As it has been for decades, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) continues to be a critical data-driven technology for businesses around the world. It enables companies (retail, healthcare, logistics, and other industries) to exchange data between business partners using a standardized format.
However, companies that rely on legacy EDI systems are encountering multiple problems. In fact, legacy EDI systems slow down the pace of business and force organizations into low gear. Some of the problems include:
- Long, highly complex onboarding processes that take weeks or months.
- Poor support available for APIs forces organizations to manage diverse communication silos.
- Poor visibility into transactions keeps business analysts and other non-EDI developers out of the loop on multiple business transactions.
- Excessive involvement in IT does not allow them to focus on more high-value tasks.
In order to address problems, it’s time for companies to reimagine EDI integration solutions, helping them streamline data exchanges and deliver the value promised to customers in the age of digital transformation.
Modernizing EDI for Faster Value Generation
Companies can reimagine their EDI integration approach through self-service and automation. How?
Self-service data integration and automation enable companies to speed up data exchanges and B2B transactions, thus delivering the value promised to customers much more quickly.
Self-service data integration and automation give power to non-technical business users to implement new data connections with customers in minutes instead of months. Non-technical users can exchange information electronically in order to drive transactions with speed. Users can also point and click through easy screens to onboard customers up to 80 percent faster. They can leverage pre-built connectors, shared templates, dashboards, and more to implement new customer data connections in minutes instead of months.
At the same time, IT is freed from focusing on implementing custom codes and extensive EDI flows. Instead, these solutions can free IT to focus on other important business priorities.
Further, the technological advances in machine learning and security protocols have empowered non-technical users to use artificial intelligence to understand and define data semantics, and then make data connections following those data rules. Further, a single click is required to retrieve, breakdown, and manage multi-dimensional, complex data and stream it in real-time to execute modern-day business transactions.
Now, as non-technical business users can implement new data connections quickly, they can connect with customers without delay. That enables businesses to address the emerging demands of customers and meet them on time. In other words, companies can deliver the value promised to customers, delighting them to the core. Such happy customers bring in more revenue because they are more likely to buy more products or services from the company.
In short, self-service and automation bring non-technical business users to the forefront while freeing IT to focus on other high-value tasks. Non-technical users can exchange data between myriad business partners, delivering the value promised to customers and ultimately improving their ease of doing business.