Step 10: Roll out EDI to Business Partners
If you are the initiator of the program with your business partners – for example, you want all your suppliers to receive your purchase orders via EDI and return EDI invoices – you must have the skilled resources to develop, manage and maintain an EDI rollout program to your supplier community.
This includes:
- surveying your community to understand each supplier’s level of EDI readiness
- developing and implementing a community communication plan to convey your program goals and provide education needed
- offering various EDI options, such as web-based forms or Excel-based options for those suppliers that are not ready to integrate EDI with their back-end systems
- supporting each supplier through the start-up process
Even after rolling out EDI to your business partners, you need to manage and maintain your program ongoing. Invest in skilled personnel resources to manage your EDI program, including:
- monitoring and troubleshooting communication to ensure documents continue to flow
- responding to inquiries from partners 24×7 as issues arise
- reporting on business partner activity and system usage
- making updates to translation maps and/or communication protocols as you or your partners add new documents, make changes to current documents or upgrade their communication processes
