to all the information – and creating a bottle-neck or too many people having access to all the information – and not knowing what it means or how to interpret it….
Again, sometimes, a phone just needs to be … a phone…