EDI: Handling Supply Chain Management and Its Risks

The role of technology in today’s business systems has become inevitable. It doesn’t matter whether you are a small business or a large scale enterprise, technological solutions can help you to make your operations more effective.

With increasing competition in the business landscape, it only makes sense to leverage the power of technology to stay ahead of your competitors. One of the most important challenges faced by today’s businesses is Supply Chain Management.

The risks related to supply chain management or any third party involvement, for that matter, are not new in businesses. It can be the integrity of a supplier, fraudulent data interactions or any such things that can hamper your business to a great extent.

Given today’s demand for quality products and services, businesses can not afford to invest their resources in operations instead of product/service development. Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) comes as a solution offering transparent communication between businesses. Before we move on to the role of EDI in supply chain management, let’s understand EDI basics.

Electronic Data Interchange: A Brief Introduction

Before simply defining EDI, it is important to understand how important it is for modern businesses. It is predicted that the healthcare EDI market will reach a whopping 5.9 billion dollars by 2025 and it is just the healthcare industry. There are more contributing sectors such as e-commerce.

There is more to EDI that what its name defines. Electronic Data Interchange helps businesses to streamline transactions and communication. It eliminates errors, document reviewing, and much more, mending business’ data interchanges and other transactions.

Businesses are prone to supply chain management risks and EDI helps in tackling them. So, what are these business risks in supply chain management?

Risks In Supply Chain Management

Be it of the healthcare industry, retail industry, financial service industry or any other industry, there are multiple risks related to supply chain and its proper maintenance. Not only there is a major risk of data infringement but risks of data tampering and faulty data entries also exist.

As the data and its complexity increase for your company, it becomes important to establish a reliable automated way of data transaction and communication. A data breach in your supply chain management can cost significantly if fallen into wrong hands. This will increase the financial risk attached to data transaction and communication between your business partners.

Also, a minor mistake in data recording/entries could be dangerous and costly. Redoing your orders and mending these tiny mistakes will only increase the overall operational costs of your business. Besides, it also becomes difficult to monitor 100% of your suppliers.

EDI solutions like IBM Sterling Integrator are an established way of data and documents interchange between businesses. They help you define processes and customize it according to your business requirements.

How Can EDI Help Your Business With Supply Chain Management?

In a survey, 72% of businesses accepted that they don’t have any setups to monitor supply chain risks and its management. EDI can help your business carry out automated and fully secure document transactions with your suppliers. This not only reduces the probability of any document errors but also helps you to closely monitor your suppliers and keep a check on any fraudulent practices.

EDI saves time and cuts from your budget. Besides, it allows you to counter any possible errors through live monitoring. EDI Software protects your data against any infringement and accounts for 100% security.

EDI keeps your data in a particular format and thus, increasing its readability. Using iPaaS, you can integrate your EDI software with any other application you use and make the most of it.

To Sum It Up

EDI can be a major tool supply in chain risk management. You can hire EDI consultant for your EDI sterling integrator or other software to ensure that you stay ahead of your competitors and make your mark in today’s overcrowded marketplace.

Data Integration Specialists (DIS) has 20+ years of providing EDI managed services for business of different sectors. Want to know more? Call at 612-840-6753 or fill this form to reach out to us today!