Getting Strategic With EDI

Your business has been profitable and successful for years, you understand your market, your product provides a solution to a critical need, and you just signed a major national retailer that will mean significant expansion for your business. The only problem is that you keep being told that you need to implement EDI and you are not quite sure where to turn. Your problem is not unique, in fact even companies that understand and use EDI often struggle with how much or how little attention to pay to EDI. Having a critical understanding of EDI, how it impacts your business, and how you can maximize use of this technology is critical for any small and mid-sized business in today's market of margin pressures and high competition. As a business embarks on the road to effectively using EDI, it naturally progresses through three phases:

Phase 1 - Reactive - At this phase you have just started using EDI, usually as a result of pressure from a significant trading partner. EDI becomes a required nuisance.

Phase 2 - Proactive - Eventually the business begins to see the advantages of EDI and realizes the potential cost savings and decreased time to revenue. EDI becomes more important and dedicated resources are assigned to its expansion.

Phase 3 - Strategic - Ultimately EDI becomes a mature part of an integrated IT infrastructure with data seamlessly being shared with trading partners directly out of in-house ERP systems and becomes a critical strategic component of the company's IT infrastructure in support of revenues and cost reduction.