Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) integrated with Microsoft Dynamics® GP can streamline interactions and transactions with a variety of trading partners including customers, suppliers, banks and factors, 3PLs and more. But EDI can be more than an optimization a business chooses to embark on--it is often a hard mandate from major customers intent on leaning their supply chain.
EDI of course is, by a simplistic definition, a way to electronically exchange supply chain documents and automate transactions between business entities including customers, suppliers, banks/factors, 3PLs and others. But today, it is often about more than just exchanging purchase orders and purchase order acknowledgements. Regardless of whether you engage in EDI by choice or by requirement, today's omnichannel business environment requires that more advanced data from Dynamics GP and warehouse management system (WMS) software be included in many EDI programs. According to Brian Lynch of Panatrack Partner organization Data Masons, Dynamics GP user organizations ought to plan to automate more esoteric transactions and inventory status information.
"With customers for instance, you may want to automate the inbound sales order which in turn would trigger a purchase order acknowledgment or an advance ship notice that lets your customers know when they will receive their goods," Lynch writes in the new brief from Panatrack. "This is often a good integration point with warehouse management system (WMS) software and automatic data collection software like PanatrackerGP. You also may want to automate the outbound invoice and inbound payment remittance. But a business’ customers may be asked to do more, including inventory advices, catalogs, forecasts and purchase order changes. Within a WMS, we may automate picking tickets, shipping advices, warehouse transfer documents, inventory levels and inventory statuses. Depending on the needs of your business and the type of documents that a WMS may be able to provide to you, there are many opportunities to facilitate rapid communication on what is going on within your trading relationship."
In his new Executive Brief, Lynch describes how changes to business models and distribution patterns may impact not only the required EDI transactions required of Dynamics GP users, but the cost of the underlying EDI solution. Download the brief today and let us know what additional questions you have on how EDI software, WMSinventory control software like PanatrackerGP and Dynamics GP work together to help you meet the challenges of connected business in the 21st Century.
