Automated integration of electronic trading documents with your back-end ERP system is the Holy Grail of an EDI implementation because it can create important efficiency gains and is therefore the critical area from which the cost savings pot of gold can be generated. 

Most large Companies will have already made an investment in sophisticated EDI software which they have integrated with their ERP systems.  For the SME market, implementing EZYB2B in-house facilitates very much the same functionality, but at a very much lower cost.

In simple terms "Integration" means the ability of the EDI software to translate inbound documents into an electronic format which can be automatically fed into a back-end ERP system i.e. in effect, it is  simulation of the data entry person's keystrokes when they enter an Order into their Sales Order Entry screen, or an Invoice into their Accounts Payable system.  The ease or difficulty of integration will vary with each ERP system, of course, but most back-end systems on the market today have the ability to both accept electronic documents, or generate them in a format that EZYB2B can utilise in its external communication process with the Customer or Supplier.  Taking each primary document individually:

• For an inbound Order, EZYB2B receives the document from the Customer in electronic format, translates that format into the format required by the back-end system and passes it to the Sales Order Entry system.  That system then performs its designated functions such as check the Order for pricing and stock availability etc., then if it is correct, go on to update inventory files, produce picking slips and advanced shipping notices, and generate a Purchase Order Acknowledgement which is passed back to EZYB2B for electronic transmission to the Customer.  


• For an inbound Invoice, the process and role of EZYB2B is virtually the same i.e. it translates the document into the back-end system format and passes it to the Accounts Payable system for update and subsequent payment.

EZYB2B is the EDI-enabling middleware that connects the back-end ERP system to the outside world, as depicted in the Topology diagrams Options B and C included in the 'Positioning' section.

The cost savings which can be generated from the automation and therefore removal of the manual data entry processes are both significant and obvious, and require no further elucidation.

The growing trend now is for a Customer to receive a Functional Acknowledgement of a Purchase Order in minutes, and a Qualified Acknowledgement inside 2 or 3 hours.  Both of these times will tighten a lot as EDI becomes more sophisticated, in fact if AS2 is the document transport method, the first acknowledgement is virtually instantaneous, and there are already examples in the Health Industry where Qualified Acknowledgements are sent back to Customers within minutes.  This is a far cry from firing a fax off into the dark and not knowing if your Order has been received and processed until the truck arrives with or without the products you ordered, or thought you had ordered.

In the Food and Liquor Industry, in particular, the use of the Advanced Shipping Notice (ASN) is starting to replace the Invoice transmitted by the Supplier, and at the Customer end the electronic ASN is used to create a Recipient-Created Tax Invoice (RCTI).  The use of EDI in many Industries has yet to move beyond the exchanging of Orders and Invoices, and it is still rare to see even the use of Purchase Order Acknowledgements.  This will change over time once the benefits of utilising the full document set are fully understood and the price for transport of documents is not based on volume.

Each of the interactions in the previous two paragraphs require effective back-end integration.

Even though the integration process can be fully automated if required, EZYB2B can work with your back-end system using workflows for manual checking of Orders before they are released into your ERP system.  This is a common requirement.