What worked for you at one point for EDI, may no longer be the best solution for you now. Many factors can influence your EDI requirements and the quality of what you have in place. It's important to periodically consider them to ensure you stay ahead of your EDI needs. Let's take a look at them

EDI Resources

EDI has been around for many decades, and in-house EDI resources was once the only option. Many of these resources are still holding down the EDI fort at the companies they work at, and likely know your EDI set up inside and out. However many of these EDI resources are also beginning to plan for their retirement, and so should you. Hiring and training new EDI team members can be a challenge. Finding and retaining good talent is getting harder, and EDI runs best with consistency. If you are struggling to find and keep a single EDI resource in place, and concerned about coverage on their vacation or sick days - then it might be time to look at a managed service solution. This can give you a team of dedicated professionals who are aware of your system and business requirements and always available to support you and your trading partners.

Your EDI System

If you still have an in house system, like the trusty Gentran by Sterling Commerce turned IBM, or Trusted Link, you may be finding that the hardware you are running it on is slowly dwindling from support, and you have an upgrade or migration looming. This is a good time to take a step back and consider if the cost and effort of this is worth what you are getting out of the system. Is there functionality you are missing? Do you have the resources to continue to support this specific brand of software? Is it time to think about outsourcing all of it to a managed service where things like upgrades, migrations and trading partner changes are no longer something you need to manage?

Trading Partner Requirements

Perhaps its your first trading partner demanding EDI, or a trading partner wanting you to make a change that is difficult in your current environment. With EDI as with business in general, you are at the mercy of your customers. You often don't have the choice to say no when they come up with a new field, format or schedule for your EDI relationship. This may be the catalyst for you to look at your current solution and determine if its capable of the change, and if you want to invest the time and money in making the change. When your EDI is managed by a team of EDI professionals, they are well equipped to make these changes, and work with your trading partners to evaluate and implement their requirements.

No matter the reason, looking at your internal IT systems, EDI included, periodically can help ensure you are still on the right path. Should you need to make a change, you can then pivot early enough to stay ahead of your business needs and ensure you are set up for growth and change. The Arcus EDI solution by CONTAX is a managed service with a dedicated team of EDI professionals working with you, your business and your trading partners to ensure a high quality of support and the agility to quickly pivot to meet your needs.