For enterprises in the early stages of growth or with just a few trading partners to manage, relying on ERP-based EDI to exchange revenue cycle and production data makes sense. But while such setups may offer the efficiency of just one system to manage, they can throttle scalability.
Growth in today’s environment often comes as much from a merger or an acquisition as it does by opening a new market or a product launch. But no matter what form it takes, sustainable growth demands the ability to onboard more partners faster, juggle multiple data formats, and blend EDI with API-based workflows.
In short, to paraphrase the old Beach Boys classic, the old ERP-centric EDI approach wasn’t built for these times.
With that said, how do you recognize when the time has come for an EDI solution that's decoupled from but tightly integrated with your ERP system?
5 Signs Your ERP-Based EDI Capabilities Are Holding You Back
1. You're Relying on Custom Code to Fill Gaps
There’s no doubt that custom scripting can support ERP-based EDI across a number of enterprise-specific use cases. But you've probably experienced the pain of having to produce a band-aid piece of code when a version upgrade breaks your custom mod.
Over time, the cost to maintain these increasingly brittle workarounds can outweigh the cost of a modern EDI solution.
And by 'modern EDI solution,' we mean an EDI platform or gateway that works with your ERP system but doesn't rely on it.
2. Onboarding New Partners Takes Too Long
Of all the pain points stemming from coupled EDI and ERP, this pain may be the most acute. That's because in a coupled setup, IT must intervene with every new trading partner. Not good.
In addition to gobbling valuable IT resources, without reusable maps or a self-service portal, each new trading partner to connect becomes a 100% manual project. Which in turn creates delays that can frustrate partners, tank opportunities, and generate SLA violations.
3. You Lack Real-Time Visibility Into Transactions
ERP-based EDI workflows typically rely on batch processing. Back in the day, that was efficient, but today it means that you can't check transactions in real time.
That's a problem if a PO goes missing or an 856 fails to send. Issues with these nuts-and-bolts transactions can delay payment and delivery, and trigger fines.
Manual exception handling and audit trails only add to the burden and frustration. Worse, when users can't check transaction status on the fly, response times take a hit.4. You Can't Support API-First Partners or Modern Workflows
While today's supply chain ecosystems remain heavily invested in EDI, electronic commerce isn't EDI-only. Retailers, logistics partners, and marketplaces expect API-based connections for faster, real-time data exchange.
The problem is that most ERP systems weren't built to orchestrate APIs alongside traditional EDI. So integration teams end up stitching together solutions to fill the gap.
The result is more complexity, technical debt, and inconsistent data flows across channels. Not a recipe for seamless scaling or cost containment.
5. You're Limited to a Single Deployment Model
If your EDI is embedded in your ERP system and tied to on-premises infrastructure, that can be a speedbump to implementing a cloud migration roadmap. What you want is the flexibility to support cloud-native or hybrid EDI/ERP environments.
Otherwise, you’re at risk of losing scalability and cost-saving opportunities critical to growth and profitability.
What a Modern EDI Strategy Looks Like
Modern EDI isn't about taking the environment you have and burning it to the waterline. It means eliminating friction, adding flexibility, and shaping your integration environment to a rapidly changing business and supply chain landscape.
Decoupled, Yet Integrated
A modern EDI solution is more than a bolt-on. It's a B2B gateway that seamlessly integrates and exchanges transaction data with your ERP. At the same time, it’s an independent, discrete system that allows for easier upgrades and scaling.
Thanks to a centralized mapping and rules engine, modern EDI solutions let you onboard new trading partners quickly by reusing templates instead of rebuilding them from scratch with each new partner.
Supports Both EDI and APIs
Modern EDI platforms let you process EDI messages alongside REST or SOAP APIs, a feature that gives you the flexibility to meet different partner and platform requirements from a single environment.
This doesn't mean retooling your entire tech stack. It does mean being able to plug into what you already have-- ERP, WMS, TMS, etc. Decoupled EDI lets you do that.
Enables Visibility Across Systems
With a modern, decoupled EDI solution, business users gain instant visibility into order status, acknowledgements, and failures. Without waiting in an IT queue or digging through logs.
Modern EDI platforms are built to proactively flag issues and trigger workflows. This lets business process support teams resolve problems before they can impact customers.
And when it comes to getting stakeholders excited processes that happen behind the curtain, it's easy to follow the money when it comes to ROI on EDI.
That's because the benefits of modern EDI are visible in the form of improved margins, thanks to faster onboarding, accelerated order-to-cash cycles and avoided SLA fines.
Flexible Deployment Options
Whether you're all-in on deploying your integration environment in the cloud, maintaining on-prem systems, or fall somewhere in between, modern EDI solutions adapt to your integration strategy.
Decoupled EDI platforms are designed to integrate with your existing ERP and integration stack, and be flexible enough to support phased migrations or hybrid rollouts.
Questions to Ask Before You Modernize
At the outset, we talked about the signs your ERP-embedded EDI is becoming a drag on growth and efficiency. Now what?
It's time to prepare for how you'll make the business case for a standalone yet ERP-compatible EDI solution. That process starts with asking the following questions:
1. What's our current partner onboarding time?
Every business in every industry is different of course. But if the answer to this question is closer to "months and months," instead of "days and weeks," your system isn't built for speed or scale. Which means you could soon be at a competitive disadvantage if you’re not already.
2. How sustainable is our current EDI setup?
As suggested above, if your EDI depends on serial hard-coded integrations and modifications, you're one ERP upgrade from the kind of disruption that can hurt the bottom line.
That's because connection and message errors bring downstream financial pain like SLA fines and delayed payment.
3. Can we integrate both API and EDI transactions with minimal disruption?
You don't need a crystal ball to see that more and more partners are going to embrace API-first or API-driven data exchange strategies going forward. If you can't accommodate them, you could be at risk of falling behind others in your space.
4. Who owns EDI knowledge in our organization?
If your ERP-embedded EDI processes live inside the head of one person, that's valuable tribal knowledge, obviously. It's also a risk to business continuity if that person leaves without training their successor or documenting your current environment.
Migrating to a standalone EDI solution offers the opportunity to cross-train more junior IT staff in managing and maintaining your integration infrastructure. Or to bring in outside SMEs on the solution you choose.
5. What EDI issues does our current embedded solution create if we move to the cloud?
An ERP cloud migration can be a years-long journey with potentially hundreds of connections to map and test. A modern, cloud-native EDI solution that’s designed to integrate with your new ERP can avoid problems like cost overruns and delayed go-live dates.
Let Remedi help you implement a standalone ERP compatible EDI integration
Unlike standalone EDI solutions, most ERPs with EDI add-ons do not offer "out of the box" connectors or the expertise to build custom integrations. Why does that matter?
If your supply chain involves many different partners with varied applications, you're better off with a dedicated EDI integration platform than an ERP with EDI tools.
Fortunately, a modern EDI strategy doesn’t mean you have to scrap everything. It's about decoupling where it makes sense and rethinking how EDI fits into your broader integration strategy.
Without disrupting what’s already working.
If your current setup is starting to feel like a straitjacket to growth instead of a springboard, contact Remedi today. We can help you implement a modern EDI solution for greater supply chain visibility, operational efficiency, and scalability.
