Dollars, Nickels and Dimes! What do you really save with EDI?

Question: Brian, we have all heard the advantages of implementing electronic data interchange (EDI) many times before: It’s faster, data is more accurate, improved process efficiencies, cost savings, eliminates paper, yada, yada – but my question is has anyone ever broken down what the real savings are to my back pocket in dollars, nickels and dimes?

Answer: George, thank you for your question and as the question is to the point, I am going to try and give you as direct and precise an answer as I can without waffling on about why electronic data interchange (EDI) means so much more than just cost savings. But alas, I will leave this for another day (be warned!).

In 2010, GS1 UK commissioned Professor Richard Wilding of the Cranfield School of Business Management to carry out a report on EDI with regard to the UK retail sector. Professor Wilding and his team performed exhaustive research and highlighted all the advantages that you have mentioned above in great detail. He also went one step further; he put the savings associated with switching from manual, paper-based processing to EDI processing into a monetary format (and even broke it down into separate sectors - Order, Invoice, ASN). For the purpose of ease and accuracy I have converted the reports Stg£ values into US$. These are the savings Professor Wilding and his team at Cranfield School of Business Management calculated:

• Orders: $23.00
• Invoices: $14.00
• Despatch Advice (ASN): $19.00
• Total: $56.00

As can be seen from the above, by switching from a manual paper based transaction to EDI you can save your organization $56.00 per transaction in dollars, nickel and dimes. If you would like to read Professor Wildings full report please click here.  Alternatively, please call B2BGateway at +1 (401) 491 9595 or email Sales@B2BGateway.Net to see how we can make your transition from paper to EDI seamless today.

Brian Alty is Director of Business Development with B2BGateway