Edi Services In The Retail Industry

Over the last five years, the advancement in technology and easy accessibility to

internet has enabled many retail stores to think in terms of better workflow and supply chain management. The concept of EDI services and the manner in which it can help stores manage their relationship with their suppliers, customers and other entities is prompting them to contact third party service providers.

Big retail chains are even setting up their own EDI management structure and recruiting professionals to run the show for them. They are now more tuned to working on the 'Just In Time' concept and are aware of the tremendous cost savings resulting out of better inventory and supply chain management.

Smaller retailers will do well to consider and look at some of these questions before they plan their EDI initiative.

The kind of documents they would require to send to their suppliers, vendors and other entities?

The kind of documents they would normally receive from their business partners?

The standards to be followed for the smooth implementation of EDI?

Standardisation and the methodology to ensure all of their business partners are able to adhere to the guidelines.

Monitoring processes for all outgoing as well as incoming transactions.

Need for sending alerts or notifications based on business needs and rules.

Creating a process map to completely cover all transactions through EDI.

One significant challenge that most retailers face is how to ensure that all their existing as well as new vendors and business partners get smoothly integrated into the system since it is likely that each vendor may be having a different EDI map. It is the process of this integration that could escalate the project development cycle as well as costs and requires the EDI integrator to be well versed with the retail industry working.

Large retail chains have the necessary clout to persuade vendors who are dependant on their business to change standards and are thus able to put in place the EDI services vital to their business faster. The EDI mapping is a simple one. However, smaller retailers do not have this luxury and have to work out the EDI implementation considering various parameters of their own business as well as that of their vendors. These could range from the kind of supply chain used to the ERP system as well as other internal processes that are being followed.

It is therefore clear that while the benefits of EDI services is well known to the retail industry, it is the integration with vendors and other stake holders that presents the major challenge. If you are a retailer wanting to implement EDI, then you need to ensure you select somebody who has a good working knowledge of the retail industry peculiarities and not involve a generalist service provider. That would only lead to more chaos and you would have to review this activity somewhere down the line at more cost and inconvenience.

by: Lawrence White

POST COMMENT

Enhance Your Value As An Employee With Edi Services Knowledge e-Commerce 101- Providing Quality Customer Service Why Answering Services Are Popular Web Hosting Service- Know Some Important Facts Ps3 Receives A second Media Service PSP2 Rumors Develop Again Should you pay for for credit report services? Managed Dedicated Hosting Services like a Company Offering Say 'No' to the Customer Survey The Benefits Of Using A Shipping Container Tracking Service Keeping Costs Down For Funeral Services Comedious Commentarious : Complementary services Why You a Need a Cleaning Service Sewer Why Do You Need a Drain Cleaning Service?