My ROI (Return on Investment) with EDI
Expert post : Rémy Tamalet
EDI, the technology of yesterday that is still the technology of tomorrow. You would think that this technology which appeared in the 1970s in the United States would have been replaced by something easier. But EDI is still in play and a large part of the transactions of many CAC 40 companies are based on EDI flows.
Imagine the story of a small company that grew thanks to EDI.
It all started with Hamza and his computer in 2001. Hamza had rented a warehouse to store equipment he was importing from Asia. He decided that he wanted to manufacture in France with his personal touch.
In 2003, the first order came from a DIY giant, followed by a second order.
In 2007, thanks to company growth and recruitment, the small company became a flourishing SME and accelerated its growth by installing an ERP to facilitate the management of the entire ecosystem: management of production, supply, customer orders, HR, accounting, etc. This ERP enabled the SME to streamline its processes and achieve huge productivity gains.
Hamza was only missing one key piece: a technology compatible with its ERP that would allow him to communicate directly with his customers in a way other than email and the exchange of Excel, .CSV, or proprietary files. I was talking about EDI, of course.
Thanks to this new mode of communication, Hamza was going to find a way to speed up commercial exchanges with its customers and optimize its productivity. How? By integrating customer orders into its ERP system, sending its customers acknowledgments of receipt and confirmation of the order received, sending information on available stock, receiving daily feedback on its customers' sales, etc.
This is the strength of EDI: the flow of information arrives instantaneously and is sent from ERP to ERP. No more Excel spreadsheets, emails, or telephone confirmations.
In 2008, Hamza decided to invest in an EDI SaaS platform. EDICOM's Ediwin solution comes to mind - and he chose Ediwin! With Edwin, Hamza made a considerable leap forward and has been able to implement this technology in different departments of his company:
- Sales: receiving orders in EDI and transmitting item data.
- Production: Sending and receiving stock information in real time.
- Logistics: sending shipping and delivery information on time and improving the quality of information.
- Finance: Implementation of fiscal EDI invoice flows. Elimination of paper invoice flow in favor of EDI invoices and sending of signed PDF invoices.
2 years after the implementation of the Ediwin solution, the return on investment exceeded 80%:
- Orders arrive directly at the ERP system and there is no chance of them getting lost.
- Quantities ordered by customers are available because they have stock information.
- Future order forecasts are optimized by receiving daily sales information.
- Payment terms are accelerated by sending invoices by EDI.
EDI has also enabled Hamza's company to gain credibility with large groups, as they are very interested in this technology with their new suppliers.
If like him, you consider that your company has reached the necessary size to move to EDI, you can take the intiative and contact EDICOM. We will be happy to guide you to the EDI mode that best suits your organization.
