The global supply chains are becoming more volatile than ever. Customer expectations are shifting, triggering modern technology adoption for many enterprises. Difficulties in onboarding trading partners further add to the struggle. What are the possible types of EDI solutions to address the matter of exchanging EDI transactions holistically, and do these various types of EDI solutions include other things, such as different types of EDI Transactions? 

An effective Electronic Data Interchange Solution simplifies the exchange of electronic documents among partners through system and app integrations and cultivates collaboration via EDI and non-EDI exchange. As a result, the solution packages and delivers visibility, control, and optimization. In simple terms, it’s a feature-packed solution that enables intelligent decision-making in real-time. While these EDI technology solutions are critical to driving tangible business outcomes, particularly in recent years, the decision process is complex at the same time. This is why parties investigating Electronic Data Interchange Solutions must have a relatively deep understanding of the different types of EDI solutions before investing.

Identifying the Best Electronic Data Interchange System

The best way to develop a sound understanding is to start right from the beginning. EDI solution providers are organizations that offer EDI software and services to companies looking for data exchange services, in short, a solution to assist with the transportation, transformation, and integration of trade. EDI systems, from this perspective, help you seamlessly exchange business documents between your partners by leveraging an EDI solution which could be on-premises or cloud-based. Some are provided as managed, while others are self-service. The solution ensures completeness, data validity, and security.

Before we proceed, it is critical to understand the types of EDI solution providers in the market so that you can identify the best electronic data interchange system.

Types of EDI Solution Providers

There are five types of EDI solution providers offering one or more types of EDI solutions. In addition to services, they also differ in terms of industries and the business size they cater to. Take a look at these to identify which type will work best for your enterprise.

1. EDI Broker

An EDI broker typically provides a comprehensive set of EDI solutions. They offer value-added network (VAN) connections and, at the same time, help companies connect to particular trading partners or networks.  EDI brokers typically do not have their own network; instead, they serve in the capacity of an outsourced EDI staff, typically focusing on one or several industries. They provide everything from data entry to data translation services, ensuring that your EDI documents are transformed from your core systems to that of your partners while adhering to customer requirements and guidelines for various standards. 

An EDI broker ensures that any company and startup, in particular, can easily share EDI documents with their partners without investing a great deal or compromising security. EDI brokers most often assist when a trading partner lacks EDI software of their own, and a few EDI brokers even support non-EDI formats. EDI brokers are typically engaged with the market where revenue is at the lower end of the industry spectrum and are ideal for small companies and startups.  Eventually, these users reach a point where the brokered solution can no longer serve their needs. If your business involves complex integrations hybrid EDI scenarios, EDI brokers may fit your business. If your business is already involved with a brokered type of EDI solution and you are not getting the needed services, you may have outgrown your present solution.

2. Fully Managed Service Provider

Fully Managed service providers offer end-to-end EDI software and/or services just beyond the scope of an EDI broker. They may offer software or cloud-based services and help you translate EDI messages in multiple formats and transform and transfer your data. Their services may be an overreach for some as they are also involved in partner mapping, ERP integration, error handling, and resolutions. 

If you are looking to outsource your entire EDI function and invest your resources in other tasks, this might be a suitable choice for you. If you want to invest in EDI, EDI talent, and do some things yourself, while these service providers may help you achieve your goals, they can also inhibit your growth. While fully managed services work well for many SMEs (Small to medium enterprises), some of the drawbacks of a fully managed service include limited control and visibility. This can lead to unexpected costs and challenges to upgrading to a new ERP, MRP, CRM, WMS, CMS, or TMS.

3. VAN Providers

VAN providers have been around since the inception of EDI. VANs provide secure, outsourced networks that connect organizations with their trading partners across the globe. A value-added network (VAN) can help you securely send and share data with your partners and provide an outsourced network enabling seamless connections between global trading partners. Large enterprises can leverage this type of network to securely transmit documents from their EDI mailbox to a particular trading partner’s EDI mailbox through a service like a post office, but electronically. By enabling a secure network, they simplify communication between cloud-based EDI providers or internal networks using pre-connected connections with trading partners.  

Some EDI VAN providers also offer supplemental services like data backup and recovery, document mapping, compliance, and performance tracking, and have grown largely through acquisition. If your partners are spread across the globe, and you lack needed network capabilities, a VAN service may be helpful to your business. However, VANs were initially developed for large companies and may be costly if your data exchange volume is high or may cause difficulties if your partner’s messaging format varies from yours. While VANs have long claimed to have a competitive advantage by way of their networks, the supply chain today is full of complexities, something that cannot possibly be resolved by way of a single network.

4. EDI AS2 Providers

Breaking away from the traditional VAN providers are the AS2 Providers.  EDI AS2 (Applicability Statement 2) providers allow for the secure transmission of various types of data, such as EDI and XML, over the internet using HTTP and TCP/IP. AS2 can also be used to transmit images and complete PDF documents, something a traditional VAN is unprepared to do. Among these variations today associated with conventional EDI, these AS2 services are widely used to ensure seamless integration with trading partners, allowing you to handle any file format.  

AS2 providers are typically an addition to a VAN, managed service provider, or brokered EDI relationship. AS2 services require message disposition/delivery notifications that acknowledge the reception after the electronic message (document or data) transmits to the sender via AS2 protocol. One of the stated benefits of using AS2 over FTP is the message delivery notification or MDN.  Although some may argue that the MDN replaces the Functional Acknowledgement (997), the message delivery notification (MDN) used in AS2 only indicates a message received. In contrast, the Functional Acknowledgement (997) also confirms the delivery of a document, any formatting errors, or data loss.

Enterprises can leverage MDNs using in-house IT resources or through a cloud-based vendor to determine if a partner is struggling to keep up with transaction volumes and adjust accordingly. If you are looking for an EDI solution that ensures an end-to-end process and helps you securely send unlimited data while being kind to your partners and easy on your pockets, AS2 has proven to be a worthwhile investment.

5. Complete EDI Solution/Providers

A complete EDI solution/provider is the type of EDI solution provider that develops, implements and maintains EDI software for your business and businesses like yours. This is the type of EDI solution capable of bringing to bear many or all of the solutions described above by catering to your core business and enabling seamless connectivity visibility, onboarding, and training. A type of EDI solution that provides an EDI platform, EDI solutions, connectivity and interoperability by delivering, for example, a VAN and an AS2 solution from within the core of the product or platform.  

Enterprises employing such EDI tools can use their own EDI experts to manage day-to-day activities efficiently. Even activities such as error tracking, handling, and alerting can also be automated with a complete EDI solution.  This EDI solution considers integration with one or more platforms or systems, once relegated to custom code as ‘out of the box’, in other words, included with the platform. This EDI solution provider also tends to keep their solutions up to date and improve upon them by regularly updating these platforms, their customers’ instances and keeping their users informed.  

Complete EDI Solutions/Providers also include and deliver training to ensure that your EDI experts stay current with the latest technologies and can use them to deliver critical or time-sensitive transactions across your partners and networks efficiently and without errors. If you are looking for or are expecting to have or maintain complete control and visibility over your entire set of B2B, B2C messaging and/or your API/EDI practice, then a Complete EDI Solution/Provider might be a good fit for you.

PartnerLinQ by Visionet: Enterprise Connectivity at the Speed of Business

PartnerLinQ is an innovative, cloud-native platform that delivers supply chain visibility and resilience by simplifying trading partner connectivity and interoperability. PartnerLinQ’s native app ecosystem adds business context to the traditional integration, minimizing disruption by increasing set-up velocity and improving implementation speed resulting in overall efficiency gains between 30 and 500%.  

PartnerLinQ comes completely preconfigured and installed with capabilities for intelligent hyper-automation, multi-channel integration, and real-time analytics while allowing your team to take control if that’s what they want to do.  It seamlessly connects multi-tier supply chain networks, channels, and marketplaces with your core ERP, MRP, CRM, WMS, CMS, or TMS, delivering unified connectivity to a global client base. PartnerLinQ connects with more than 77 Commerce Platforms, Market Places, B2B Portals, Social Channels, enterprise-level systems and shipping solutions today, so you are ready for today and the future.

– Integration at the Speed of Business

PartnerLinQ simplifies the partner onboarding process through its Common Processing Workflow. Complemented by the Business Rule Manager, an entire migration process involving more than 1,000 partners and customers can be completed in weeks rather than months or years. 

– Scale in Transaction Volume

The PartnerLinQ platform scales automatically from transactions number in the hundreds to more than 60 million transactions. It is available in PartnerLinQ’s Azure-based hybrid cloud architecture and in the Google Cloud Platform, managing more than 8,000,000 transactions per day – nearly twice any required capacity.

– Simplified IT Infrastructure

It integrates seamlessly with your core ERP, MRP, CRM, WMS, CMS, TMS, or legacy systems, as well as Commerce Platforms, Market Places, B2B Portals, Social Channels, enterprise-level systems and shipping solutions to ensure that you are better positioned to drive even greater efficiencies with cooperative technologies, that provide real-time updates and actionable insights.

– Enhanced Visibility to Address Pain Points

Real-time insights are critical for today’s supply chain executives, and PartnerLinQ delivers consistent customer value at every touchpoint. PartnerLinQ’s biggest success comes with its ability to turn falling service ratings into top scores with the biggest clients by providing greater visibility into the operations and the ability to consistently deliver on service-level commitments.

For more information, visit our website.

Many businesses struggle to take their data management and exchange processes to the next level. They may be using an outdated Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) solution, or they may not be using EDI at all. 

If your business needs better data management, you may want to consider finding an EDI service provider. Here is an introduction to EDI and 10 considerations when looking for EDI service providers in 2023.

Overview of EDI implementation

In an increasingly digitized world, businesses must also change how they operate. Many companies are now turning to EDI to manage their workflows better.

According to statistics, the global EDI software market size is estimated to reach a whopping $4.04 billion by 2029, compared to $1.88 billion in 2022.

What is EDI? 

EDI is the electronic interchange of business information following a standard format. It’s generally used to streamline transactions between companies. This process was once done using paper documents that had to be mailed back and forth, however, EDI now enables businesses to exchange data electronically and quickly.

What is the difference between EDI and non-EDI?

While EDI refers to the process of electronically exchanging business data in a pre-defined format between systems, non-EDI is the traditional way of exchanging information without any pre-defined format. This would include using paper documents or even emailing attachments back and forth. Non-EDI can be very timeconsuming and expensive due to mailing costs. Non-EDI formats can include: Fixed length flat files, Variable length flat files, Binary files, to name a few.

Benefits of EDI software to a business’s supply chain 

EDI can be powerful to the business supply chain, automating and speeding up processes that would traditionally be done manually or through ineffective processes. Various organizations, including retailers, manufacturers, and distributors, can use EDI software to automate processes and improve data accuracy. It can maximize efficiency, improve overall experience, minimize errors throughout the supply chain, and provide the following key benefits:

• Order management: If your business wants the most efficient way to fulfill orders, EDI is the solution. EDI can automate the process of orders being placed with suppliers and keep up with customer demands. This way, businesses have a way to quickly and easily place orders with suppliers.
• Inventory management: EDI can also help businesses keep track of inventory levels. By integrating with your company’s accounting software, you can get real-time updates on what needs to be restocked. This helps avoid stock-outs and keeps the supply chain running smoothly.
• Shipping and logistics: One of the major benefits of EDI is its ability to streamline shipping and logistics. In tandem with a company’s shipping software, businesses can automatically generate labels and track shipments. 

Top 10 Considerations for Selecting Your EDI Service Provider

To ensure your business is ready for the new year, you’ll want an efficient and reliable EDI service provider. Here are a few considerations to keep in mind when selecting one:

1. What kind of integration is there? Do they support all formats?

A good place to start is to make sure the provider can integrate with all the software you’re using. Finding an EDI service provider that uses an Application Programming Interface (API) for integration is recommended to make it easier to connect with your existing systems. 

Integrated solutions are important because they can automate processes and make it easier to manage data. 

2. Are they industry-agnostic?

Your EDI provider should not be specific to any one industry. This is because your business might branch out into new markets and you don’t want to change providers. An agnostic provider will also be able to give you a more objective perspective on how best to use EDI in your business and cater to your unique needs. 

3. What deployment models do they use?

There are three main deployment models for EDI: on-premise, cloud-based, and hybrid. On-premise means the EDI software is installed and managed on your company’s servers. Cloud-based solutions are hosted by the provider and accessed through the internet. 

Hybrid deployments use a combination of both on-premise and cloud-based resources. The best option for you will depend on your company’s size and needs, budget, and IT infrastructure.

4. How long do they take to implement EDI?

Time to implementation is important, as you don’t want your business to be disrupted for too long. A good provider can give you a timeline for implementation and stick to it. As EDI can be difficult to set up, it’s important to ensure your provider has a good track record with other clients. 

5. Do they have an industry understanding in which you operate? 

You should ensure that the provider you choose has a good understanding of your industry and your company’s specific needs. This way, they can help you select the best EDI software for your business and ensure a smooth transition to using it. 

For example, your provider should be familiar with HIPAA compliance if you’re in the healthcare industry. Or, if you’re in the retail industry, your provider should know about EDI for e-commerce. 

6. Do they have a technological understanding?

You’ll also want to make sure that your provider has a good understanding of the technology you’re using. They should be able to support you and help you troubleshoot any issues you may have. 

Additionally, they should be up-to-date on the latest EDI software and standards so that you can be confident your business is using the best possible solution. 

7. Is it a secure platform? 

EDI data is often sensitive, so it’s important to ensure that your provider has a secure platform. Also, 80% of all cyber breaches happen in the supply chain, and 72% of companies don’t have full visibility into their supply chains. The platform should comply with industry security standards like HIPAA and PCI DSS.

8. Is the solution user-friendly? 

One of the most important things to consider when choosing an EDI service provider is whether or not their solution is user-friendly. After all, you don’t want your employees to waste time figuring out how to use the software. 

A good EDI service provider will offer a solution that is easy to use and comes with training and support so your employees can be up and running quickly.

9. Is the solution scalable?

As your business grows, you’ll want an EDI solution that can scale with you. A good EDI provider will offer a scalable solution so that you can add on features and functionality as needed. This way, you won’t have to switch providers down the road when your business expands.

10. What is the reputation of the partner and support? 

Finally, select an EDI service provider with a good reputation. You can check online reviews and talk to other businesses in your industry to see what they recommend. Additionally, you’ll want to ensure the provider offers good customer support if you have any problems using their software. 

Why choose PartnerLinQ?

As you browse EDI service providers that can offer all of these things, you’ll want to keep PartnerLinQ in mind. We’re a leading provider of EDI solutions and have over 25 years of experience helping businesses with their data exchange needs. With PartnerLinQ, our digital platform for communication with EDI and non-EDI partners, you can take full control of your supply chain.

If you’re ready to take your business to the next level, request a demo today and learn more about PartnerLinQ and how it can help you transform your supply chain ecosystem.

Exploring PartnerLinQ’s Extensible Platform with Native Applications

The post disruption New Normal brings with it valuable lessons as we begin the new year. The importance of flexibility, visibility, velocity, and resilience are among those lessons and while many faced a fluid and unexpected path, most did emerge with a clearer understanding of what to expect over the next few years and how to overcome obstacles.

At PartnerLinQ we believe that resilience is a key to continued success in the New Normal. Flexibility, visibility, and velocity are the pieces that combine to build that resilience.

Before the disruptions of the last few years, flexibility, visibility, and velocity in supply chain was treated as optional, often provided by way of ‘add-on’ or ‘value- add’ services which is not quite good enough anymore.

Today’s emergent iPaaS and SaaS solutions are designed to meet evolving integration needs by providing API connections and transformations in easy to consume, point and click modules that connect one system to another in a SaaS environment. In short, this enables interoperability between systems quickly.

PartnerLinQ is not unlike many of the iPaaS, Cloud, and SaaS solutions built for the cloud and ease of use; but it is the Native Apps built to provide the key supply chain context to these integrations that takes this to the next level where the solution not only connects to your supply chain but also provides the visibility and velocity of implementation required to ensure that your supply chain is resilient as well.

PartnerLinQ’s App Extensible Platform

While many of our competitors1 continue to sell the “competitive advantage” of value-added networks, the concept of the network has shifted significantly. With PartnerLinQ, YOU own your network.

PartnerLinQ’s App extensible platform helps you connect with your supply chain quickly and easily, which translates into a significantly better ROI and a real competitive advantage.2

PartnerLinQ’s apps can be added to your PartnerLinQ subscription by a simple click of a button delivering instant value to your existing connection.

Here are some of the key Business Process Apps that are available:

Business Process Apps

• Order to Cash
• Procure to Pay
• E-commerce Order Management
• Cross-Dock, Direct to Consumer and Drop Shipments
• Return Verification & Management
• Freight Integration & Shipment Status Messaging
• Returns Management

Order to Cash

The Order to Cash App provides visibility into the Order to Cash process for both B2B and D2C business. This app gives you real time insights into your business in terms of value delivered and bottlenecks, allowing you to optimize the experience for your customers.

Procure to Pay

Procure to Pay works the same way through the PartnerLinQ Platform App, integrating your system and ensuring that your business, systems, and team are resilient, and now have a digitized, automated procure-to-pay process. Installed, configured, and activated within minutes by our team or yours, your team can easily manage buys, approvals, payments, suppliers and supply chain visibility and compliance on a global scale and in real time.

We’ve made processing inbound invoices simple with prebuilt integrations to more than 70 ERP, TMS, WMS systems. Robotic Process Automation also ensures that your team can convert your manual invoice processes into electronic transactions at the “Speed of Business.”

E-commerce – Order Management

PartnerLinQ’s extensible platform with native applications E-commerce – Order Management app unlocks real-time interactive shopping experiences by allowing seamless visibility to your products and inventory to boost online sales and increase customer engagement. Run your eCommerce business from the desktop, delivered your way, according to your schedule, providing flexibility, visibility, and velocity in a nimble, scalable platform

Cross-Dock, Direct to Consumer and Drop Shipments

Drop Shipment through the PartnerLinQ Platform App provides a seamless experience for Cross-Dock, Direct to Consumer and/or drop-ship environments.

The PartnerLinQ Drop Shipment App provides for the ability to onboard and connect with your drop ship partners and work with their catalogs in a seamless way, providing express distribution and or delivery requirements for your location and for your partners. The app includes detailed specifications for electronics, food service, and drug supply chains with precise traceability requirements without the need for yet another project.

Freight Integration & Shipment Status Messaging

The PartnerLinQ App makes freight integration effortless by connecting with the Top TL, LTL, Intermodal, logistics and Third-Party operators through the Platform. Tenders and responses are the lifeblood of the supply chain. Ensuring the right goods reach the right place at the right time is critical to supply chains in the New Normal. When it comes to deep freight integration, PartnerLinQ is ready and connects with more than 1,000 Land, Sea, and Air freight operators, handlers, and carriers, all available through our extensible platform with native applications.

Instant Ocean makes Land, Sea, and Air Visibility possible, and PartnerLinQ makes it happen. Your Port – Your Container, Trans-Atlantic, Trans-Pacific and everywhere in between. Our support team will be there, if needed, to ensure that 100% of your freight shipments are tracked from your ERP to destination with shipment status updates by way of email messages or infinitely scalable reporting.

Return Verification & Management

Returns Management, a feature often overlooked by our competitors, is also available. The PartnerLinQ Platform App provides a seamless experience for managing any type of returns including the Returns ASN for the cosmetics industry (RASN).

Drug supply chains are also enabled through the PartnerLinQ App whether you are ready to leverage EPCIS or not, and the GS1 Verification Messaging Standard is available from within PartnerLinQ.

Returns can be configured for delivery to your warehouse or a third party and, if needed, verification or validation is available to PartnerLinQ subscribers in just a few clicks.

[1] Are Value-Added Networks the Way to go for B2B Communication?

[2] Value-added networks provide competitive advantage

On a warm morning in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, at a symposium in 2005 the Chief Economist and Director of Research at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) made the following statement…

“While the techniques and instruments to absorb fluctuations have improved, there is uncertainty about how they will perform in a serious downturn.”

The speaker was Ragham Rajan and while he was widely ridiculed at the time, his speech would prove to be prophetic. The 2007-08 financial crisis to follow occurred because market changes and advancements were concentrating risk despite appearing to diversify risk.

The Great Disruption

The world is witnessing an unprecedented level of disruption beginning with COVID-19, followed by supply chain issues, and a growing disruption within the labor market. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported the flight of workers from the hospitality industry in September, with a reported 863,000 leaving their positions, fully 6.6% of the hospitality workforce. Across the world we see acute shortages for commodities, including computer chips, furniture, and mobile devices among them. Fortunately, there are no nationwide shortages of food. Although in some cases we might have certain foods with low inventory, food production and manufacturing are widely dispersed in North America. Global Industrialization is suffering, and many manufacturers in the US are reporting a wait of more than 90 days to procure materials and assemble parts to make their products.

The Disruption Today

Beyond the supply chain shortages and bottlenecks there are multiple causes for disruption. The emerging cause can be attributed to a shortage of labor, especially truck drivers, which has stalled production operations across plants, distribution points, and delivery centers. Despite rising unemployment, the gap between labor and unfilled positions is increasing.

With global production chains divided into specialized links over many decades, different industries have become inextricably connected over a period of time. Supply shocks have spread across unlikely industries, such as automobiles and semiconductors, or food and fertilizer.

Perhaps an even more visible cause for disruption lies in oversea shipping. The port crisis in the US has received global attention over the last year due to the immense buildup of ships and the never-ending influx of cargo. What supply chain professionals initially viewed as temporary is now threatening to change global shipping infrastructures from the size of ships to business practices, which relied on speed rather than on efficiency, availability, or visibility. Container ships are now circling ports and remaining at sea for longer periods increasing costs. Sea containers cost more to ship, resulting in exorbitant prices, and the accumulation of goods at shipyards, rail yards and warehouses, a direct result of the aforementioned labor shortage, dominated by a shortage of truck drivers.

Supply Chain News

Attending a supply chain conference last week for the first time in more than 18 months, I had an opportunity to listen to several speakers. One by one each delivered his or her view of what happens next, after the great disruption.

One speaker stated simply, “Supply chain is sexy again” and that caught my attention, for starters, I would agree. Having been largely automated and then ignored, the supply chain is again making news and having work in the supply chain for many years, there is more than a passing interest from John Q. Public on Supply chain matters. The speaker went on to talk about a financial newspaper with wide distribution. The paper, the speaker continued, published a mere handful of supply chain articles each month while in recent months, that handful had exploded to several articles every day. The articles, looking more critically now, are well beyond a single new outlet and appear to have a wide array of supply chain perspectives. Reflections of the articles range in impact from the DOW to the NASDAQ and from Retail to CPG and from staples to emerging technologies and in the virtual world these articles are boundless, including this one, which brings us to the following observation.

Stress Testing the Supply Chain

The string of supply chain disruption following the pandemic has resulted in the biggest stress test for supply chain leaders the world over, retail executives in North America anticipate issues to last beyond 2022. What appeared at first to be temporary has now turned into a series of long-lasting setbacks, some perhaps resulting in a permanent state of disruption in some industries. Considering the nearly two years since the onset, when and how these disruptions will end remain a matter of conjecture. The answers are not to be found, not in anyone’s tea leaves, not yet.

The Future of Supply Chain

In order to future-proof, supply chain leaders are facing factors of change that have not been previously considered or discussed, solutions from worker migration to flexible labor practices and the movement of sourcing to new sourcing centers in emerging markets or those which can be more closely controlled or deliver an environmentally neutral position. The solution is in resolving multiple issues in the supply chain as it did way back when plastic hangers seemingly changed to black overnight.

The Solution Approach

Renewing the approach to transparency and visibility across the supply chain is critical in light of the uncertain future in this period of the Great Disruption, now clearly extended, with no end in sight. Increased transparency can better prepare stakeholders to deal with changing regulatory, environmental or compliance requirements while solving supply chain dilemmas. Visibility, through better partner communication, is becoming increasingly important to supply chain leaders that I spoke with at the conference. The importance of end-to-end communication with suppliers and partners across the trading network from their perspective cannot be overstated. Through the right technology, organizations can ensure that the appropriate information is collected, stored, and disseminated, and when partners are onboarded quickly to meet these unexpected scenarios, the results are a positive impact on business and on other concerns.

Supply Chain Advantage

The PartnerLinQ advantage is its hybrid cloud architecture and easy partner onboarding, PartnerLinQ delivers a smarter B2B/B2C Integration platform with automated End-to-End Workflows and includes business rules for omnichannel integration.

PartnerLinQ’s unique approach to supply chain can help your organization communicate with your partners rapidly, ensuring end-to-end digital connectivity across all functional areas and through a centralized visibility platform.

PartnerLinQ zeroes in on issues, tracks them, and provides detailed analysis of all of your partners, including all of their inbound and outbound transactions and can generate alerts for specific partner events, delivering the insight your users need to address supply chain issues immediately.

Scan2EDI converts your manual process into electronic transactions using robotic process automation, optical character recognition, document management software, business process outsourcing, and artificial intelligence. Scan2EDI offers application integration advantages including PartnerLinQ’s ERP Integration Framework.

Instant Ocean Visibility provides container status at your fingertips. Integrated, automated, and reliable, your port – your container, Instant Ocean Visibility removes human intervention from container tracking, eliminates endless web searches, eliminates phone calls & email and eliminates voice messages and call backs.

Take control of your supply chain in the present and forge a new one for the future with PartnerLinQ. Talk with our experts to learn more.

By Kevin Balentine, PartnerLinQ

Building a New Resilient Supply Chain

The global marketplace today can perhaps be described as volatile. Prices are on the rise, shortages are popping up unexpectedly and in unexpected places.  Many major retail grocers are expecting center store sales to increases, an indication of things to come.

While supply chains have become more extensive and interconnected, they have also shown unprecedented instability in the face of disruption. In the wake of COVID-19, the fragile stability of lean supply chains found difficulty in recovering quickly in the face of disruption.  What has emerged is a succession of supply side ripples across multiple industries. The ripples collide until at last they reach the end of the line and, similar to the domino effect, as one chain ends another begins in sequence.  Many of the assumptions upon which the lean manufacturing model was created, were undone by market and environment variables that emerged during the onset of the COVID disruption.

Organizations are beginning to accept a pretense of recovery amid a truly formidable challenge of accelerated customer demand and labor shortages, and while research indicates that retail sales can grow by as much as 10.5% to 13.5% to generate more than USD 4.4 trillion in this year, there are concerns. Having undergone unprecedented and unwelcome change throughout the past year, suppliers require stability and flexibility to tackle the surging demand. Resisting instability forms the key priority for retail suppliers, which brings focus to resilience.

21% That’s the number of respondents in a recent Gartner survey who affirmed that they have a resilient network at present. Giving context to the figure, resilience implies elevated visibility, persistent velocity in moving product from source to destination while avoiding supply chain constraints. In this current moment of volatility in the market, it is imperative for retail suppliers and retail enterprises to increase their supply chain resilience.

Becoming more resilient is no longer a luxury for supply chain leaders. The long-standing tradition of lean manufacturing and its entrenched philosophy will be the challenge to overcome. Supply chains need to be efficient as well as resilient, and practices such as redundant supply chain operations, alternative factories, and ample safety stock need to be developed in parallel with productivity and performance improvements.  Supply chains also need to maintain compliance substituting lesser performing partners for those more suited following the COVID disruption. The widespread disruptions affected supply chain monitoring and audit and while enforcement may have been relaxed, performance improvements can only be brought about by effective monitoring and accounting. In order to holistically build a resilient supply chain network, retail suppliers need specific data elements to be incorporated into their supply chain and a robust solution methodology which combines five important elements is key.

Connectivity

A surefire approach to building supply chain resilience in retail is ensuring anytime, anyone, anywhere communication, systems need to be ‘access anywhere’ supportive of SSO (Single Sign on) and active directory. Manual partner-to-partner communication requires a lot of paperwork and must be reduced in light of staffing shortages.  Manual communication methodologies lead to errors and errors mean more human intervention. Automatic and secure document flows compatible with multiple enterprise level system and capable of a variety of data interchange formats and in real time delivers resilience.

Flexibility

A significant aspect of resilience is ironing out friction within the network. A resilient supply chain must be flexible and able to fix critical issues with the least amount of effort.  ‘Fix-on-the-fly’ functionality reducing human interaction increases flexibility. An efficient business rule manager is key to incorporate such flexibility. Reusable business rules ensure seamless partner onboarding and transaction integration.  Reusable sets of business rules allow for the conservation of scarce technical resources and ease of use.  The addition of reusable rules to rule sets to overcome existing issues, and proactive alerting based on business rules means time to make a correction where and when necessary. Change, through a business rules engine can be automated and in real time. Audit functions mean changes can be rolled out, and rolled back if that become necessary.

Adaptability

Perhaps the greatest lesson that the past year has taught suppliers in retail has been the importance of adaptation. The transition to digital and the prominence of ecommerce platforms has been well documented in the retail industry. An omnichannel strategy covers all potential channels for distribution and sales. An omnichannel strategy makes sense amid market disruptions such as we’ve seen this past year and a half.  An omnichannel strategy means demand can be met with convenience and speed. While a stand-alone omnichannel strategy as a solution is one way to meet demand, leveraging a common process workflow to bring transactions in or out of the enterprise the same way every time means an increased ability to create multiple trading relationships and do so quickly. By eliminating the need for additional support or maintenance, a common process workflow takes partner on boarding to a new level while increasing the utility of business rules reduces the dependencies on map and mapping activities. Combining centralized B2B communication with such a workflow results in a highly independent system in which transactions and business processes are handled automatically, accounting for connection changes, partner onboarding, acquisitions, mergers and complete enterprise migration without adding disruption.

Accountability

With much of the COVID disruption behind, and planning and change ahead, compliance has never been more important for retail suppliers.  A flexible and effective event notification processor to stay on top of supply chain events and issues in real time becomes a valuable tool. Such rules-based processing must be backed by comprehensive audits, reports, and analytics.  Such tools must be visible across the internal supply chain operation. Transaction transportation, transformation and integration tools must include analytics to ensure consistent business operations, keeping disparate teams in touch with the latest goings-on in the supply chain domain.

The Way Forward

Accepting resilience is just the first step. The path includes overcoming challenges like supply chain and labor shortages and success in resilience is achieved by combining five key elements:

• Centralized communication across multiple methods, formats, and platforms
• Flexible business rules, business rules management, and alerting.
• An adaptive common processing workflow that simplifies onboarding and processing
• Visibility, accountability, and adaptability
• Easy access to these key elements and in one place.

A resilient path will quickly deliver an elevated level of performance, particularly important as the retail industry begins to leave the COVID disruption behind and starts to engage with the new normal.

While the number and complexity of supply chain initiatives seem to grow season after season, a few remain on the top of such initiatives.  A combined study of supply chain leaders completed by Bain & Company and Microsoft identified digital agility and resilience as top priorities in their choice of supply chain software. The study also indicated that many supply chain senior executives, who once viewed their supply chain as a “cost center,” now see them as a “strategic capability.”

What the study appears to indicate are a number of strategic areas for future-proof investment, the ability to generate granular data sets to enable in-depth visibility and provide actionable insights, and of course, an omnichannel strategy that ensures consistent customer experiences across websites, mobile apps, social media accounts, and brick-and-mortar stores.

Intelligent Technologies to Drive Smart Supply Chains

Granular data, in-depth visibility, and actionable insights naturally come together conversationally when we begin to reconstruct business strategies, post COVID-19. Solutions that store transactional details provide granular data sets, which then provide much needed visibility that generates insights across partners, customers, and channels.

When an omnichannel strategy exists, the combined insight provided by solutions that store transactional details allows for advanced customer segmentation, empowering companies to build more detailed, customized experiences based on the needs of the partner, customer, or channel populations and experiences. No wonder then that the most successful brands are looking to harness intelligent technologies to adapt to fast-evolving consumer demands and market challenges.

While some may believe a lack of resources or investment opportunities are inhibiting the next steps, supply chain leaders have begun to realize they need to proactively seek resources or opportunities, anticipate supply-side change, and be somewhat agile themselves in order to make decisions that increase sales avenues and address customer needs.

Why Customer Insight?

The market is full of options and today’s customers have an abundance of choices, many of which are just a few clicks away. Working from home has greatly reduced travel times to and from work. It follows that the general population can spend more time on experiences that engage them personally and, according to a recent survey, 75% of millennials value experiences over things.

Experience, or more specifically, a positive experience, is derived from the utility offered and a utility that offers easy access to goods and services is more preferable to price. The outcome of this level of business-critical thinking suggests that it has become imperative that brands begin to understand evolving customer desires and delivery experiences that delight, which brings us back to strategic areas for future-proof investment.

Combining strategy and future-proof investment together ensures that the customer is at the center of supply chain planning. Only those organizations that have an in-depth connection with their customers can monitor their behavior, analyze trends, and select the right channel to maximize customer reach and engagement. Sellers must ensure that products and services are available to their targeted buyers and on all channels.

Businesses with an omnichannel presence enjoy 90% higher customer retention over those that do not. Adding availability and convenience by way of an omnichannel strategy ensures consumers can switch between devices and screens to complete a task. Creating digital for targeted buyers on all channels, generating granular data sets to enable in-depth visibility, and providing actionable insights brings it all together.

Integrated Platforms for Data-Driven Supply Chain Transformation 

Cross-channel insight is not likely to be found across multiple integrations or within a
“black box” infrastructure that is several decades old. Modern organizations need modern integrated platforms that work with smart solutions and intelligent interfaces. Many modern organizations are now enhancing their processes with intelligent autonomous systems powered by digital innovations like the Internet of things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML) to design a truly customer-centric supply chain.

Modern integrated platforms are AI/ML-enabled, can gather data from touchpoints across channels and partners, and deploy advanced data analytics that help analyze the information to find inefficiencies and potential ways of improvement. Such data-driven approaches help supply chain leaders forecast demand, get real-time updates across the network, and track product movement from factories to the shopping floor.

How AI Enables Channel Discovery and Optimized Delivery

Using the business needs and supply chain challenges described in this paper, we have identified five ways to introduce IoT, AI, and ML into supply chain initiatives to help companies select the most optimized integration channel and ensure uninterrupted delivery to maximize revenue generation:

1. Streamline partner onboarding: AI can automate and streamline the complex processes associated with managing channel partners, particularly if there are a lot of trading partners, a number of repeatable processes, or a large number of paper-based documents. AI helps identify repeatable processes based on a partner’s system configuration and data formats to speed up the partner onboarding process and ensure faster channel deployment.
    
2. Use business insights to pick the right channel: Manufacturers use a range of channels to sell products and, as those channels increase in number and in complexity, manufacturers need data to maximize the revenue produced through each channel. Solutions, which store transactional details and provide granular data sets, can be leveraged to deliver visibility. Visibility generates insights across partners, customers, and channels, and contributes to better decisions. Solutions that leverage real-time data from the live environment, and then use AI and advanced analytics, can help pick the right channels in which to invest. At this point, we can probably agree that better decisions lead to better outcomes.
    
3. Customize customer journeys: The world’s most recognizable and successful brands harness intelligent technologies to adapt to fast-evolving consumer demands, market conditions, and market challenges. IoT, AI, ML, big data, and easy-to-use analytics can be used to create in-depth customer profiles based on external data such as demographic models and purchasing behavior. Solutions that store transactional details allow for advanced customer segmentation, empowering companies to build more detailed, customized experiences based on the needs of the partner, customer, or channel population, where delivering a consistent brand experience facilitates customer engagement at the right moment and in the right channel.
    
4. Empower channel partners: Maximizing channel revenue also depends on how effectively supply chain partners like dealers, retailers, and distributors can attract new customers and deliver products via a compelling customer experience. A supply chain platform that provides seamless and timely integration with intelligent technologies will provide partners better tools along with the ability to deliver at the customer touchpoint.  Selecting smart solutions with intelligent interfaces empowers channel partners.
    
5. Measure performance: Leveraging access to data across channels and partners, modern organizations can effectively measure not only partner performance but their own performance in terms of sales, reach, engagement, and the depths of those engagements. Translate those processes into the selection of a new partner. Compare a partner who can process orders and invoices against a partner who can process orders and invoices, contracts, and chargebacks, and also maintain inventories; it’s a new game and works very similarly in the freight and logistics space just as well. For instance, say, you have two transportation service and logistics providers (TSLs) pitted against each other. While the first one can process shipments and invoices, the other can process shipments and invoices plus offer warehouse services such as the ability to pick, pack, and ship automatically, based on your need to supplement your business where and when needed. Selecting solutions with built-in reporting empowers your business by delivering the capacity to measure and display your own performance.
    

Toward an Automated Channel Discovery Process 

Market research has shown that digital tools can automate 80-90% of supply chain planning, and digital technologies such as AI can reduce inventory by up to 75%. In order to achieve a fully AI-powered supply chain, they will need a holistic view of all operations including application integration, along with an understanding of their business goals.

Smart solutions with intelligent interfaces deliver granular data and AI-powered platforms close the gap between channel performance and desired business outcomes. An optimized solution, one without human intervention, produces a self-driving supply chain. Such a supply chain reduces delays, costs, and losses in revenue, and delivers precision to a well-defined channel strategy.

About PartnerLinQ: Enterprise Connectivity at the Speed of Business

PartnerLinQ is an innovative, process-centric, easy-to-use integration platform that enables API-led, cloud-native integrations. It easily handles both standard and proprietary file-based formats, including custom integrations. The solution is well suited for retail, e-commerce, wholesale, transportation, 3PL, as well as distribution, digital, and analog partner extensible platform. It helps your team achieve operational efficiency and gain real-time visibility.

PartnerLinQ was designed and developed by a team with more than 25 years of deep integration experience.  The PartnerLinQ team has been providing industry-focused leadership in technology and consulting and in the development of innovative solutions that drive global supply chain transformation from the factory floor to the consumer’s doorstep. PartnerLinQ integrates natively with Microsoft Dynamics 365, while also providing robust support for more than 70 ERP systems and ecommerce platforms. PartnerLinQ is a completely integrated solution that consigns big VAN and iPaaS solutions to the past. PartnerLinQ is a modern platform with the technology of tomorrow, providing enterprise connectivity at the speed of business today.

Reimagining the Consumer Electronics Supply Chain: The Three Key Challenges for 2021

Disrupted Supplies

In March 2020, McKinsey forecast[1] electronics companies could face serious reductions in inventory due to epidemic-induced factory shutdowns. This was a clear signal to electronics suppliers that the diversification strategies initially developed during the predicted US-China trade war were quickly becoming a recommended path.

But while companies scrambled to onboard suppliers, the move could not mitigate the disruption. 53% of electronics industry leaders were anticipating delays or cancellations in new product launches by May 2021, with 91% of the shortage attributed to challenges in supply chain management [2].

Frenzied Demand

The need for semiconductor chips has continued to surge with the advent of newer automotive technologies such as electric vehicles, collision avoidance and automatic braking systems, real-time navigation, night vision, and lane-change warning systems. There’s no predictable relief in demand for these and other advanced technologies involving artificial intelligence and autonomous vehicles.

The Semiconductor Industry Association has projected global chip sales to grow 8.4% in 2021 – a massive 5.1% hike in a $433 billion industry. With much of the world’s workforce having migrated to home offices and home-based leisure activities, computers, tablets, and gaming consoles are in high demand and chip production is struggling to keep up. A year after McKinsey’s original forecast, the world’s biggest chipmakers like AMD and Qualcomm continue to announce new shortages.

And the impact is not limited to consumer electronics or sub-systems. GM extended its automobile production cuts in the US, Canada, and Mexico; other automotive giants like Ford, Honda, and Fiat/Chrysler have also warned investors about slowdowns in new vehicle production due to chip shortages.

So has begun a cycle of delayed customer value and intense competition among vendors and a new race to market supply chain capabilities which hold the key to delivering increased value in the supply chain.

Challenges in Supply Chain Management

This widespread shortage in semiconductor chips has underlined the critical role of their supply chain in today’s economy. While optimized supply chains in the electronics industry had helped temper the explosion of IT and digital services in the past two decades, several unexpected factors have since emerged with the potential to disrupt the optimized global model.

There are three key challenges –challenges of immediate concern and which the consumer electronics supply chain needs to address in order to deliver the right product, in the right quantity, at the right price, place, and time.

Geographical Concentration

The world’s largest chip makers continue to largely depend on manufacturing centers in China. While some supply chains had begun to migrate towards other manufacturing centers, such as those in Malaysia, Thailand, and Vietnam, these migrations occurred very close to the beginning of the pandemic.

Since then, China, who recovered rapidly from its pandemic-induced slowdown, continues to dominate US electronics imports, while the other centers have been slower to respond. They also have the disadvantage of being newer players in the market, which means less depth in terms of production inventories, staff, and other resources. 

Such geographical concentration of manufacturing activity carries an inherent risk, which was laid bare first during the US-China trade (tariff) war and then by the global pandemic. Given China’s existing supply and production infrastructures, most of the larger manufacturing entities have decided to stay put. A recent PwC survey said as much, stating that most companies are planning a ‘China +1 strategy’ once the pandemic subsides. This strategy involves relying on China as the primary source, while looking to one other country as a strategic manufacturing alternative.

US companies are similarly keen to nearshore operations to countries like Mexico; however, all of these plans have been complicated by uncertain economic and trade climates.

Product Lifecycle and Complexity

Advances in technology and rapidly changing customer behavior have also had an impact on the life of the average electronic product, leading to challenges in supply chain management. Companies have to carry larger inventories or depend on faster inventory turns; this increases overall inventory costs and significantly impacts the bottom line in the event of a short lifecycle product or worse, a product failure.

Electronics companies push for newer and more complex product variants to remain competitive. Having outsourced part or all of their manufacturing process to specialized centers, they remain vulnerable.

Integrity of Supply

Vulnerabilities increase as product components move through multiple facilities and geographies and the chance of counterfeits increases. A lack of supply chain visibility makes components and raw materials increasingly difficult to trace. While companies spread out the manufacturing of parts and assemblies across regions to reduce the risk, vulnerabilities continue to appear.

‘Nearshoring’ and localized manufacturing have the potential to enhance traceability of parts and assemblies. But consumer electronics supply chains also need solutions with increased visibility capabilities to strike a balance and mitigate multiple risks simultaneously.

Working Towards a More Distributed Supply Chain

Over the last few decades, consumer electronics companies have leveraged their global supply chains for cost advantages and specialized manufacturing expertise. But factors such as tariffs, the fallout from the pandemic, and a perceived failure of just-in-time logistics have renewed the push for regionalization.

Industry leaders must be proactive to ensure a more distributed and more collaborative future. Consumer electronics supply chains need digital solutions that facilitate easy entry into new markets and with new suppliers, centrally optimize their supply chains, and provide an end-to-end visibility from point of order to delivery.

Integrated Systems for Enhanced Collaboration

Investing in enterprise IT and supply chain solutions to optimize individual business processes shows promise. But these investments often lead to multiple solutions, ranging from spreadsheets to portals to demand and supply chain planning tools, many of which are loosely integrated at the enterprise level.

As a result, supply chain partners continue to operate on multiple systems and platforms, creating an even larger integration challenge. Network architectures with limited flexibility cannot accommodate multi‐party, multi‐tier supply chain structures that exist between customers, manufacturers, and trading partners.

A modern supply chain in the electronics industry needs access to real‐time supply and demand transactions. It needs a flexible platform that allows each company in the supply chain to implement its own processes – one that makes sense to their culture and way of doing business. More specifically, the platform should drive visibility, planning, communication, analysis, and execution in perfect orchestration across unlimited numbers of trading partners.

Such a platform will allow trading partners to execute activities in their own home-based systems and communicate along the supply chain as required for order to cash, freight, and trans-ocean transactions. This makes an agile and scalable cloud‐based architecture all the more critical. An easy-to-deploy supply chain solution can help organizations build their capabilities in stages. This ensures immediate and incremental value at each stage, paving the way for self-funded deployment and reserving capital for events yet to unfold.

About PartnerLinQ: Enterprise Connectivity at the Speed of Business

PartnerLinQ is an innovative, process-centric, easy-to-use EDI solution that enables API-led, cloud native integrations. With a simplified B2B communication engine that includes EDI, AS2, SFTP and real-time APIs, PartnerLinQ is a fully integrated platform and easily handles both standard and proprietary file-based formats, including custom integrations. The solution is well suited for retail, e-commerce, wholesale, transportation, 3PL, as well as distribution, digital, and analog partner extensible platform and helps your team achieve operational efficiency and gain real-time visibility.

PartnerLinQ is designed by a team with more than 25 years of experience in providing industry-focused leadership in technology and consulting and in the development of innovative solutions that drive global supply chain transformation from the factory floor to the consumer’s doorstep. Hosted on Microsoft Azure, the PartnerLinQ platform integrates natively with Microsoft Dynamics 365, while also providing robust support for integration with other ERP systems as well as e-commerce platforms.

 

[1] Knut Alicke, Xavier Azcue, Edward Barriball. (Mar 2020). McKinsey. Supply-chain recovery in coronavirus times

https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/operations/our-insights/supply-chain-recovery-in-coronavirus-times-plan-for-now-and-the-future

[2] Supplyframe. (May 2020). Supplyframe Electronics Sourcing Report.

https://supplyframe.com/press-releases/supplyframe-electronics-sourcing-report-highlights-innovation-imperative-amid-covid-19/

You are probably familiar with this ‘BIG VAN’ claim repeated early and often by the champions of value-added networks (VANs):

‘The advantage of the network is the network itself.’

The claim, like all wide-ranging quotes, is to some extent only relatively true. Its validity depends upon who you are connecting with and how actively you link up with your trading partners. A closer look at the flow of goods and information within your business network will possibly reveal that no single network or VAN can address all your B2B/B2C communication needs.

While EDI and, in some instances, the VAN does help you connect, connecting with all your trading partners translates into a significantly higher ROI.  EDI today means more than simply X12; it means supporting multiple standards, formats, and transactions from X12, UN/EDIFACT, and GS1 XML trade messages to a number of non-EDI formats like JSON, flat files, text files, and proprietary XML message formats.

Read more: The truth behind the “competitive advantage” of value-added networks

EDI also means accessing a diverse set of communication methodologies – like AS2, MFTP, FTP, SFTP, and APIs – each with their own set of variables. While transaction formats and transportation methodologies make EDI more versatile, the complexity of handling such varied data formats and communication methodologies creates its own set of challenges, particularly when you consider the ‘BIG VAN’ value proposition.

The ‘BIG VAN’ value prop proudly claims that all members in your value chain are available on the same network or VAN as yours; while true to some extent, this is not an entirely accurate assessment. A VAN connection is by all accounts handy and, in some cases, necessary to interact with some trading partners. But it certainly is not everything.

The right tool with the right EDI transportation methods delivers far more effectively than ‘BIG VAN’ and at a lesser cost.

The Significance of the EDI VAN Interconnect

The ‘BIG VAN’ claim is largely backed by the EDI VAN interconnect. The interconnect is a tool that helps your value added network communicate with other value added networks and facilitates exchange of EDI transaction documents between connected pairs of trade partners. The more partners you connect with, the bigger the benefit derived from your communication network.

VAN interconnects effectively reduce friction between and among VANs, while also reducing the need for new VANs. The largest of the VANs reduce VAN-related confusion within partner networks by making claims to connect to thousands of trading partners; in effect though, ‘BIG VAN’ highlights the characteristics of EDI under which all EDI solutions and VAN partners operate. 

But what about transactions beyond X12 EDI? 

‘BIG VAN’ and the interconnect rely on a steady stream of ISA and GS identifiers within X12 transactions to move data, without which the ‘BIG VAN’ is about as useful as a cell phone without buttons.  While the VAN connection does handle X12, what about images, APIs, or XML files? These are typically not included in ‘BIG VAN’ offerings and, in most cases, require a different product altogether, adding to your overall cost.

A closer look at the VAN interconnect reveals that the reality of ‘BIG VAN’ is very different from the claim; if the interconnect connects ALL VANs then ALL VANs have the same access to trading partners, which means that ‘BIG VAN’ has a very different concern. ‘BIG VAN’ is concerned that it will inevitably be relegated to the stature of an ‘Ordinary VAN’ and without reservation. 

‘BIG VAN’ makes a big claim and living up to that claim is becoming nearly impossible.  This makes all ‘small VAN’ operators a competitive threat – why else would ‘BIG VAN’ make such claims if not to control and confuse the market? The VAN interconnect and image files remove the confusion from the claim ‘the advantage of the network is the network itself’; what else is there to the reality of ‘BIG VAN’?

The Synergy

Architecturally speaking, an EDI solution is actually made up of three components (or solution layers, if you’ll pardon the expression) – the transportation, transformation, and integration layers. While EDI is very effective when it leverages a ‘VAN’ connection, the VAN component is only a fraction of EDI, less than 30%.

Think about your VAN connection in the same way you think about how your mobile phone functions.  Your mobile phone functions by combining the services provided by the phone manufacturer, an infrastructure provider, and a telecom company; similarly, EDI functions by leveraging the synergy of these component layers to work as a synchronous whole.

Components of the ‘VAN Solution’

• Transportation. Along with VANs, this layer works using many other methodologies such as AS2, MFTP, FTP, SFTP, and APIs. Most of these methodologies have been around for a couple of decades now. Your VAN, in fact, may still be using FTP to connect you with your VAN mailbox; if it is not leveraging FTP, it is likely using AS2. Get in touch with your EDI team representative and ask, they should be able to tell you.
• Transformation. The transformation layer facilitates translation between different (EDI) formats. Formats like X12, UN/EDIFACT, GS1 XML trade messages, JSON, flat files, text files, or proprietary XML messages are transformed into formats that your ERP systems can easily understand and use.
• Integration. In the final layer, the transformed message is available to be consumed by the ERP. API connectors have been introduced in recent years to connect you with your ERP in a normalized way, much like the ODBC connector you may have used in the past.  The integration layer can be an API or a connector like ODBC or ODATA – the main emphasis here lies in providing (a) the route for landing the messages and (b) feedback that lets you know whether the order was rejected or accepted. The latter is the target, which requires the least manual input.

Do More Connections Provide More Benefits?

The key word is ‘choice’. If one network has the potential to provide a competitive advantage, do multiple networks offer even greater benefit?

The quantity of available networks is only one criteria that determines how effective your network is.  Connecting to multiple VANs is, frankly, a drain on resources, particularly when all VANs make use of the same VAN interconnect. 

While there is a need to be mindful of the connections available to your trading partners, using multiple VAN connections to stay in touch makes no sense at all. It is like having two or more cell phones or cable TV subscriptions, particularly when methodologies like AS2, MFTP, FTP, SFTP, and APIs are available.  Many of these options have low or no cost associated with them while VAN costs are subscription based and incur transaction fees that need to be paid monthly, much like that second cell phone that we referenced earlier.

The AS2 Effect

Application Statement 2 (AS2) is used for a reliable and secure transfer of data over the Internet. It provides a direct, unhindered connection with a trading partner and delivers document receipts and real-time tracking without requiring a VAN or a VAN interconnect. Your standard internet connection serves as the transportation layer; it is payload-agnostic, which means you can use the same tool to transmit images and every business has internet connectivity today. 

Unlike a VAN, AS2 does not typically have monthly charges or transaction fees. It reduces the chances of transaction failure by establishing a one-to-one transmission channel, without the need for a middle man, a VAN interconnect, or a ubiquitous VAN. Also, there is a Message Delivery Notification, but more on the MDN at a later time.

Putting It All Together

Now that we have unpacked the ‘BIG VAN’ claim, we can conclude that your EDI solution should provide more than one communication channel, has to be capable of handling a wide range of EDI formats, and MUST integrate smoothly and automatically with your enterprise systems.

We’ve also come to the conclusion that ‘BIG VAN’ cannot support the features that you need without complicating matters with additional software and subscriptions.

That’s why PartnerLinQ is different. PartnerLinQ is not a VAN; rather, it is a highly scalable, dependable, and configurable EDI and B2B communication solution. PartnerLinQ is ‘integration without complication’ that supports integration with Microsoft Dynamics 365 and other ERP systems. It includes an AS2 solution, FTP, MFT, and SFTP and can connect with any VAN, making it the perfect tool for B2B/B2C communication for your EDI and non-EDI partners.

PartnerLinQ also supports API-based ecommerce platforms like Shopify and Magento out of the box, providing your organization a seamless shift between EDI and API integrations; there’s nothing to add and nothing to buy, it’s all in there.

The solution also operates seamlessly between EDI and non-EDI formats – from X12, UN/EDIFACT, and GS1 XML to non-EDI formats like XML and JSON. While there are too many formats to list in a blog, this is a crucial factor that make PartnerLinQ a perfect choice for your EDI, B2B, and API integration and for smooth communication, while decreasing your reliance on ‘BIG VAN.’