[News brief] The 3 most important criteria when choosing your EDI software
Published on 31 May 2017
The EDI market is very mature and there are quite a few great options available on the market. We have come up with some important criteria to use when you are looking for the best opportunity for your business. Nowadays most companies are not just looking to transfer documents with a single trading partner, but with multiple players within a company’s ecosystem. This is very important to keep in mind when looking at all of the available options.
SaaS or Licence?
Company size, volume of documents exchanged, number of trading partners, ease of integration, and upfront and ongoing costs are all factors that will help you determine whether a SaaS or a licensed solution would be more beneficial for your company in the long run. It all comes down to cost and whether you want to host your own solution or outsource it to a provider.
Functional preferences
While all of the big players in EDI usually provide a multi-industry solution, it’s important to review whether they can configure their solution specifically for your vertical. Each vertical requires a different network and format, and if your company works within different verticals your EDI system needs to be adaptable to that requirement too. Scalability is also important: are you looking to grow rapidly on an international level over the next few years? If so, can the EDI solution you are looking at grow with you?
All-in-one platform?
Nowadays your EDI solution can come as part of a much bigger package, where all of your supply chain needs can be managed from one platform and one accessible interface. These innovative solutions allow for much higher levels of monitoring, document exchange and management, as well as e-billing and a whole array of other functionalities.
With the many options available to you in today’s market, your choice is really going to come down to the provider’s references, experience, knowledge, and ability to scale up or down if needed. Innovative solutions are also a great plus, especially in our world of rapid digital transformation and increasingly omnichannel businesses.
