How Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) Makes Business Better

To understand how Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) will benefit your business, you must begin by understanding what EDI is and how it works. According to technological leader, IBM, “EDI is a standard format to exchange business information between two organizations electronically instead of using paper documents.”

Throughout business history, businesses have relied on the manual exchange of paper-based documents. In doing so, this manual processing produced long wait-times, required storage space for the physical documents, and resulted in errors. From invoices, to purchase orders, and receipts, etc. such documents were exchanged through faxes or postal mail. Once documents were received, they would require processing. Human input was required not only for data entry, but also in document transmission and filing. This is where EDI comes in. To remove human error, speed up the processing time, and eliminate the need for filing systems and space, EDI was created.

 Benefits of EDI.

Once EDI was introduced to businesses, an EDI standard was created to keep electronic processing at peak performance. By integrating EDI into a business, companies across the globe were able to overcome all the limitations of the manual data interchange process.

Now, EDI is used globally every day and simplifies the exchange of important documents across various platforms and systems. EDI is the digital version of document exchange today.

In addition to increasing productivity and time management within numerous businesses, EDI also increased document security. 

In addition to increasing document security and simplifying the document exchange process, EDI also offers organizations huge cost-savings.

Top 4 ways EDI saves your business money:

1. Reduces cost of Office Materials

Manual processing requires paper, and large amounts of it. When manual data processing is removed, or at least largely reduced, the cost of office materials decreases. Processing data manually includes costs associated to paper, printing, storing, copying, and processing the documents. By implementing EDI, companies can save a substantial amount of money that would otherwise be spent on paper and other manual processing activities. As EDI is implemented and used for data processing, businesses will further experience a diminished need for more storage space to hold paper copies. Lower overhead costs in turn allow for a smoother accounting process. Even further still, your company can benefit from reducing their carbon footprint, a PR win.

2. EDI virtually eliminates data processing errors overnight

Fact: Manual processes are more susceptible to errors compared to technological transactions. With EDI, gone are the days of missing information, errors, forgotten orders, missed invoices, and handwriting you cannot read. Missing purchase orders, duplicate orders, and data discrepancies can affect your business’ profits and overall reputation. Once manual processing errors are identified, they still need to be fixed, which takes time. With EDI, these errors do not exist. Implementation of EDI can help you minimize costly mistakes, such as these, and save a lot of time and money for your business.

3. Enhances Business Efficiency

EDI offers businesses a wide array of benefits but increasing business efficiency is at the top of the list. One of the primary advantages of EDI is that it saves a lot of time, which in turn, saves a lot of money. What would have taken you hours or days to process with manual processing is completed within minutes with EDI. When crucial business data is sent on time and is tracked in real-time, your business benefits from improved cash flow and reduced order-to-cash cycles. This can be a huge benefit for any business. In addition to reducing daily processing times, EDI also helps you adapt to the industry and technological developments quickly.

4. Increased Employee Productivity

EDI software not only saves your company time, but it also saves a lot of the time of your employees. Transactions that generally take five days to process manually by paper are completed in an hour. Automating paper-based tasks leaves your staff with more time to focus on their core tasks and enhances business productivity, which inevitably enhances your business’s bottom line.

Meet your EDI partner.

As a primary business process automation outsourcing provider, Integration, Inc.’s goal is to empower their clients to focus on their core areas of expertise, while leaving the streamlining process to their team of experts. This is accomplished by supplying excellent business process automation services that enhance your company’s ability to provide increased reliability and cost savings to your customers. Integration, Inc. specializes in enabling your company’s success by providing complete IT outsourcing solutions for business process automation customers like you.  

As a result, this allows your organization to respond rapidly to changing business environments, while meeting your customer’s needs consistently and in a more cost-effective manner.

Reach out to Integration, Inc. at (860) 623-0004 today for more information about implementing EDI into your business. Integration, Inc. also specializes in  check writing, third party billing, rebate fulfillment, barcode labels, and more!

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