How can you automate EDI workflows?

Allow me to highlight two potential interpretations of 'EDI workflow.' The first interpretation involves the series of steps for creating, transmitting, and processing messages, as described in the chapter. The second interpretation, which personally comes to mind first when I hear 'workflow,' is related to specific, human-managed processes including approvals and/or error handling. This often involves creating some form of 'ticket' and processing these tickets through the involved parties to get approvals or resolve issues. Based on my experience, the feature referred to as 'workflow' in EDI software or services typically aligns with this second interpretation.

EDI optimises the business process workflows and replaces the previously used business document exchange mediums such as mail, fax or emails. EDI Workflows facilitate seamless exchange of business documents between the ERP systems of the business and their trading partners. The main components of EDI workflow are standard document format, translator and mapper, communication network and communication softwares.

I would reframe the question as, 'How can we automate EDI processing as much as possible?' Generally, the steps of creation, transmission, and processing of messages are automated. However, certain areas, such as triggering confirmations (e.g., the ORDCHG message) or detecting errors, might still require significant human effort. I view these areas as the main opportunities for enhancement.

Automation can help organisations in scaling up their EDI capabilities and handle more transactions and partners without adding more staff or infrastructure. It improves the overall productivity and operational efficiency of an organisation. By automating critical aspects of the EDI process with the help of an EDI software, a business can thrive during high-traffic scenarios while maintaining high data accuracy.

Full automation of the EDI environment is a great feat for any businesses to achieve. While the function of EDI to send and receive data between two systems is automatic in nature, a myriad of functions embedded in several levels of the EDI process are manual even today. You can automate at multiple levels by integrating advanced EDI software and strategies that B2B companies are commonly using today. Some of the processes that can be automated using any EDI software or API's: 1. Data Entry 2. Compliance Validation 3. Repoting 4. Mapping translation 5. Order Tracking

It's really important to consider EDI service providers (EDI VANs in US), as key tools for EDI processing. From what I've seen, they are very effective in making EDI operations smoother.

I would categorize EDI software and tools based on their target functionalities: *Message Creation/Processing Layer *Transport Layer *Mapping Tool *Monitoring The message processing is typically associated with business applications such as ERP, WMS, CRM, among others. They can also incorporate elements of transport, mapping, and monitoring functionalities. The primary aspects of transport, mapping, and monitoring are usually managed by intermediate tools or middleware, such as SAP PO, SAP IS, MuleSoft, Boomi, or directly by an EDI service provider.

Three types of EDI integration solutions are available in the market today: 1. Legacy EDI services 2. Traditional EDI software 3. APIs.

While searching for an EDI solution that can perform multi-level automation and suits the business, below are some of the thing to keep in mind: 1. Nature of use – If it requires EDI expertise and an in-house team or it has a fully managed service? 2. Support – How long does the support team take to respond to queries? 3. Pricing – What’s the cost of integration and maintenance of the EDI system? 4. Implementation time – How long will it take to integrate EDI with ERP and other systems?