Getting Smart With 3PL Electronic Data Interchange > 고객센터

In today's highly competitive business market, efficiency through technology is seen as a key success driver. If you loved this short article and you wish to receive details with regards to chain of responsibility Brisbane assure visit our own webpage. Technological advancements such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) continue to advance the quality of information available to supply chain, logistics and operations managers which leads to not only improved efficiency, but better customer service and a lower response time.

Getting started with EDI between your company and your 3PL can deliver many benefits including reduced inaccuracies within data, lowered costs, improved data storage for later analysis and easy access to quality information which can improve decision making and forecasting capabilities.

EDI connects shippers with their 3PL in a seamless manner. The cost to businesses to access an EDI solution has dropped dramatically in recent years which means that any company can afford to get started on the pathway to improved efficiency, especially if they work with an experienced 3PL.

What is EDI and how is it used with 3PLs?
According to leading global online technology information resource Search Data Center, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is the transfer of data from one computer system to another by 'standardising message formatting' without the need for human intervention. Used across many industries, EDI's key functionality allows multiple businesses in different places and different countries to exchange data electronically.

Having originated in the United States transportation and logistics industry in the 1960s, the core EDI objective was to eliminate the disruption caused when customers and vendors needed to work within three or four different operations systems. EDI has since become a widespread function within the supply chain and logistics industry globally.

Professional 3PL providers use EDI to send invoices, bills of lading, confirmations of dispatch, shipping details and any other information that linked organisations choose to exchange. It provides highly accurate and timely information about customers' logistics creating business efficiencies by not needing staff to manually collate information.

Manual data entry can significantly slow down the business cycle, especially when you are waiting days or weeks for shipping documents to arrive. EDI transactions can be exchanged in minutes instead of the days or weeks associated with postal mails. EDI also lowers the cost of printing, reproduction, storage, filing and postage supplies as well as reduces the office storage space required.

What is required to establish EDI in my business?
Companies can develop their EDI solutions in-house by following these 3 broad steps:

1) Conduct an in-depth business analysis and design the solution

This step will assist the company to determine what the corporate applications are and set the priorities, including which parts of the company are ready. Businesses need to consider how many companies will be linked and how much data will be transferred. The solution design will consider the IT infrastructure, capability of the company's internal IT systems, network connections required and programming and customisation requirements.

2) Acquire and setup the EDI infrastructure

Companies planning to build their own EDI system will be required to invest in the following EDI features:

EDI standard formats Defines how information in a message is organised, what data goes where, what data is mandatory and optional, how many characters are permitted for each data field, and what codes and abbreviations are permitted. EDI translation formats Mapping and translating EDI transactions to other usable document types for transfer, storage and management is a very essential business requirement. EDI translation software translates data from the sending firm's internal format into a generic format and from a generic format into your own format if required and vice versa. EDI communication and transmission technology Involves installing and configuring communication software for sending and receiving EDI documents. Some of the popular communication options are File Transfer Protocol (FTP), Secured File Transfer Protocol (SFTP), Third Processing Solutions (TPS) and Advanced Planning and Scheduling (APS). EDI mapping experts Subject-matter experts in your business who can define how their data is to be correlated to the EDI data of their business partners.

Additionally, you may be required to assist each of your business partners to build the system at their end and this assistance could be an ongoing requirement as your business evolves and grows.

3) Develop and implement and EDI solution

This involves developing an internal system which can produce the data required by your business partners and comply with EDI standards at the same time. This also includes any amount of customisation required to integrate your other internal systems with the EDI system.

What are common EDI in-house implementation challenges?
Technology limitations or difficulty keeping up with the latest technological trends

The IT industry is constantly evolving with frequent introductions of new technologies which companies need to adopt to remain competitive in the market. Often these new technologies are introduced with the necessity to acquire new skills, implement new infrastructure and other internal reorganisation which can be a challenge, especially for small or medium sized companies. Software maintenance, upgrades and monitoring EDI system 24/7 when issues arise play a major contributing role towards failure.

Difficulty in meeting continuously changing business requirements

Dealing with continuously changing business requirements is unavoidable for most businesses. Especially those that require their IT department to reconfigure/modify/extend their internal IT systems along with their existing busines partner EDI integration. Some changing business requirements include:


Implementing a new communication technology

Introducing new business rules which impact EDI mapping in many cases

Add new validations, restrictions, policies in EDI which compel IT to reconfigure/modify/extend the existing EDI system

Implementing EDI internally can be quite expensive

Many companies fail to accurately estimate the cost of their EDI implementation based on their anticipated volume and the nature of the business transactions. Other significant costs are also associated such as EDI infrastructure costs, external mapping consultancy, EDI software license fees and on-going employee training costs.

Furthermore, processes in a company must undergo significant changes before EDI can be applied. For instance, a company may normally receive its goods before an invoice is sent in the mail. But if EDI were used, the invoice would arrive before the goods were delivered. In addition, processes must be adjusted in such a way that invoices can be processed by the company before the goods have arrived.

The solution often lacks interoperability, flexibility and scalability

A company's EDI success factor equally relies upon how their EDI solution has been designed and implemented. Not all companies have technical expertise to design and deliver robust, flexible and scalable IT solutions which could turn into a maintenance nightmare if not executed correctly. Businesses could experience unavoidable redundancies, increased costs and may require a solution redesign within a few years of implementation.




Can you achieve faster, economical EDI benefits with a 3PL provider?
Yes. An experienced contract logistics and freight forwarder can set up, map, transmit and maintain your EDI data with secured, stable and reliable data transmission options. With this approach, you can offload all your day-to-day EDI to a 3PL that will provide all the services to you including:


Integration with your in-house system

Data translation to and from your data format

Online visibility of your data

Real time visibility into transaction status

Customised analytics and reporting

Storage and backup

Support from the industry experts

As highlighted in the image pictured right, an EDI service from an experienced third party logistics provider can provide all the industry supported message formats and transport protocols to connect your business with a 3PL provider.

Using a third party logistics provider with sophisticated IT capabilities such as BCR is often the easiest and best approach when you have many business processes to map that you would otherwise need to accommodate internally. Getting started with EDI between your company and your 3PL can deliver many benefits including reduced inaccuracies within data, lowered costs, improved data storage for later analysis and easy access to quality information which can improve decision making and forecasting capabilities. On top of all of these benefits, EDI promotes corporate social responsibility and sustainability by replacing paper with an electronic alternative.








Darren Hann is a Commercial Manager at BCR Australia, one of Australia's largest freight forwarding and third party logistics companies. They service all major cities in Australia, including Brisbane , Sydney , and Melbourne.