The first step is planning;  there are several pieces to consider

o   Business value – make sure that you’ve determined what the goal or outcome of an initiative brings to your company and your partners. Meet internally with the stakeholders of an initiative and define what the expected results need to be. These goals should be something that can be measured so you can determine when success has been achieved. Determine the expected ROI by transaction/process improvement as a starting point for measurement

o   Make sure that you're implementing the appropriate EDI transactions for the project at hand. There is nothing worse than going into a project blindly and choosing EDI documents that are not relevant to what your partners can or should support.

• Do your research, perhaps  reach out to your partners or industry experts before implementing a program (Maybe read previous “Marlow” Articles [hint, hint, wink, wink]).
• Don’t recreate the wheel or implement something that will be difficult for your partners to support. Always use best practices approaches.
• Be aware that even though a partner may be trading given EDI transactions with your now, implementing a new flavor of the same documents does not mean that they are ready for production on this new implementation. Often I’ve heard of a retailer that is implementing a Cross Dock program with EDI, for example, and assume that they can just start sending the new order type to the existing partners without having a business discussion with them on their ability to support the new request, or neglect to conduct testing for the new requirements.

o   Develop a plan to which suppliers should be requested to participate.

• Obviously , if your introducing a new EDI transactions or Order Model; going after the existing EDI partners would be the easiest. However don’t forget about “net new” vendors. Too often I’ll hear of an EDI program being implemented to a larger group of suppliers and then once the initial wave is complete there is no process designed to keep adding new partners moving forward.
• If you’ve determine an ROI then I’d suggest evaluating the volume of transactions currently being exchanged with the partners, and those that meet or could exceed the estimated ROI would be candidates for this initiative. Make sure that you continue to monitor the activity of those suppliers that were not initially selected for the first wave, using the same matrix so that you have a continual flow of partners supporting the business objectives when others are no longer doing business with you.
• Perhaps another path would be to talk with any of the EDI service providers for input about what they may know of your vendor base. If your aware of what those companies have learned about your partners it’ll make it easier to know who to ask to participate immediately with the assumption that if they are supporting others on the same program your planning to rollout they’ll indeed do so with you. That is not always the case.

o   Adding new documents or updating existing transactions require mapping between EDI software and the Business application. Do you have the resources to handle this effort internally? Perhaps you can hire mapping contractors for this project. Perhaps it’s time to look at outsourcing EDI completely. There are quite a few companies that are very good at these services. Usually, the implementation will be completed quicker using these services.

o   If your already using an EDI service provider to do your EDI, then don’t forget to include them in the planning process early. With many retailers that I’ve worked with that have outsourced their EDI infrastructure to a provider, they are so use to that resource being there, that they become part of the company (staff) and then forget that they too need to assign resources for the new development. So plan ahead.

• The third step will be to determine how the program will need to roll out, who will manage the supplier communications and set the messaging in that communication.  If you supporting your own EDI function, your staff is probably fairly small this you may have to request that the merchandising team do the reach out. Perhaps you can reach out to an EDI provider to assist you. If your using an 3^rd party provider, see what services they have for managing this project. Part of the roll out process should include internal communications with the departments that are going to be impacted by the rollout. Usually one of the departments would be the buyers as suppliers tend to question the true need for them to participant. An EDI rollout will likely mean your suppliers have work to do and that means they will either try to get out of doing anything or try to postpone the inevitable.
• Lastly, how to Implement the technology and engage the suppliers

o   The first thing to be aware of is that your Partners may have varying technologies. Be prepared with suggested alternatives that suppliers can use if they are unable to meet the deadline

o   Make sure that you have realistic timelines. Remember that you are likely not the only partner that are asking for the suppliers attention and that they will need to allocate resources to do the work or changes.

o   As mentioned above there will be suppliers that will push back. Make sure that you have a strategy for handling those partners, a single point of contact would be a good start. Be sure that resource is able to stay on top of the questions so momentum is not lost.

o   What if they can’t do EDI? Again, as mentioned above, there is several technology options these days that your suppliers should be able to find a way to implement your request, whether that is temporarily or permanently

o   Do you have the staff to test the suppliers EDI quality? Perhaps contract the testing service with consultants or EDI providers

o   Are you prepared for the added volume of traffic that needs to be supported. There are usually hiccups along the way with your partners so be prepared for a spike of issues with the onset of the project as your suppliers get use to trading the new way.

• Celebrate your successes. Report internally the success of your project. Perhaps, send out a communication to your suppliers thanking them for the support.

Good luck on your projects through the balance of 2011