EDI - how can I do it cheaply and easily - please help.

[humour]

I want a very cost effective solution that will scale as my capabilities grow.

I currently am committed for the next couple of years at least to using a non edi compliant accounting package (BusinessVision).

Currently I use an EDI service wherin we use a fax machine to send paper copies to a service who translates them into an EDI format sends them to a couple of trading partners. Its relatively inexpensive our volume is about 50 documents/month.

Our requirements are going to double and so is our current cost. But I don't anticipate a lot of new growth.

What I want....



- a more scalable and CHEAPER solution.

A) For outbound documents
I can extract purchase orders and invoices pretty easily and write a comma delimitted file or perhaps even an XML file. I dont want to learn the EDI standards. I want to pull data from my application write it in a simplified format and feed it into software that will turn it into an EDI compliant document and send it to my trading partners (over the internet).

I want something that will be less expensive than what I am paying now about $100 - $200 Canadian dollars monthly for about 100 documents (inbound and outbound)

B) For inbound documents I want a service that can store inbound documents that I can retrieve and manage using a program or web-service (basically like email). I will not attempt technology that will feed documents directly into my application. Double-entry of inbound documents is not an issue because the volume is not a big deal and its no worse than what I do now.

Does anyone have any ideas, suggestions or vendors they can point me to.

If possible please give me a general idea of

1) what will be my setup costs?
2) what will be my costs per transaction, please factor in all variable costs including costs for document-xlation if required and value-added-networks if required.

Please email me LINKS to specific documents that I should read about your product offerings that meet my needs. I dont have time to read tons of website material trying to sift what I require.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[legall1]

Hi there, this area is very new to me so I am still getting use to navigating through the site. I notice though that you got two replies to your question how possible would it be to see those responses.
I work at a local bank in the caribbean, and I am looking at EDIINT using the AS2 protocol for bill payments initiated by our customers. I am thinking that the system should work similarly to the way you described. I need as much info as possible on the AS2 protocol, and how it works will you be able to provide some information? The following is what I had in mind:

The idea is to simply integrate workflows to efficiently remit customer initiated payments via EDI technologies eliminating the need to fax payment confirmations between locations and reduce the need for paper based processing and its associated problems, that occur due to human error. Since all the merchants involved have an automated system to update customer accounts I see the possibility of using EDI over the internet help improve services in a convenient, secure and cost effective manner.

After the customer initiates a bill payment request, (therefore having debited his/her account at the bank to credit a particular bill, which s/he would have set up on the Internet Banking system), the information should be passed through the bank's system via EDI, converted based on pre-designed set standards, AS1/AS2, and transmitted over the Internet to respective merchants' systems simultaneously, to credit individual customer's accounts with these merchants. How possible is that?

 

[KarveR]

The provider I've had best experience with is GXS (

http://www.gxs.com)

Total solution started at about £400 uk pounds, but has scaled very nicely, and their support is A1.

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