There are many different ways in which an EDI environment can be implemented across a trading partner community. Whether you are looking to implement EDI for the first time or expand your EDI infrastructure to support trading partners in other regions around the world, there are a multitude of EDI tools and connectivity options available to suit your technical capabilities and budget constraints.

Once a company has automated a number of business documents such as Purchase Orders or Invoices, you may wish to integrate your EDI environment to other business systems. For example you may wish to populate an EDI document by extracting information from an accounting system or allow externally sourced information to enter an ERP system. Either way you will need to ensure that you have the correct technology and skills in place to achieve this.

Implementing EDI for the first time can appear to be a daunting challenge for many companies however there are a number of ways in which EDI can be implemented across a business. For companies that have internal resources to manage an EDI infrastructure, EDI can be deployed by installing software which would then allow EDI information to be sent via a Value Added Network (VAN) or a point to point connection. For those companies that have no internal EDI resources then outsourcing the management of an EDI infrastructure or using web based EDI tools could be the preferred route to take.

This section of EDI Basics highlights some of the ways in which EDI tools can be deployed across a business. Please select one of the menu options to the left to find out more.