I wrote another blog article recently on what “good EDI support” is and the feedback we consistently received talked about the ability to understand business processes as well as the technical aspects. I think this is an age old battle and one that we see in our sales efforts every day. The question is where does EDI belong? Does it belong on the business side? Or does it belong on the IT side? In order to answer that (and I think the answer varies depending on the company) an organization must know what their business goals are and that’s where the disconnect happens when it comes to efficient EDI solutions and using EDI to meet business goals.
If EDI is part of a Business Unit then the focus is all about the business documents (POs, Invoices, etc.). Discussions revolve more around the data moving into and out of the ERP system and less about mapping and other technical concerns. To realize the greatest process efficiency, the incoming and outgoing documents should be integrated with the ERP system.
If EDI is part of IT then it’s viewed as a software tool that enables B2B commerce. And the people behind the scenes who are pushing the buttons, are not focused on whether or not the software is fulfilling any business needs.
Most EDI platforms nowadays do much more than EDI. They are really more of a data transformation tool that can be used to handle flat files, XML, cXML, and yes, even spreadsheet formats. Many companies have purchased tools to handle transformation of these other formats when they have existing EDI tools that will perform the task easily! In addition, the process can be automated and incorporated into the existing business process. The solution to the age old battle of where the responsibilities of EDI should reside is that EDI should be viewed as a software tool to help a business meet its business goals. It doesn’t have to be an either/or proposition.
Regardless of where your EDI function resides, why not decide to expand the use of your EDI tools to the other data transformation needs of the organization?
GraceBlood LLC specializes in EDI implementation and data integration solutions. For more information, please contact Shandra Locken, at slocken@graceblood.com.