Electronic Data Interchange *EDI*

[morkinva]

This message format was the big thing when I was working at this distributor a few years ago. I guess it was supposed to bring about the paperless office. Some folks wouldn't even do business with you unless you were EDI capable. You had to be able to receive or send purchase orders, receipts, invoices, etc through a service which charged a couple grand for the software and a few bills a month for the service.

One customer M.Cardone initially required the EDI for purchases, but they must have found it equally annoying as they eventually just sent emails with the stuff they wanted.

Do you use this stuff?

 

[rufruf44]

Walmart still uses that. Most if not all of the major transportation carrier has to support it.

 

[iamwiz82]

Yep, we use it. Very important and very expensive because each and every company uses a difference format. This is the problem with it. We ship to hundreds of very small companies and each one wants specific changes. We dont even bother with EDI if you are a small volume customer.

 

[Nil]

I'm the EDI Coordinator/ Network Admin for the company I work for. We pretend to use EDI to keep our customers happy, but it's looked at as a joke by Upper Managment.