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"In 1995, Emanio was one of the first companies to send
EDI messages over the Internet and integrate these into backend ERP and Supply Chain Management systems through a single tool."
Source : Emanio
5 Keys to Automated Data Interchange
Automated Data Interchange is also known as:
Automated Data Management,
Electronic Data Interchange,
EDI,
Edi Integration,
Data Interchange Standard,
Automatic Data,
Automatic identification ,
data capture,
Automated Data Collection,
Automatic Data Patch.
Five keys to buying EDI
Integration in the mid-market
Critical questions mid-market companies
should consider before buying an EDI Integration
solution
As
mid-market manufacturers and users of EDI expand, the need for integrating
EDI data with in-house ERP and accounting systems becomes necessary. However
with over 80% of data integration projects failing, choosing the correct EDI
integration solution can be a daunting and painful process. This white paper
examines five key steps to buying EDI integration software. Understand the key
steps to ensure success and learn how to select a vendor that will help you
versus hinder you in the process.
The Need For Edi Integration
Over
the course of the past six years the market for ERP software has seen dramatic
shifts. During that period, over 60% of mid-market companies (companies whose
revenues are above $100M per year but below $1B) have bought new ERP systems.
As mid-market companies bring new and expanded ERP systems in-house they are
beginning to face the same challenges that were once the exclusive domain of
large enterprises. One of these requirements is the need to integrate data
received via Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) into their newly acquired ERP
and accounting systems. The benefits of EDI integration are well established
and quantifiable both for major companies and for growing midmarket companies.
The most significant benefit is that of the reduction or elimination of manual
data entry and the associated costs - both in terms of manpower as well as
costs associated with errors in data entry due to manual processes. As
businesses begin to consider deployments of new systems they invariable also
review internal processes and procedures.
Eliminating the manual data
entry process required to move EDI data into ERP systems can produce
significant savings for mid-market companies. A typical manual data entry process
often involves a series of steps as laid out in the table below. With even the
most basic EDI transfer procedure, the steps typically involve the printing
of a report, the duplication of this report for the benefit of multiple data
entry clerks and the manual keying of that data into the ERP system. The
manual process does, however, not end here. It continues at the opposite end
of the transaction - when orders are fulfilled the procedure must be reversed
with printed reports of pending shipments being duplicated and provided to
data entry clerks, who in turn re-create the data for the EDI system that is
then used to communicate with outside trading partners. As the table below
illustrates, the cost of such a procedure when measured in time can be
astounding; especially when one considers that this procedure must be
duplicated for every order and transaction that is processed in-house. Couple
this with the enormous costs associated with mistakes and errors that are
invariably made during the manual data entry processes, and an integrated
solution that dynamically routes data between EDI and ERP systems becomes
imperative.
| The Manual Order Process |
|
|
| Print Documents Manually |
9 minutes |
17 minutes |
| Manually Archive Documents |
4 minutes |
| Manually Fax Documents |
3 minutes |
| Mail 1 Document Manually |
1 minute |
Once the
decision has been made to adopt EDI integration, the next logical question is
who to turn to in order to accomplish painless EDI integration. What is the
right method for data integration? Should you just ask your ERP vendor? How
will EDI integration affect your organization? How will it affect your
processes? What do you need to be ready to embark on an EDI integration
project? With over 80% of data integration projects failing, or coming in at
170% of budget, the need to carefully answer these and other questions can mean
the difference between reaping the benefits of successful EDI integration or
suffering the results of failure.
The Five Keys To Buying Edi Integration
Key #1 - Understand What You Are Getting Yourself Into
The single biggest
mistake mid-market companies often make in EDI integration is to
underestimate the project they are about to embark on when they choose to
integrate EDI. No matter what you read on vendor sites, EDI integration is
complex; it requires in-depth knowledge of your data and it takes time. Being
prepared for that will make you have more realistic goals of the time-frame
involved, and the results you can expect. As you think about the EDI
integration project it's also important to think about how EDI integration will
affect your company - both before, and after your data integration project is
completed. The first question is: how will your process change after you
integrate your data? As you think about this question, consider all aspects
of how EDI data is handled today. What reports are created? How are the
reports printed? How often? What data is available? What should happen next
to that data? Who is responsible for it? How will all of these processes have
to change after your integration is complete? Planning for all these types of
questions will ensure that you minimize the number of surprises you have
after your integration project is complete.
A second key question to
consider is: who will need to be involved in the integration project? This
may seem like an obvious question but it's important to consider all aspects of
the project and the people that may have valuable input. Where does the
expertise reside in your organization? As companies grow and manual processes
expand, much of the information that is vital to keeping processes functional
and healthy is often undocumented and resides in the minds of the people
involved with the daily work. Involving the people who do the work as early
in the EDI integration planning as possible will ensure that you are exposed
to all the different aspects of your manual procedures and how they will affect
the integration process. An important related question is: how will these
"manual operators" be affected by the EDI integration after it is complete?
Companies often don't consider the role these employees will have
post-integration and but these people will come to realize that their jobs
will become redundant and unnecessary in an integrated environment. Planning
for the re-purposing of these employees before embarking on the integration
project will minimize the frustrations you have to deal with before and after
it's complete.
Key #2 -Start, Learn, Correct, Expand
Any EDI integration project is going to have initial problems. Once again,
don't believe the hype - you can plan as much as you want but you will always
find that there are challenges in your EDI integration project that you simply
did not foresee. For this reason, it is critical that you follow a process that
allows for mistakes and unforeseen challenges. As your EDI integration project
proceeds, you will notice that it is significantly easier to deal with
unexpected circumstances on a small scale than it is on a large scale. For this
reason, we always recommend that our clients begin with a sub-set of their EDI
integration goals. Perhaps it's integrating only the data from one or two of
your trading partners that use EDI - the smaller ones - so that you can iron out
some issues before you move on to the larger trading partners. It's important to
remember that you are integrating data that is critical to your operational
health; act accordingly.
As you being to wrap up your smaller "trial" integration project it's
important to have a review process in place where the team can analyze what went
right, what went wrong and what could have been done differently or better.
Through this process of implementation, review and re-implementation, problems
will be ironed out and your chances of success will be maximized when the larger
integration project is embarked upon. As you start on the larger EDI integration
plan, be sure to set it up so that the integration happens in stages; don't
attempt to do everything at once. Stage your integration so that each set of
data that can be segmented is handled as an individual mini project. You may
start by integrating by trading partner, or perhaps by transaction set with all
in-bound purchase orders first. Regardless of how you do it, make sure that you
have thought through a process that you can manage and that has the least
negative impact on your organization.
Key #3 - It's All About The Data
You have looked at your existing processes, you've planned a phased
implementation of your EDI integration, you are ready to go, right? Maybe.
For mid-market companies one of the biggest implementation challenges often
deals with data. There are two aspects of the data you are going to be dealing
with that you need to consider; data cleanliness and subject-matter expertise.
Data cleanliness simply means that before you embark on your EDI integration
project you should consider the state of your data and how it will impact the
project. More specifically, think about issues like duplication or inaccurate
data; for example you may employ a lookup table to cross reference purchase
orders with stock keeping units (SKUs) that your company uses. Duplicate SKU
numbers with different descriptions may not be a problem for a data entry clerk
who may intuitively know the difference, but they could create significant
problems for your data integration project. This is just one example of how
dirty data could impact your project. As you prepare for your EDI integration
project, review all the data sets that are going to be impacted by the project
and ensure that the data has been scrubbed and corrected.
A second aspect of managing data, that mid-market companies often have
trouble with, is access to a subject-matter expert. It's important to understand
that whether you are doing the data integration with consultants or with
services provided by your EDI integration vendor, their subject matter expertise
is data integration - not necessarily the systems involved. For this reason you
will need access to someone who is familiar with your ERP and your EDI systems
to be able to answer technical questions as they arise during the project.
Having access to such a subject matter expertise will make it significantly
easier to get your project completed on-time and within budget.
Key #4 - Selecting The Right Software
As you research EDI integration solutions for your business, you are bound to
find yourself on a vendor's website with an impressive list of companies to
which they have sold data integration software. As a mid-market business it's
important to keep in mind that just because it worked for a Fortune 500
organization does not necessarily mean it will work for you. As you embark on
your vendor and software selection process, consider several key issues about
the software you select that will help you narrow your field:
- Q1 What is my budget?
This may seem obvious but data
integration projects are notorious for going over budget. The reason for
this is two-fold: scope-creep is responsible for a significant part of the
problem - companies that haven't prepared properly have to adjust for
changing circumstances. The second reason, however, is related with poor
planning regarding software. It's critical that your software budget is
established as early as possible so that when possible vendors are selected,
you will be able to quickly gauge whether the software being considered is
within your budget.
- Q2 Who will do the integration work?
It's surprising
how often companies will embark on an EDI integration project only to
realize after they have already committed to it, that they don't have any
in-house expertise to perform the integration. Learning how to work with
data integration packages is not something you should embark on unless you
plan on having that subject-matter expertise in-house even after your
integration is completed. If you decide to do the integration using in-house
resources, the software features and ease of- use utilized in the
implementation process should be important factors in your decision. If on
the other hand, you will use third party consultants or rely on the software
vendor to perform the work, the features of the software you should focus on
might be more related to your post-implementation needs.
- Q3 What formats will you need to support?
Understanding the file formats involved in your EDI integration project goes
back to having a subject-matter expert available. How does your ERP system
import and export data? Via a flat-file? Proprietary format? XML? APIs? What
kind of format does your EDI system use? Having the answers to the questions
will allow you to know to ask the software vendor if they support the
specific formats you need to use.
- Q4 How fast does it need to be?
The speed of EDI
integration software is a factor that mid-market companies don't often
consider. After all, just about any data integration package on the market
today can handle the data volume generated by a mid-market organization. The
key question to consider however, is room for growth. As your business
grows, your data volumes will expand exponentially; and since data
integration is not an easy process you want to ensure that your systems will
be able to handle the expanded data volume without having to re-architect
your EDI integration solution.
Key #5 - Selecting The Right Vendor
Choosing the right EDI integration vendor is the fifth, and in some cases,
the most critical aspect of your EDI integration planning. The choices available
to mid-market companies for data integration are many, and often selecting the
most appropriate vendor can be a very confusing process. As you seek a vendor,
consider a number of key criteria:
- Q1 How much experience in integrating EDI does the vendor have?
One of the first aspects of selecting the right vendor is to consider how
much experience the vendor has in EDI integration. There are many vendors of
data integration packages; however, working with EDI integration requires a
specific skill set and introduces a set of challenges that are unique to EDI
integration. When selecting your EDI vendor, ensure that you work with one
that has been in the EDI integration business and understands the challenges
involved.
- Q2 What is the vendor's primary market focus?
Everyone wants to work with the big guys right? The right answer is going to
depend on the market focus of your EDI integration software vendor. Do they
primarily focus on enterprise customers? If that's their main area of focus,
how much attention will you be able to get as a midmarket organization? Will
you be on the top of the priority list if there are any problems? Are you
going to get access to the best resources the vendor has available? Select a
data integration vendor that focuses on small and mid-market companies and
you are much more likely to get the kind of service that will mean the
difference between success and failure for you.
- Q3 Will you have access to professional services?
Even if you have in-house resources, or if you have hired consultants to do
most of the EDI integration work, it's still important to have ready access
to professional services from the software vendor. The reason for this is
simple - you may only rely on them for training - or you may end up needing
their expertise to help you resolve a challenging part of your project.
Whatever the case, if you don't have ready access to professional services
it may put your integration project in jeopardy.
- Q4 Do you have access to more than one integration package?
One size its all - it's often one of the biggest challenges of buying EDI
integration. A package designed for an enterprise class deployment at a
Fortune 500 organization may be overkill for your organization. Similarly, a
package designed to do basic EDI integration with small business software
may not provide the type of processing power or business process management
that your business needs. As you talk to possible software vendors, make
sure they have products that span both ends of the spectrum in a way that
allows you to start with lower end packages and migrate upwards as your
needs grow over time.
- Q5 Are you getting too many promises?
This last
aspect is often one of the biggest challenges of finding a good vendor. It's
common practice in the EDI integration business to promise first and deal
with repercussions later. Be wary of software vendors that seem to be able
to deliver on all of your requirements without any concerns. Over the nearly
twenty years that EMANIO has been in the business of integration, we have
seldom run across a project that didn't force us to ask questions at the
very beginning.
As you select your software vendor, these are just some of the questions to
consider. The most important aspect of choosing an EDI integration vendor is to
ensure that it is a company with which you are comfortable doing business; you
will be spending a lot of time talking to them over the coming months - make
sure it's someone with whom you can work
EMANIO, The Mid-Market Choice For EDI Integration
At EMANIO we understand EDI and data integration. For nearly twenty years
EMANIO has powered EDI integration for mid-market companies. Our professional
services team has decades of combined experience and has worked in all phases of
EDI integration in a multitude of industries. As a company, EMANIO can help you
with all five elements of buying EDI integration - from planning your
integration project to helping you select the right product from our family rich
with EDI and data integration solutions. Our network of resellers and
consultants can work with you to help ensure a successful integration project.
As a mid-market company you will find that EMANIO offers a number of significant
benefits:
EMANIO Can Help You Plan
Our professional services team can help you plan the entire EDI integration
project ' from the selection of the first set of trading partners for a small
test case to the full blown integration project. Our team of consultants has
decades of combined experience in EDI and data integration; we have helped
organizations very similar to yours successfully deploy integration projects of
all kinds.
EMANIO Can Help You Grow
Our data integration platforms are designed to provide the maximum level of
performance and the maximum level of flexibility. From our Link!™ data
integration platform that starts as low as $5,000 to our enterprise-class
Unite!™ data integration software, we have the tools to help you as your
business grows.
EMANIO Has The Longevity You Need
In business since 1994, EMANIO is a highly successful, highly profitable
vendor of EDI and data integration software for small business. We have
implemented projects for organizations ranging in size from very small to
Fortune 100 companies and have incorporated the lessons we have learned over
those years into our products and services.
EMANIO Has The Focus You Need
Because we specialize in EDI and integration projects for mid-sized
companies, we can focus 100% attention on each of our customer's needs. That
means that EMANIO will be there to support you, no matter when, or how you need
help.
EMANIO Has The Products You Need
Emanio helps organizations successfully integrate their EDI data into their
ERP systems by providing a powerful, flexible data integration and EDI platform
that provides out of the box solutions to accelerate the integration process.
With EMANIO's powerful data integration capabilities, Emanio clients can quickly
enable a truly integrated system that allows for the fastest possible
order-to-cash cycle, allowing organizations to receive, process, invoice and
collect on orders in record time.
By leveraging EMANIO's data integration and EDI platforms for EDI to ERP
Integration, organizations benefit from:
- Significantly reduced transaction processing times
- Minimized risk of costly mistakes due to data entry errors
- Improved data accuracy across systems and organizations
- Improved bottom line performance for the business through higher
processing power and improved data accuracy and responsiveness
Key capabilities include:
- Easy access to multiple data types through an architecture that supports
both modern and legacy systems.
- Sophisticated transformation capabilities to reconcile all data
- Enterprise-class engine capable of processing over 20,000 data items per
minute
- Rapid deployment through the use of pre-built Application "packs"
- Pre-built EDI "kits" that make complying with trading partner EDI
mandates fast and easy.
Learn More
Learn more about EMANIO by visiting our web site at http://www.emanio.com and
by downloading our other whitepapers on data integration and EDI. EMANIO was
founded in 1994 and has operations across the United States and in Europe. The
company helps organizations solve business requirements through analysis,
technology and services, and eMessaging through EDI / XML and data integration,
ASN and bar-coding solutions,
In 1995, EMANIO was the first company to send EDI messages over the Internet
and integrate these into back-end ERP and Supply Chain Management systems
through a single visual tool. With over 2,000 customers, EMANIO provides a broad
line of global trading community B2B software and data integration solutions
services for supplier and customer e-commerce connection and interaction. In
2002, EMANIO acquired Trading Partner® and OnCall*EDI® from Mercator Software.