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Why companies choose to integrate EDI into their webshop

We like online stores and we like EDI services. By integrating the two, we’ll cherish them both even more.

In most of our blogs, we discuss the benefits of integrating and automating business processes through the use of modern, efficient management systems. With all our customers, we’ve found that the right IT solution can not only affect business growth and productivity, but also affect employee mood and stress levels.

When processes run smoothly, employees are happier and less stressed. They are able to work in a positive environment and can spend their time on important tasks that will contribute to the company’s growth, rather than spending their day entering data into the management system and feeling frustrated and demotivated.

Set up an e-commerce store

So, when we meet business owners who have recently set up an e-commerce store in their company, like the one at Shopifywe explain the possibilities and advantages of integrating this store not only with their ERP management systemif they have one, but also with EDI capabilities.

Many companies may be using all three technologies. They can have a management system that handles their accounting, sales, inventory and purchasing, and also use EDI services to send and receive purchase orders and invoices with their business partners.

integrate EDI capabilities into their online store

 

EDI to automate processes

What many executives tend to forget is to integrate all these technologies together to further streamline and automate processes, reduce manual data entry and improve efficiency. Why hire more employees to enter new orders from your partners via EDI into your ERP system if you can automatically transfer all orders directly to the system? Why not take advantage of the ability to send orders from your e-commerce platform directly to your suppliers or manufacturers via EDI?

Enhancing the capabilities of a company’s e-commerce platform with EDI capabilities will undoubtedly ensure a better balance between customer demands from the online store and supply chain requirements.

The aim is to exchange real-time information with suppliers quickly and automatically, to ensure that the supply chain is managed as efficiently as possible.

EDI for faster order processing

The aim is to ensure that orders are processed and dispatched quickly to meet consumer needs. This is to offer consumers greater visibility of specific product inventory levels. The aim is to improve communication between distributors, retailers, manufacturers and customers. At the end of the day, what company doesn’t want to increase the speed of order processing and invoice payment receipt, as well as improve overall efficiency to boost sales?

E-commerce stores, EDI services and modern, easy-to-use ERP systems are all on the rise. Many business owners are increasingly interested in the latest business technologies that have the potential to help their company grow and succeed. We invite everyone to integrate all these systems to see great improvements!

Read more of our blogs on e-commerce and EDI integration by visiting our EDI2XML blog page.

What is System Integration?

business-process-integrationSystem integration is the process of bringing multiple systems or applications into one, allowing them to work together. The goal is so that every system that is being used at the company, be it your CRM, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Warehouse Management, B2C eStore, EDI, etc., will be using a single database. This reduces the need to constantly update different systems and resort to many hours of manual data entry. In today’s fast-paced business environment, it’s crucial that companies have management applications that can speak with one another and share information between them. This results in better visibility and accessibility of information, faster decision-making, reduced redundancies, increased efficiency and more.

Most of the time however we don’t just leave it at “system” integration but expand it to be “business process” integration. We encourage businesses to not only synchronize their internal applications but to streamline entire processes between their departments or business functions as well as connect to their external partners, suppliers and customers.

Integration Services

It’s no wonder that Integration Services have been on the rise over the last few years. As we see more importance being placed on technology in the workplace, business managers are taking notice of the negative impact associated to the use of multiple disconnected management systems. Today businesses are looking to have one clean data set and a complete ERP management system with an integrated eCommerce Store, WMS system, EDI module, Business Intelligence dashboards and more. The effects of such a powerful integrated management solution can bring endless potential to a company and allow employees to constantly have access to real-time business information. Tech-savvy business owners are quickly realizing how to apply technological advancements in order to play them to their advantage.

System and business process integration

System and business process integration has been valuable in eliminating redundancies and making information that much more accessible to decision-makers. Nobody likes to waste time and money on inputting data into multiple systems or continuously updating and searching for information in Excel spreadsheets. On top of it all, with disconnected systems or several separate databases, companies sometimes struggle with poor customer service. More often than not, customer accounts are found to be incomplete, out of sync and/or inaccurate. By integrating systems and processes, your customer service team will have accurate, complete, real-time information right at their fingertips. As I mentioned before, it’s all about providing employees and key decision-makers with access to information.

Unfortunately, not all systems were made to be easily integrated with others (this is a capability our consultants urge business owners to tick off when looking to implement a new ERP solution). The older, inflexible legacy systems were made with limitations to integration possibilities. IT companies, back then, did their best to keep their customers coming back to buy their products rather than make it easy for them to switch to another ERP vendor or to integrate with other software solutions. Essentially, companies felt like prisoners to the technologies they were using.

Today, IT Providers are trying to dissociate themselves from this old way and develop solutions that are much more flexible, simple and easy to work with or integrate with. Companies should no longer feel restricted by the business technologies they are using but rather they should feel empowered by them. System integration is a must for any company looking to streamline their processes and increase visibility and efficiency.

To learn more about how our Integration Experts can help your business, contact us today for a free 1-hour consultation.

 

What’s the most important aspect when choosing a new Software Solution

Choosing a new, upgraded ERP Management System for your company can be a long process – usually lasting about 12 to 15 months, depending on the size of the company. Most top-level managers dread this process, which is one of the many reasons they tend to stick with their out-dated systems for so long. Read more

There comes a point in time when you’ve finally chosen the right ERP management system for your business but the IT provider asks you whether you also want a BI & Analytics solution as an add-on to the system. What should you do?

Many out-of-the-box ERP software suites do have its own analytics & reporting features but they are not as specialized and complete as a separate Business Intelligence add-on solution. What I always suggest to customers is to properly distinguish between the two – what is your ERP system used for and what is your BI solution used for? Read more

In ErpWizard, NAMTEK’s fully integrated ERP Management System, there is an automated mechanism, in which users can verify customer sales and credit limits. A customer’s credit limit is verified every time a sales order is pushed to the Pick/Pack process, only IF the end-user had previously configured a credit limit for that client.

In today’s post, I will guide you through the entire credit checking process in ErpWizard… Read more