In terms of supply chain management, EDI can be expensive and difficult for suppliers to adopt. EDI requires a significant amount of IT resources to set-up, manage, and support. Additionally, changes to data types, fields, or formats can easily create an error and break EDI transmissions. Because of this, EDI usually gets implemented with top tier or top spend suppliers.
Collaborative vendor portals on the other hand, are completely free for suppliers to adopt. And that is the secret sauce for successful suppler adoption. This type of platform allows for transparent collaboration between buyers and suppliers on PO quantity, price, and delivery dates without any transaction fees. It’s simple to implement, learn, and use. And because it is a cloud-based system, IT resources aren’t necessary.
HOW Does Collaborative Vendor Portals AND EDI WORK TOGETHER?
They work in tangent together. If used alone, EDI is a delivery system for confirmation of purchase orders and invoices. Purchase orders sent via EDI are difficult to expedite, pushout, update, or cancel. Therefore, procurement teams often find themselves reverting back to emails and spreadsheet reports to manage EDI orders. This creates more work. However, when the two work together, all of these issues can be fixed.
A collaborative experience isn’t available through EDI. Through a collaborative vendor platform, users are able to communicate with the supplier on one or multiple EDI orders. Their communication is then captured in an audit log. The audit log allows anyone needing updates or access to pending orders to have full visibility.
Collaborative Vendor Portals, EDI, AND PROCUREMENT TEAMS
Pairing collaborative vendor portals with EDI allows procurement teams to eliminate the need for countless emails and confusing spreadsheets. Additionally, using combination allows procurement teams to score all of their suppliers’ performance. Suppliers can see their scorecards in a dashboard, regardless if they’re transacting business via EDI formats or in the platform itself. Additionally, this allows for customers to bring all their suppliers into a single platform, EDI or not.
In short, using the combination of EDI and a collaborative vendor portal can provide the convenience of transmitting orders and invoices electronically between systems. It also provides a method to easily, manage, track, and collaborate with your supply chain on all purchase orders, making your EDI experience that much more simple.
While EDI is a valuable resource, it can leave you with a huge amount of data and no easy way to manage it. With a vendor/buyer collaboration tool, all the EDI data is available on the platform. Buyers and suppliers can communicate through a single dashboard rather than disparate spreadsheets and emails. Plus, procurement teams can score their suppliers’ performance. Above all, the result is organization and transparency to EDI data.
Article By SourceDay
SourceDay is a supply chain performance software that bridges the gap between the ERP and the supplier network.
To learn more about collaborative vendor portals working with EDI go to www.sourceday.com.
SourceDay is a Gold Vendor Member of the Epicor Users Group. The EUG do not endorse or recommend any software or service and it is up to members to ascertain the suitability of a product or service for their requirements.
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