The High Tech Industry
EDI has been in use across the high tech industry for many years. The high tech value chain has become very complex with many high tech companies relying on external partners to help design and manufacture their products.
Due to the nature of the high tech industry there has been a desire to try and exchange business transactions electronically, more so than in many other industry sectors. It is very consumer driven, which has meant that high tech supply chains have had to become flexible to changing consumer demands. There has also been an increasing demand for introducing Vendor Managed Inventory systems to ensure that retailers have the correct levels of inventory to support for example new product launches or seasonal fluctuations in consumer demand. For this reason inventory visibility across retail networks and multi model logistics networks is important for both the high tech companies and their business partner community.
As with companies in the automotive industry, many high tech companies have globalized their operations to take advantage of low-cost suppliers in many of the emerging markets around the world. This has meant that the high tech manufacturing companies have had to ensure that they can trade electronically with suppliers in any country around the world, even those with limited ICT related skills. The provision of simple-to-use, quick-to-deploy, and easy-to-maintain EDI tools is very important for high tech companies.
