EDI Services Made Simple

6 Easy steps to EDI implementation

Ask the following questions to gather the information you need..

Who is asking you to trade electronically?

Contact your Sales and Accounts departments to find out which of your customers are interested in trading electronically with you. You may wish to check any pending contracts and negotiations where having EDI, AS2 or FTP (XML) links could be a positive sales advantage to the business. You may also wish to contact your customers directly to ask about using EDI or ecommerce. (especially if they appear on Freeway's Trading Partner list)

What messages do they require?

There is usually a 'Message Implementation Guide' made available by the Hubs (normally the customer in a trading relationship, sending orders to their suppliers) explaining their message requirements in great technical detail. Freeway already understands this information; there is no need to examine the detailed message specifications. Freeway's software solutions are tailored to meet the exact requirement of the Hubs from both a technical and business point of view.

What volume of messages per month are you likely to transact with your customers or suppliers?

The most common ecommerce messages used are Sales Invoices and Sales Orders, as these represent the largest numbers of documents to be exchanged in a trading relationship. It is useful to find out the likely volumes you will be exchanging - there are savings to be made in selecting the best EDI VAN connection to suit your business volumes, alternatively (and especially for hubs looking to build their own ecommerce communities) there may be considerations about using Internet connections such as AS2 or FTP. Ascertaining the likely document volumes will help you in determining the benefits to your company of an integrated EDI solution rather than a standalone one.

Would having to re-key these messages affect accuracy and create extra work for our staff?

Freeway does offer standalone ecommerce solutions that use the original incoming Order data to create return documents such as Acknowledgements, Delivery Notes and Invoices with minimal re-keying. This may still involve additional work in comparing information with a back office system to ensure accurate information is being sent.

Freeway's integrated solution eradicates this re-keying.

Do you need EDI or XML installed in multiple departments across your local area network?

Often there are separate departments handling Sales Order Processing and Finance;
Freeway's software can be installed to allow multiple network users to operate their own actions independently, with the core system data stored on a central server.

Do I need a VAN (Value Added Network) connection, or an alternative such as AS2 or FTP?

You will need to look at the requirements of your trading partner, their capability will determine the most suitable connection for you. Most trading partners in the UK grocery sector use EDI VAN's, in the stationery sector you are more likely to require FTP or even Email. In recent times there are more companies using AS2 as well. Most ecommerce communications (even to a VAN) benefit from a high-speed broadband Internet connection, this allows higher speed connection and less time spent downloading messages. For AS2 users, Internet connection is compulsory.

Freeway's software is already FTP, AS2 and VAN enabled, so specific trading partners requiring any of these are catered for as part of a single solution. Your Freeway consultant will provide advice as to which communications protocol you will need for each of your trading partners.

Read more about the advantages of edi here.

Copyright © 2005 - 2008 Freeway Commerce Ltd

Registered office: Carriage House, Walnut Tree Close, Guildford, Surrey GU1 4TX 
Registered in England No. 3659111