With the explosion of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have witnessed significant health and economic impacts across the world. The virus spread throughout the globe within a few months and created havoc in various industries, businesses, and sectors, affecting disruption in daily activities. It hampered the supply chain, influenced customer behavior, and whatnot. The truth is that no one could have predicted COVID-19 hitting the world so badly but we also cannot deny the fact that organizations and businesses are feeling the pressure now. They need to shift their approach and processes considering the criticality of the situation:
- Managing compliance and ensuring regulatory obligations is more complicated than ever and costlier as well. The rules have changed and are still evolving across multiple jurisdictions and there is a great demand for transparency.
- Management is seeking ways to leverage new technologies and enhance overall efficiency while prioritizing cost reduction.
- Getting a competitive advantage is more important and difficult now. Companies need deeper knowledge and insights, advanced tools, digital transformation, and data analytics along with unmatched skills to cope with the situation.
- The focus of the workforce must be on core and key functions. The other non-core tasks, such as risk, finances, tax, etc., must also increase their effectiveness but without any additional resources.
- The board is expecting higher results, has tougher expectations with investment, performance, and productivity.
As business processes are recovering now and moving in a new direction and phase, there is a constant need to address bigger challenges. And the EDI, Electronic Data Interchange, is no exception at all. Companies are required to reimagine the entire solution. Their in-house EDI system or software is not sufficient. The companies are in urgent need of EDI experts who can take care of the business processes, handle the disruptions caused due to the pandemic, and bring things back to the track.
To give a brief introduction, EDI refers to the electronic computer-to-computer data exchange between trading or business partners. Integrated with ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), EDI enables automated and secure transmission of business documents, such as invoices, purchase orders, shipment notices, etc. It follows a standard format and mitigates human intervention and costly errors. It lays the foundation for successful entrepreneurship by establishing electronic communication with suppliers and customers. As businesses now need to rebuild themselves and recover at a faster speed, there is no better option than fully-managed EDI services to attain these goals.
Fully Managed EDI Solutions: An Overview
When it comes to the retail industry, EDI is now essential to ensure the smooth running of the supply chain processes. The enterprises involved in the retail sector often put pressure on suppliers for EDI exchange. It is now one of the major and fundamental conditions for suppliers if they want to start working with top and large enterprises, such as Costco, Walmart, Target, Home Depot, etc. However, the problem is that most suppliers lack enough resources, expertise, or knowledge required to implement in-house EDI software. They cannot invest in setting up an on-premise EDI team or fail to manage EDI platforms that allow the exchange of business documents with trading partners and vendors.
This is where outsourced EDI services come into play. It is the best option for companies where EDI is not the main function or core task. Such organizations can avail of fully managed EDI services and concentrate sufficient time on other major functions that are important to run a business smoothly. It is designed for varied industries, including manufacturing, e-commerce, healthcare, logistics, and more that need EDI for their routine business operations.
Why Do You Need Fully Managed EDI Solutions?
Reduced Investment & Cost:
We need not mention that after the breakout of Coronavirus, companies are struggling with financial and human resources. The business owners lack funds to hire new employees or implement advanced technologies in their processes. Also, they are switching to cost-effective alternatives to overcome the downtime and disruption caused by the pandemic. In such a situation, deploying on-premise EDI can be a costly affair that most enterprises want to avoid. They can neither afford hardware and software for integration nor can hire an expert IT team to look after the EDI software. With fully managed EDI services, companies can decrease their investment and operational costs. They simply need to pay monthly subscription fees rather than spending on hiring full-time employees, which is certainly expensive. Moreover, this reduced cost does not mean compromise with quality and security. Authentic companies with a team of desiccated EDI professionals handle security data and quality service by utilizing the latest technology, years of experience, and tested tools.
Mitigates Errors & Risks:
Hardly any business is yet ready for a costly risk or error. They are paying the utmost attention to every detail to make sure that everything is in place and yields the best results. The same stands true for EDI as well. A simple mistake in the EDI system can create major complications and affect vendors, customers, and businesses adversely. However, fully managed EDI deals with all the errors efficiently and offers constant support proactively. You have a dedicated project manager and data integration specialist working for you and keeping an eye on every aspect meticulously. They can easily spot an error or upcoming risk, prepare instantly to handle the situation, and resolve the issue without much hassle. In fact, many times the error is fixed smoothly before it can be noticed by anyone. For example, if the incoming message fails, clients do not have to worry about notifying the same to the service provider. The latter detects the problem, gets in touch with the sender directly to make amendments, and ensures that the message is shared successfully.
Increased Customer Satisfaction:
When every enterprise is sparing no effort to keep its position intact in the industry during this economic crisis, ensuring customer satisfaction becomes a top priority. No matter how advanced tools you use or how streamlined your communication is if the clients are not happy, then all your hard work is in vain. Therefore, to keep your customers satisfied with your service, you need expert guidance and professional knowledge. And what better way to seek this than fully managed EDI. As a skilled EDI team looks after every factor and aspect of the EDI system, your business experiences improved security and uptime, future-proofed software, etc., which contribute to better user experience and satisfaction. Also, EDI data flow is smooth, trading partners are onboard quickly, errors are fixed immediately, the IT department faces minimal risks. We need not say that this keeps your suppliers and customers happy. You create a healthy and effective operating environment, communicate with clients hassle-free, and check their convenience which are primary factors to achieve a high level of customer satisfaction.
Final Thought
Yes, COVID-19 has changed the digital world and every industry forever. If your company can reduce the risks due to these changes and explore the best opportunities, then it can surely recover stronger and faster. Seeking a fully managed EDI service is a significant step in this direction which will bring transformation and provide you access to better skills, tools, and insights. By outsourcing EDI, you can get support and expertise that is hardly possible with the in-house team.
Author’s Bio: Alicia works with the editorial team of A3logics, a leading enterprise software development company. Exploring the latest technologies, reading about them, and writing her views have always been her passion. She seeks new opportunities to express her opinions, explore technological advancements, and document the details. You can always find her enjoying books or articles about varied topics or jotting down her ideas in a notebook.