B2B Data Integration and Transformation Blog

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is a long-standing technology with a history spanning over 60 years. Over the years, it has transformed, evolved, and faced fierce competition, yet it has remained the most dominant utility for B2B communications. Despite the proliferation of internet-enabled transactions, businesses across numerous industries still develop and maintain their systems around EDI standards. In 2019, EDI accounted for 78.4% of all B2B electronic transactions.

The COVID-19 outbreak had a profound near-instantaneous impact on business operations globally. Within the weeks that followed, enterprises came to the painful truth that their supply chains were not as reliable as they thought. As a result, buzz words like "just-in-time" and "make-to-order" were quickly thrown off the wagon, with many businesses struggling to stay afloat and some suspending operations altogether.

Traditionally, most companies deployed digital integration solutions in an enterprise-centric manner that prioritized connecting business units to internal applications and business partners through standard EDI technologies. As a result, integration happened from the "inside-out", with internal systems dictating the level and extent of connections with external systems.

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) has been around for more than 60 years. It has faced numerous shake-ups and undergone several notable changes, but it has persevered as the widely accepted standard for multi-enterprise integration.

This is the final article in our series, “The Human Side of Modernization.” This article will focus on the benefits of business automation and detail the mistakes IT leaders need to avoid in order to fully realize them. Previous articles in this series have focused on the technologies that enable business automation, EDI, B2B integration, and ERP solutions; you can find links to them at the end of this article.