Ok, before I go anywhere with this post I will admit the title is a bit corny. All I ask is to grant me a little leniency with the obvious cheese simply because it hit me like a “eureka” moment and there was no way I could pass up the opportunity.  Now that the pink elephant has been addressed, I can get into one of the topics that I am most passionate about within the EDI industry – integration of EDI into an organization’s ERP system. In order to truly reap the benefits of EDI, integration is not an option but rather a necessity. Any other configuration relegates an EDI relationship to not much more than an email or fax machine which is in direct opposition to the core purpose of EDI.

In early August we discussed the topic of return on investment (ROI) for the EDI program which was enough to pique my focus back on the subject. Admittedly over many years I was caught up in the day to day operations of an EDI program and focused heavily on the transactional requirements without much outside the box thought on true KPI’s. Sure I could rehash the some old ambiguous benefits of cost savings, efficiencies, and the like to anyone that asked, but just stating that didn’t seem to hold water anymore. After letting the topic simmer in my head in August, I came to a full realization that somehow I was not considering every angle of the true benefits of an EDI program.

In the mid 90’s EDI was king when it came to B2B communication, but that technology was born before the internet boom and much like most other parts of life was due to be affected by the world wide web. If you were to listen to the pundits 10 years ago, EDI was on its last leg and was merely waiting for the final blow for an internet technology to replace the dinosaur.