5 Hindrances To Your EDI Team's Progress

Not unlike most consultants, my EDI career has been challenging at times.  I've been in EDI for over 20 years and continue to see the same issues no matter what company I am working at.  Listed below are my top 5 roadblocks to an EDI team's progress.

1. Lack Of Planning - Not including the EDI group in the project development from day one. The business units at most companies are the driving forces of almost all projects. However, they do not always realize that the EDI team is an integral part of getting data to/from their customers, vendors, carriers, financial institutions and whoever else they do business with. Educating the business units about the EDI groups capabilities helps to avoid this.
2. Turnover - Even though educating the business units about the EDI group is a tremendous help there continues to be turnover of the people who have been educated!
3. Incorrect Role Assumptions - There are times when the EDI group is included but the business unit wants us to lead the project. This happens sometimes due to the business unit being short staffed, but also because of ignorance as to what our true function actually is.
4. Unrealistic Expectations - Having a business group want to exchange data with a trading partner but not having an application system capable of sending/receiving the data. They see the benefit of exchanging the data and think it will be done by simply contacting the EDI group. Sometimes they think we can build the application system for them.
5. Understaffed - Is your EDI department understaffed? Are you it? This is not uncommon in today's "do more with less" environment. It can make getting your daily support work and any project work difficult.

The main point I'd like to make is that with proper teamwork within the entire company all of these issues could have been avoided. Part of this teamwork involves educating the business units about the EDI group: what knowledge they bring to the table and what part they will play in any project. Having your management's support can help in this process as the top-down approach to this education seems to work best.