Onboarding guidelines for EDI onboarding with provider
EDI Onboarding is a basis for the successful implementation of an electronic data interchange solution for any organization looking for automation across a supply chain. A thoroughly tested onboarding process is central to achieving the goal.
In a series of posts, we’ll have a detailed look at a supplier EDI onboarding process. We will learn what both parties involved should do along the way. In the end, it will help you to be more confident on your way to successful EDI implementation.
Step 1. EDI Requirements
The first step in building any business relationship is to define what you exactly want. You should discuss and define the goals together with your EDI provider. From your side, there should be an EDI team (or it may have other titles) that will be responsible for contact with an EDI provider. Here is a list of points that should be discussed between your team and provider:
- Types of business processes (e.g. transmission of purchase orders, invoices etc.)
- Types of business documents (transactions) (e.g. Purchase Order, Invoice, Advanced Shipping Notice etc.)
- Document Standards (GS1, EDIFACT)
- The structure of documents (data included, e.g. price, quantity, article number, best-before or ship-before date etc.)
- The exchange format (a preferred communication data model)
- Messaging protocols (e.g. API, SFTP and HTTPs)
This step helps to make the goals and tasks of the project clear, as well as define the amount of work that has to be done. Already at this stage, you can predict the volume of the efforts and investments.
The next steps will be described in the following posts.
To learn more about EDI and become a CEDIAP® (Certified EDI Academy Professional), please visit our course schedule page.