Services

EDI Consulting

Why EDI and e-Commerce?

The ability of both EDI and e-commerce to increase competitive advantage and profitability for organisations in any sector is now clearly understood and well documented. They also provide a unique opportunity to consolidate and enhance both business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) trading relationships. The increased dependency between competitors, suppliers and customers is a growing reality in the 21st century.

Quite simply, in almost any industry today failure to trade electronically may mean failure of the enterprise.

Business Drivers

The drivers for adopting EDI include:

Speed: EDI has the ability to reduce lead times and cycle times since transactions and data may be sent, received and processed in a fraction of the time normally associated with business processes. Billing and receivable cycle times are also slashed, further enhancing the financial strength of the organisation.

Multiple Cost Savings: EDI substantially reduces transaction and processing costs since it eliminates the need to re-enter data manually - data is accepted by the receiving organisation in electronic form. The enhanced efficiency the EDI brings, means that inventory only needs to be maintained at a fraction of former levels, producing significant savings in working capital.

Improved Relationships: You and your trading partners are able to communicate and trade more efficiently. In fact, you both benefit from the enhanced agility, flexibility and quality that EDI brings. And, the more trading partners you have trading electronically, the more you maximise the benefits of EDI and e-commerce.

Why Total e-Solutions?

Whether you are considering your first move into EDI or e-commerce, or are an existing user and advocate, Total e-Solutions have the experience and skills to take your EDI capability to the next level - unleashing competitive advantage and enhanced profitability for the organisation.

Total e-Solutions have a strong track record of providing EDI consultancy and EDI solutions to a range of household name customers including Unichem Plc, Hit Entertainment Plc and Le Creuset (UK) Ltd. We provide a complete range of EDI services and solutions - across both traditional EDI and newer technologies, such as XML - to help ensure your organisation is getting the best possible return from your EDI investment.

EDI Consultancy and Implementation

Our large team of EDI consultants have proven expertise in a wide range of sectors (e.g. distribution, manufacturing, retail, automotive and transport) and standards, including Tradacoms, EDIFACT, EANCOM, ANSI X12, ODETTE, XML DTD and XML Schema. We have substantial experience in EDI solutions and EDI software including ETS, Reims and, in particular, the Trusted Link range of products from Harbinger.

EDI in ERP Environments

We also have substantial expertise in implementing and interfacing EDI solutions with a range of ERP packages including SAP, JBA System 21, J.D. Edwards, SSA and MAPICS.

EDI Support

Total e-Solutions are able to provide ongoing support and guidance once your EDI program is up and running. This support is available via our own multi-skilled helpdesk and support professionals in the areas of configuration, mapping, control scripts, process change, error handling, and day-to-day processing.

Total e-Solutions Joins Forces with Harbinger

Total e-Solutions are a business partner for Inovis Inc.In October 2002, Total e-Solutions was appointed a primary business partner in the UK with Harbinger, responsible for the sales, implementation, training and support of the market leading Trusted Link family of EDI products. The Trusted Link products complement our own strong core capabilities of providing EDI Consultancy and bespoke EDI solutions to a range of household names, and ensure that our clients have continued access to best-in-class, cost-effective EDI solutions.

Trusted Link Product Family Overview

The Trusted Link product family is the market-leading range of business-to-business e-commerce solutions for mission-critical transaction exchange and transformation with new Internet e-commerce capabilities.

As Internet Protocol (IP) communications rapidly become the primary mechanism for trading communities worldwide, you need transformation software that leverages the speed and efficiency of the Internet.

Key Features

• Designed to handle newer internet e-commerce approaches to EDI, including IP connectivity and XML as well as more traditional hub-driven EDI.
• Multiple data formats are provided including TRADACOMS, EDIFACT, ODETTE, ANSI X12, EDI to application and both inbound and outbound XML.
• Translation engines are designed to run with minimal intervention, and handle several message standards and formats at the same time.
• Robust and flexible communications options are catered for, along with flexible error management and advanced mapping capabilities.
• IP Connectivity offers real-time and dynamic messaging, and can operate in parallel with existing EDI solutions.
• ERP interfaces and templates already exist for SAP, J.D. Edwards, SSA, JBA and MAPICS.

Example Project Overview:

Lifestyle Upholstery is a typical example of a project recently completed in the retail sector by our EDI team.

EDI purchase orders, in a variety of EDI formats, received from Lifestyle's customers including Argos, Courts, DFS, GUS, Harvey's and Littlewoods are fully and dynamically interfaced to and update Lifestyle's JBA System 21 business applications (running on an AS/400 platform). Reciprocal Sales Order Acknowledgments and Invoices are likewise transmitted dynamically via EDI transactions to Lifestyle's customers.

As well as fully automating the EDI process, additional validation routines have been developed in order to detect and reject duplicate records and also to calculate delivery dates for order acknowledgments.