It goes without saying that 2020 was a tough year. Even so, EDI remained an essential part of keeping business moving forward. With 2020 behind you, it’s the perfect time for a review of your EDI environment so you can position yourself for success in 2021.
In 2020, did you experience any of the following?
- Processing slowed down
- Increase in manual corrections
- Break in connections (direct of through an EDI network)
- Too many invoices rejected
- Expensive chargebacks
The above disruptions are costly to your company, especially during peak times. Here are six things you should review and consider for 2021:
- Data Base Maintenance: schedule regular clean-up of orphan records, freeing up space so your system runs smoothly.
- Automating your error notifications: make your EDI system work for you by notifying you of errors versus you taking up valuable time searching for them.
- Master Data Management: ensure that your core data in your ERP is accurate by eliminating reoccurring errors such as typos that could save you real-time over the long-term.
- Updates to current maps: remove minor errors from current EDI maps.
- Update your EDI software to the most current version to ensure the most current support is available.
- Review of EDI projects left on the table from 2020 and prioritize them.
As growth occurs, there is an increase in trading partners reflected in increased volumes. New requirements are needed to support requests from internal customer service, shipping, and other business units. These requirements may go unnoticed by your IT or EDI departments because they are already busy meeting the day-to-day demands of current trading partners and colleagues.
Data Communication Solutions (DCS) has been evaluating EDI environments and assisting customers in optimizing their EDI processes since 1991. Now is the time to stop and evaluate your environment so it can be utilized to its fullest potential. Contact us today and make 2021 the year your EDI environment is optimized to handle your continue growth.
