Some of the following have a direct dollar value whilst others relate more to the quality of the business relationship:

• A fixed cost monthly Subscription Fee means there are no additional penalties for document volumes and it costs no more to add new trading partners and/or new document types


• Removing or reducing the dependency on outsourced EDI vendors enables you to eliminate or reduce that cost, plus exercise complete control over the timing of adding new trading partners and/or new document types


• Back-end integration enables you to automate manual processes and to re-deploy staff from redundant document re-keying in both Customer Service and Accounts Payable Departments, and reduce keying error correction costs and the number of Credit Notes


• For a Supplier, full direct electronic trading leads to faster resolution of queries, a better standard of customer service and more rapid collection of cash


• For a Customer, full direct electronic trading leads to faster resolution of queries to get it right the first time, faster delivery of goods and a lower investment in inventories


• The prompt receipt of electronic Purchase Order Acknowledgements is a massive leap forward from the uncertainty of having to wonder whether or not a faxed Purchase Order has been received and acted upon


• Eliminates hand-crafting and maintaining software to link a variety of document formats to the input/output file requirements of your back-end system


• An in-house application enables you to exercise good corporate governance by incorporating that mission-critical application into your Disaster Recovery Planning i.e. it brings the whole trading operation under your internal management and control


• Trading partners will really appreciate your greater responsiveness and not only the reduction in the cost of doing business, but also making it easier to trade with each other.

The three critical success factors available from direct trading are to bring your entire trading operations under your own control, to greatly enhance relationship loyalty through making it easier to do business with each other, and finally, to reduce the cost of doing business.