The use of catalogue data in EDI

One of the big issues that faces companies exchanging data electronically in any industry is the alignment of the data on all trading partners systems.

As a simple example we can look at a purchase order sent from a retailer to a supplier. The purchase order contains data that has been produced from the retailers back office system that is required by the suppliers back office system in order that the order is fulfilled efficiently. This data will include information such as the delivery point and the code for each product ordered.

When the order is processed by a human, the human interprets the data they see and translates this in to the data required by the suppliers ERP system. When the data is exchanged electronically this "translation" needs to be done automatically. For a lot of suppliers ERP systems this has already been accommodated, but we still get requests from customers to help with this process.

One of the advantages of a Software as a Service (SaaS) is in the nature of having a centralised hub. We have taken the approach of hosting catalogue data on the hub which means that ALL customers that need access to this data, to enhance the data they send or receive, can use it. If our software was deployed at our customers sites then each customer would need a copy of each catalogue they use, and they would have to be regularly updated. With the SaaS approach one catalogue is shared by all relevant users, and is regularly updated in one place.

I should say that to us a catalogue is a name given to ANY look-up data which we process. This could be a list of valid delivery points, a list of product groupings and, of course, products and prices. The important thing to do is to enhance the data received by the recipient so that they can process the incoming data automatically without human intervention. After all that is what EDI is about.

Whilst we have found this approach to be some use in the retail sector, the real advantages have arisen in the construction sector, where EDI is still a maturing technology and the back office systems of both sides of a trading relationship are not a well configured for electronic message exchange as those in the retail sector. But as we are adding construction trading relationships at the rate of 20 to 30 LIVE trading relationships per month, this technique is proving its worth.