EDI saves you money. Period. That fact has been a well known advantage of using EDI for years. For those not yet using EDI buying new software to save money may seem counter-intuitive; but the truth is that countless of studies have conclusively shown that moving from manual billing and invoicing practices to EDI simply saves money. Is there anything that business, already using EDI, can do to optimize their implementation and increase the savings? The answer is a resounding YES - through something called EDI Integration. EDI Integration is simply the process of moving your EDI documents into and out of your ERP system through automated means, eliminating manual data entry steps along the way. Through a well designed EDI Integration plan you can achieve a true "system-to-system" integration path that automates the entire process of exchanging transactions with your partners. The additional cost savings associated with EDI Integration often mean a return on investment of well under one year; there are several factors that control this:

First and most important is the removal of manual data entry points between you and your suppliers and customers. By using EDI integration you can reduce the head count necessary to manage the flow of orders and invoices between systems. In fact, some studies have shown that a purchase order can take as long as 17 minutes on average to be processed manually. Compare that with the mere seconds it takes to achieve the same thing through EDI integration and you can see how the savings will add up quickly. Many companies deploying EDI integration will often see a return on investment well within the first year of operation.

A second and equally important benefit is the reduction in mistakes due to data entry. Human behavior is fairly predictable and the one thing you can count on is that your data entry personnel will make mistakes when entering orders and keying invoices. Beyond the simple cost of processing poor data, when you take into account the cost of dealing with upset customers and vendors and you see the types of savings you can receive by creating an automated process that ensures that whatever data was sent to your EDI system is the data you receive in your ERP or accounting system.

With the financial benefits of EDI integration well established the next question is one of affordability. Specifically, how can you justify the deployment of an integrated EDI system that can cost upwards of $100K? The good news is that EDI integration does not need to be that expensive. EMANIO has just recently introduced a new set of EDI Integration bundles that provide all the software you need for a fraction of the cost of traditional EDI integration packages. Better still, EMANIO's new EDI packages come pre-bundled with communications and all the tools you will need to deploy your system pre-defined and included - so you don't have to worry about a growing budget that will eventually swell to multiple times the original estimate. Our Trading Partner Integrator EDI Integration package starts at around 16K and comes with Unlimited AS2 connectivity software - giving you the ability to create a true hub-spoke EDI operation that EDI enables all your vendors.

Once your systems are operational and you are benefiting from EDI integration, what do you do about your vendors who do not have EDI capabilities? EMANIO can help you there as well. Our Trading Partner FASTStart offers a complete EDI package including AS2 capabilities for under $1,000. We can also work with you to create EDI "kits" that are specific to your EDI implementation and that can be bundled with our FASTStart package for your smaller vendors - giving all your vendors the ability to become EDI enabled at the cost of a decent server.

As the economy throws more challenges our way the first answer may seem to simply lock all your budgets and go back to paper and pen. Looking a bit deeper and ensuring that you are talking to the right software partner however can give you a completely new outlook on how to weather the storm, giving your business and your vendors the ability to improve despite the economic downturn.

For additional information on weathering the storm with EDI solutions, contact Member Care.