While EDI technology has standard requirements common to all EDI partners, there are also requirements that are peculiar to individual partners. These requirements can be special processes, transactions or selected information that an EDI partner requires in order to satisfy some of their own specific needs. At EDI Options we put great care into both common and partner specific requirements and with the flexible design of our products meet the requirements of any retailer now and into the future.

General Requirements »

The common requirements that apply to every EDI trading partner forms the backbone of EDI trading. For example, as a major component of EDI processing your EDI software needs to communicate properly with all of your trading partners in order to exchange transactions. Once those transactions are exchanged your EDI software needs to “sort your mail” separating out EDI partners and their individual transactions and sending the acknowledgement of their receipt back to your EDI partners. These processes are common to all EDI partnerships and most EDI products will handle these activities with a variety of methods and techniques.

By definition, the EDI standards followed by your trading partners are 100% ANSI X12 compliant and approved by the U.S. national standards body for the development and maintenance of EDI standards. This compliance insures your system will always meet a base level of standardization. These are the broad set of rules from which no EDI partner can deviate. Like a sporting event, the standards committee sets the rules of play so that every party can freely participate. It’s the individual ground rules of the EDI partners that vary from EDI partnership to EDI partnership.

Specific Requirements »

The EDI standards have a number of options written into them that permit EDI partners to fine-tune their EDI requirements. A particular EDI partner may require the department class of the goods they are purchasing to be carried throughout the EDI process. In this example they will broadcast a department code in their EDI purchase order and expect it to be returned to them in the EDI invoice. Perhaps they would like this code to be also printed on their shipping label. While this may be a critical element to one EDI partner it may not even be included in the transaction standards for a different EDI partner. While both partners in this example use EDI transactions and follow the basic rules of the EDI game, the partner with the department code requirement has some specific ground rules for trading with them via EDI that only they require.

Below is a partial list of EDI partners that have specific requirements that we have worked with in the past. Click one to see more details on what they require and how we can help you meet their requirements.

Customization »

In addition to meeting the general and specific EDI requirements across a variety of EDI partners, all of EDI Options’ solutions are upgradable via a wide array of add-ons. Our EDI products already finely tuned to the EDI partner’s requirements are further automated and customized through the use of our add-on elements. These add-ons can dramatically expand the effectiveness of your base EDI solutions and can bring stunning increases in productivity to your operation. Add-ons include automated invoicing, integration with UPS and FedEx systems, distributed processing across multiple stores, and special direct to customer handling.

Add-ons allow us to offer our products at a very competitive rate while giving you a tool that will continue to handle the growth of your business. The investment in your EDI operations over time pays back handsomely in efficient use of time, accuracy in processing and total satisfaction of your customers.

Contact us today for more information about how we can help you with your unique trading partners needs.

The customized programs you have written for us all work great, even with the odd requirements I've thrown at you. ”

Dave Nadolne
- Golden State International