This is a complete guide to EDI Outsourcing. In this in-depth guide you’ll learn:
Let’s dive right in!
EDI outsourcing means that you will not buy any EDI software or invest in any type of in-house EDI infrastructure, nor will you have to directly manage the EDI aspect of your relationship with your customer, including any large trading partners or retailers instead, all your EDI transactions will be handled by an EDI outsourcing company or 3rd party EDI provider.
In this chapter, we will talk about following topics:
- Introduction to EDI outsourcing
- Key reasons to outsource EDI
- Flexible payment options
- Biggest IT Challenge
Let’s dive right in!
Implementing and managing an EDI platform can be daunting for many organizations, especially small to medium size companies that tend to work with one or few large trading partners wo require companies to be EDI Compliant.
Also, developing and implementing an in-house EDI solution requires access to a broad range of skills and capital investment in hardware and software. Hence, looking for a managed EDI service provider is far more appealing.
In this chapter, we will talk about the importance of EDI outsourcing and who uses EDI outsourcing.
EDI outsourcing is used by many industries from automotive to retail, healthcare to construction companies, and many more!
In the following chapters, we will discuss some of the important benefits of EDI outsourcing.
Let's get started!
A seasonal vendor who only needs to exchange EDI documents during specific times of the year.
A vendor looking to cost-justify every business transaction
Looking to avoid costly upfront EDI software costs, then EDI outsourcing is right for your business
Able to integrate some business transactions but not others
Needing to meet a retailer’s EDI requirement immediately, without delay
In between business systems and looking for a way to keep your external-facing business running seamlessly in the meantime
Not interested in supporting the communications, software, or personnel required to run in house EDI
Looking to outsource your EDI Department
In this chapter, we will discuss what are the main reasons for businesses to choose 3rd party EDI providers.
We will discuss in detail the 11 reasons why some businesses choose EDI outsourcing services.
Let’s begin!
Meet your trading partners/customers’ EDI requirements and increase your sales with Commport’s managed EDI services (EDI outsourcing). Commport team can manage all aspects of your EDI transactions like sending and receiving orders, invoices, and other electronic documents quickly, easily, and cost-effectively without investing in actual EDI software or solution.
With Commport EDI outsourcing services, you can streamline your business processes and shorten the order-to-cash cycle. By using our FAX to EDI / EDI to FAX solutions or you can also use our blended options enabling you to send /receive documents electronically while faxing others. The solution enables you to reduce costs, increase efficiency and improve data accuracy.
Commport will provide the experience, skills, and infrastructure to allow you to concentrate on your core business and which will allow you to reallocate your resources to manage more strategic activities.
Commport offers various types of reporting such as order acknowledgment (997 reporting), easy to read reports for all transactions processed by the service bureau. Access to Commport Network’s online real-time visibility tool, RouterLink. Packaging instructions to accurately convey how your shipment has been prepared.
Quickly and easily connect to over 6000+ trading partner maps. Connect to your customer and start exchanging all the EDI messages your customers have requested. Our trading partner catalog makes it easy for you to achieve and maintain EDI compliance.
Commport managed EDI service provides you with a first-class infrastructure with no requirement for hardware or software. With managed EDI service your organization will be free from the burden and risks associated with capital investment, technical issues, and maintenance costs.
Fully redundant hardware, software, and networking components
Delivered by the tier-3 state-of-the-art SOC 2 certified data center
Industry-leading service availability by providing a combination of the best hardware and network components.
Robust and regularly tested disaster recovery capabilities including real-time switch processes
Every trading partner requires a different communication method, internet protocols, and networks to integrate applications and exchange data. As your managed service provider, Commport will handle all integrations for you.
100% EDI Compliance Guaranteed!
Here are some of the important factors
- Pricing
- Security
- Customer support
- Scale
Lets go in more detail.
Each company has a different pricing model when it comes to selling its managed EDI services. Some of the pricing models are pay-as-you-go, monthly, and yearly. However, with Commport-managed EDI services you get to choose any of the 3 pricing models depending on your business needs.
Also, a few other things to check before signing the contract with any other service provider is check if they have any hidden or additional charges such as character limits, free VAN services, EDI mapping, or record lengths. If you are dealing with a large amount of data exchange, it might be better to look at all-inclusive packages. Commport offers many types of all-inclusive packages. Please contact our sales team now for more info.
So, to help you choose the best pricing model it’s better to first assess the volume of your data exchange which can help you choose the right pricing model that best suits your business scenario.
Each trading partner you do business with may have different requirements when it comes to the integration and exchange of EDI documents and requires different communication protocols. So, it is important to choose the right solution that supports various connections and integrations. Also, it should be compatible enough to add new future connections easily, so that it does not affect your business relationship and growth.
Also, you need to evaluate what type of integration you need between your ERP and business systems and EDI. We recommend using a solution that easily integrates with your existing ERP system as that is easier to manage and track EDI documents.
Security is the most important factor to consider before hiring a managed EDI service provider company. Always ask for proof of accreditations and certifications. As cybersecurity is a growing concern and can disrupt business stability and lead to losses. So, it is important to ensure that the EDI provider has a secure platform as you will be exchanging crucial documents with your business partners using EDI.
Having 24/7 round-the-clock customer support is crucial to ensure business continuity. Especially if you have global operations working in different time zones. Also, this means you will need EDI translation services if there are different formats in use in different regions of organizations. One another thing to also consider when your global operations are to see if the EDI provider offers multilingual support, as some of your customers speak a different language than English, and it’s better to consider an EDI provider which offers multilingual customer support options.
In any IT environment downtime is common. Sometimes it could be planned downtime and sometimes it could be due to some technical glitches. However, the most important thing to consider is how your EDI provider manages this downtime in terms of customer communication and backup. Because it is important to note that any downtime can limit the exchange of documents and can cause losses to the business.
So, it is important to note that your provider has strong communication and backup processes in place in such a situation which could affect your business continuity. Also do clarify, what kind of support you can expect from their customer support team during downtime.
The two main reasons for many businesses to switch to managed EDI services are one they don’t have time to invest in infrastructure and the other to automate the business process and avoid manual human interventions to avoid processing delays and errors. Considering these reasons, it’s important that your business chooses the right EDI vendor which offers a user-friendly solution that can be operated by individuals with minimal to no prior EDI knowledge.
It should be easy for you to add business partners and use the solution. Also, one other thing to consider as well is to check if the EDI vendor provides onboarding tutorial videos, as it makes onboarding a breeze.
The experience of an EDI vendor in a particular set of industries is also very important, as they already understand the EDI format and can also have existing connections with your trading partner in your industry. Also, the EDI standard format varies from one industry to another. The more industries the EDI vendor has experience in is better.
As your business grows the solution should be able to handle the changes. A good EDI solution should be able to let you extend or increase the number of EDI business relations such as customers, vendors, or warehouses with ease. Also, you should check that the EDI provider offers an expedited onboarding process for all your vendors and customers can help you get started with EDI quickly. That’s why you should try to find a provider who has experience in your industry and has established relationships with your trading partners already, which will make the onboarding process faster.
Going to multiple vendors for different EDI needs can be time-consuming and frustrating. It’s important to identify a vendor who offers a complete range of EDI solutions and services under one roof. As your business scale, you may require different services, and Companies like Commport Communications, not only provides managed EDI services, but can also provide EDI translation, mapping, and various other solutions under one roof. This can make your job easier and as a business owner, you don’t have to look for different vendors for different services.
As we all know time is money. The more time it takes to find a suitable solution the more money you lose as a business. So, it is important to ask your new vendor before onboarding their services how long will it take them to complete the implementation and get running. You need to ask what the time was taken for similar projects in the past and can they provide you with tentative deadlines to complete the project on time. The most important step is to check for references of past implementations. Once you learn about other companies and their experiences and challenges, it might be easier to decide.
Before deciding on an EDI vendor, it’s also important to check if the services provided by the vendor are compatible with your business technology, like does it get easily integrated with your ERP, accounting, billing, order processing, and other systems at your end. The more compatible the solution is the better it will integrate with all your internal business systems and can help automate the whole process and improve business efficiency and cashflow.
As your business scale, the total data transaction number will also increase. So, it is important to note how much volume of data your vendor system can handle at any given time and whether is it easy to scale this volume as your business grows. Also, another important thing to consider here is the pricing, with increased data transaction volume there is a chance of an increase in pricing as well, so it’s better to understand your vendor pricing model and how it going to cost you as a business owner before signing up with any EDI vendor. The tip here is to choose a vendor that offers flexible paying options.
Unlock the full potential of your supply chain with our comprehensive EDI Buyer's Guide — your first step towards seamless, efficient, and error-free transactions
In this chapter, we will be discussing:
- Pros and Cons of In house Vs Outsource EDI
- Importance of EDI outsourcing
- Advantages of using EDI outsourcing over In-house EDI solution
Lets get started!
In-house or outsource? Every company must take this decision at one time or another regardless of business size or operations. Now the next question which pops up in our mind is the pros and cons of in-house/outsourced EDI solutions.
The table below summarizes the pros and cons of each solution which can help you make a better decision.
| In-House EDI (Cons) | EDI Outsourcing (Managed EDI Services) (Pros) |
|---|---|
|
Need to build a hardware infrastructure |
Existing reliable state-of-the-art infrastructure |
|
Translation and mapping software |
Managed translation via cloud / SAAS platform |
|
Require continues learning |
Decades of relevant industry experience |
|
Requires experienced staff and consultants |
You will have 24/7 expert support |
|
Need to develop each data format from scratch |
Unlimited data formats |
|
limited document types. Adding new document types is time-consuming |
Endless document types |
|
Adding new protocols needs experienced staff and skills |
A wide array of communication protocols |
|
Infrastructure maintenance |
Your outsourcing firm maintains infrastructure |
|
You need to handle your trading partner’s special requirements |
Outsourcing firm can handle your trading partners’ special requirements |
|
It’s difficult to enter new markets and territories |
Increased business agility by giving you a means to quickly enter new markets and territories |
|
You to develop each new solution on your own |
Can provide multiple solutions under a single platform |
|
Requires lots of IT resources |
Reduced IT costs |
|
May require manual data entry |
Automate data entry |
|
Prone to human error |
Human errors are eliminated |
|
Ongoing costs for licensing, certifications, resources, and security |
Pay only for what you use and scale up or down based on business demands |
|
Hosted on your own servers and hardware |
Cloud based technology |
Here is the list of some of the important benefits of EDI outsourcing:
- Reduce costs
- Increase business efficiency
- Improve cashflow
- Easy to add new trading partners
- Ensure compliance
Lets learn more!
Commport’s Service Bureau offers managed EDI services built on our strength and expertise
By outsourcing your EDI to Commport, you set yourself free to focus on your business and what you do best. EDI outsourcing means that you will not need to make any investment in EDI software, nor will you have to directly manage the EDI aspect of your relationship with your customer, including large retail clients.
EDI outsourcing is also suitable if you have implemented a fully integrated EDI-compliant system but still have partners who want to send you faxes. Commport’s managed EDI Service Bureau can be your clearinghouse for fax automation. We can process all your paper-based documents and generate their electronic equivalents in the format of your preference for electronic integration.
Commport’s Service Bureau offers managed EDI services built on our strength and expertise. We will receive your purchase orders at our office and forward them to you via fax or email. You simply fulfill the order and send the details of the shipment back to us. We’ll enter this
information for you and send it on to your end customer.
Commport’s Service Bureau is your path to growth. From managed EDI to EDI Web Forms and fully integrated data processing, Commport has the solution to fit your business.
Our integration specialists will coordinate with your trading partners and providers, requirements by expertly managing complicated EDI testing alongside your transitions and migrations. All of which ensure a smooth onboarding period with no interruptions to your current processes.
Just provide us with your trading partner mandates and mapping requirements to our EDI experts and our team will make sure everything is implemented seamlessly without interrupting your internal operations.
Our solution grows easily as your business grows and adding new trading partners or EDI transactions is very easy and EDI experts will take care of all the integrations as they come in.
We are one of the few companies in the world to offer multilingual and 24/7 live support. We have whopping 87% customer satisfaction as per our recent customer satisfaction survey in 2021
Commport network has an impeccable 99.99% uptime record which means uninterrupted data flow with no downtime for system maintenance or software upgrades.
Contact us today and find out how easy EDI can be with Managed EDI from Commport Service Bureau.
EDI outsourcing is the process of having a third-party company like Commport Communications manage a part or entire process of using EDI to exchange data with trading partners. While businesses of many sizes use EDI outsourcing, the primary benefit is usually associated with smaller businesses.
The key reason for outsourcing is the reduction of the cost of investing in your own infrastructure while ensuring that you have access to the right level of skills to deliver your required service.
With EDI outsourcing you get the benefit from a first-class infrastructure with no requirement for hardware or software. Free your organization from the burden and risks associated with capital investment, technical issues, and maintenance costs.
Your company can reduce IT costs by 30% or more by switching to a managed EDI service. Some providers use a pay-as-you-go model, while others use the monthly or annual subscription. These costs will depend on volume (usually measured in kilo-characters contained in your EDI transactions), the number of retail partners, and the level of support. At Commport we offer all 3 flexible payment options.
In this guide we cover in detail all aspects of EDI outsourcing talking about its benefits, why choose an EDI outsourcing vendor, and what costs and payment plans you can expect. This guide can help you with your decision to move your EDI transactions to a managed EDI service provider or not.
