In this blog, we will go over the setup of EDI integrations and show how easily your business and/or operations team can leverage Adeptia Connect to automate partner onboarding and make it 80 percent faster.
First let’s take an example of an EDI 204 mapping transaction lifecycle with a B2B partner.
EDI 204 is Load Tender sent out by a customer to a transport/logistics carrier (shipper). Shipper after receiving the EDI 204 sends out a functional acknowledgment EDI 997 and an EDI 990 Load Tender Response notifying the Customer of its acceptance to ship the product. Shipper then sends out an EDI 214 Shipment Status to the Customer notifying the freight details, delivery date/time, and destination of the product shipment. Once the freight is delivered, the shipper sends out an EDI 210 Freight Invoice to the Customer for payment. EDI 856 transaction is sent to the Receiver of the freight that includes order information, descriptions of products, types of packaging used, carrier information and more.
Suppose a customer sends out an EDI 204 to a shipper called Joe Trucking Company. Below is the lifecycle diagram of EDI 204 between the Customer requesting the freight to be shipped and Joe Trucking Company.
In the above diagram, for the inbound transaction, the EDI 204 mapping is done. Meaning EDI 204 is mapped to Transport Management Systems such as TMW XML file format using AI. Finally, The outbound files are being mapped from TMW XML to the EDI format.
Now let’s walkthrough the steps of how a business user manages a particular Customer’s EDI 204 Transactions in Adeptia. User clicks on the Customer profile and clicks on View Transactions as shown below. In this page, a user can also click on Invite Partner and add new customers into your network in a seamless way. This streamlines customer/partner onboarding, making it faster by up to 80%. This enables non-technical business users proffer delightful experiences to customers, making them easier to do business with. To add, users can categorize their customers under different Networks such as Enterprise Accounts, Logistics, Rail, Vendors, etc.
In Adeptia, a self-service data integration platform, a business user can efficiently manage a particular customer’s EDI 204 transactions using a few simple steps:
- Accessing the Platform: The business user logs into the Adeptia platform using their credentials to access the user-friendly interface.
- Navigating to the Customer’s EDI 204 Transactions: Once logged in, the user can navigate to the relevant section or dashboard where all customer transactions are organized. In this case, they will select the EDI 204 mapping transaction type.
- Viewing Customer-specific Details: Upon selecting the EDI 204 transaction for the particular customer, the user will be presented with all the specific details related to that customer’s transactions. This could include shipment information, tracking numbers, delivery schedules, and more.
- Monitoring and Tracking Transactions: Adeptia provides real-time monitoring and tracking capabilities, allowing the business user to view the status and progress of each EDI 204 transaction in real-time. This helps them stay informed about any potential issues or delays that need attention.
- Handling Exceptions and Errors: In case of any exceptions or errors encountered during the EDI 204 transaction process, Adeptia’s self-service platform provides built-in exception handling features. The business user can access and resolve these issues promptly to ensure smooth transaction processing.
- Communication and Collaboration: Adeptia allows seamless communication and collaboration among team members involved in managing customer transactions. The business user can communicate with stakeholders, suppliers, or partners directly within the platform to address any queries or concerns.
- Automating Workflows: Adeptia’s self-service integration platform enables the automation of workflows, reducing the need for manual intervention. Business users can set up automated processes for specific EDI 204 mapping transactions, ensuring timely and accurate handling of customer transactions.
Now clicking on View Transactions shows a list of configured transactions for that Customer. Each of the tiles shown below represent an EDI transaction describing the transaction type, flow direction and the partner. User clicks on the EDI transaction and can edit any of the properties such as EDI 204 mapping, source and target endpoints and rules governing the schedule and polling intervals that kick-off the execution of the message.
Each of the EDI transactions shown above contains the following properties:
- Selection of EDI Message Type such as 204, 210, 214, 990
- AI-powered Mapping between EDI to Transport Management System data formats such as XML, CSV, Excel, JSON etc.
- Source and Target endpoints in terms of how the message will be received and where to send the converted output
Mapping is key part of the EDI integration and Adeptia provides a business user-friendly mapper interface that allows user to either reuse an existing template map or create a new map. Mapper interface is graphical and browser-based and contains all the functions and multiple EDI format capabilities that are needed to transform the EDI data to any other format such as XML, Flat File, JSON, CSV, Fixed Length, Excel, etc. Transaction can also integrate the output data directly with the Shipment Tracking software. Mapper includes functions such as Cross-Reference tables, Math formulas, Aggregation, Pivots and many others. It also allows business user to run database queries to do lookups into external data repositories.
In terms of Dashboards and Reporting, Adeptia provides full visibility of the entire EDI lifecycle as described above. Here’s a snapshot of the EDI Dashboard and the X12 Interchange Logs.
In addition to the Dashboard, Adeptia also provides EDI X12 Interchange logs as shown below. The logs provide a full B2B Transaction view of the inbound/outbound transactions, links to actual source data, partner identification, and status. User can drill-down and see more details and see errors and can take corrective actions.
Adeptia provides users the ability to track any EDI fields that they would want to search in the dashboard. For example, user can track Shipment ID in EDI 204 and when that Shipment ID is searched in Advanced Search screen, any EDI transaction that matches the Shipment ID will show up in the search results. Thus, a particular EDI 204, EDI 990, EDI 214, EDI 210 belonging to a Shipment ID will be shown in the results. This helps the Operations and CSRs to respond to customer inquiries more efficiently. Features such as resubmitting an EDI is also available in situations when a Partner does not receive the file and asks your CSR to resend a file.
Another key aspect to Adeptia is that it also provides a client-facing interface for partner user to login and configure EDI exchange. You can also refer to the Adeptia solution for Logistics.
In regards to integrating with Target applications, Adeptia provides pre-built connectors to SAP IDoc/BAPI/tRFC, Sage, Oracle, JDE and Transportation Systems. In terms of Source and Target locations, Adeptia supports AS2 (Drummond certified), SFTP, REST/SOAP APIs, HTTPS, Email and also connectors to ERP and Transport Management (TMW) systems.