Hi All,

I thought it would be great idea to start a Buyer’s guide for Sage Software users. We often get into opportunities with customers with various levels of EDI related knowledge, some know EDI inside and out, can write Maps or some have no idea what EDI is.

Let’s start with the basics what is EDI ?

EDI stands for Electronic Data Interchange, which is just a set of standards for Computer-to-Computer exchange of information either within an organization or another group like a major retail chain store. Think of the old way of doing purchasing, someone types out a Purchase Order and drives 3 miles away to drop of the order, that company then manually types the same document into the system and the order gets fulfilled somehow. EDI automates some of that functionality and removes the double entry and more importantly prevents errors to a certain degree. I’ll go into that in more detail later on as with EDI there are Web-Form EDI solutios that have a manual element to them.

How is an EDI document such as a Purchase Order (850) sent electronically? There are a number of ways to do that and the eBridge platform can support these functions easily for you. An EDI document can go via FTP,Modem,eMail,HTTP,AS1,AS2 etc.

An EDI Document usually has just the same amount of information a standard paper version has, the main difference is taking that data and getting it into the right system electronically either with printing out the EDI document received in a Web-Forms solution or integrating the systems together with an eBridge Software solution.

For more information on EDI check out Wikipedia’s link below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_Data_Interchange

It’s a great resource for finding out about a how the data flows and such.

Wayne Thompson
Account Manager- Sage Software Products

Direct: 905-635-3309
Tel: 905-631-8333 ext. 247
Fax: 416-946-1805

wthompson@ebridgesoft.com

www.ebridgesoft.com

Costco Wholesale is a chain of retail warehouses that operate internationally with 53 million members spread across 5 million businesses. In order to open up your products to Costco’s clientele you will need to meet the Costco’s EDI requirements:

810 Invoice
820 Payment Order/Remittance Advice
824 Application Advice
850 Purchase Order
860 Purchase Order Change/Cancel
864 Text Message
875 Grocery Purchase Order
880 Grocery Invoice
997 Acknowledgment Document

Here is some info on a few of the EDI documents that are new to the series. An EDI 820 document advises the payee of the details of the payment including any adjustments that have been made. The EDI 860 informs the vendor of any changes / cancellations that need to be made a purchase order by the customer. The EDI 875 is a purchase order for grocery products and the 880 is the accompanying invoice.

eBRIDGE Software has successfully supplied both integrated and non integrated EDI solutions for both Costco Wholesale and Costco Wholesale Canada. We have helped many small and medium sized businesses become EDI compliant. If you are looking for an EDI solution for Costco then give us a call. We can help you out by providing you with 15 years of knowledge and experience when it comes to EDI and how it actually reduces costs and increases productivity and sales!

Thanks,
Jay Isaak
MS Dynamics GP and SL Integrations
1-800-775-6921 x269
jisaak@ebridgesoft.com

Bed Bath and Beyond was started back in 1971. BBB focuses on selling domestic merchandise and home furnishings. With over 800 stores BBB has quite a large footprint in the retail market. Below are the documents that BBB trades with their vendors via EDI. For information on their implementation guides you can go to the Bed Bath and Beyond Vendor Support Site.

850 - Purchase Order
816 - Organizational Relationships
860 – Purchase Order Change
864 - Text Message
810 - Invoice
856 - Advance Ship Notice
UCC 128 Shipping Label

The two documents above that have not been covered in the previous editions of the trading partner series are the 816 and 864. The 816 (organizational relationships) provides the address of all the locations that you may need to bill or ship to along with the code that both BBB and you will use to reference these locations on a PO, invoice or ASN. The 864 is a text message. This document will provide you just basic information about the stores like the holidays they are closed.

eBRIDGE Software has helped many client become EDI compliant with Bed Bath and Beyond. We have mapped and tested against their EDI specs to ensure that all situations are covered. If you are currently dealing with Bed Bath and Beyond and looking for an EDI solution (web forms or integrated) then give us a call and we can explain eBRIDGE Software’s EDI solution for Bed Bath and Beyond.

Thanks,
Jay Isaak
MS Dynamics GP and SL Integrations
1-800-775-6921 x269
jisaak@ebridgesoft.com

A Value Added Network, often referred to as an EDI VAN, is a private network dedicated to the secure exchange of EDI business documents.  Trading partners obtain an account with an EDI VAN such as GXS to which this account serves as an electronic mailbox for sending and receiving electronic business documents.  With an EDI VAN, not only can you exchange documents with your trading partner, you can also exchange them between VANs.  This is often referred to as an ‘interconnect’.  These interconnects benefit companies by providing them access to a larger base of trading partners throughout the world.  In addition to an EDI VAN, Internet-based EDI enables companies to exchange EDI documents over the Internet using secure methods of encryption.  While there are similar business benefits for both methods of exchange, the determining factor of which method to use depends on the specific partner agreement. Optimally, each trading partner needs to use the same mode of transport, whether that mode is an EDI VAN or Internet EDI.  Larger businesses will require that their suppliers use the same method of communication for electronic document exchange. 

At eBridge our ePortal solution uses the Internet as a secure method of exchanging business documents for EDI with your trading partners.  This has several advantages over traditional EDI VANs. 

• No transaction based fees; just one monthly payment regardless of the number of transactions processed;
• Remote access where ever there is an Internet connection;
• Interconnections with other EDI VANs

If you have more questions about the differences between traditional VANs and Internet-based EDI, feel free to comment or contact us at 1.800.755.6921.

Regards,
Dave Malda

Marketing Coordinator

GHX was created in 2000. Their goal is to standardize the way that the heath care industry transacts by managing the transactions and data format for all their partners. A single connection to GHX gives you the ability to send electronic documents to over 3,600 hospitals and suppliers. GHX requires the following base EDI transactions if you are a supplier that is joining GHX.

850 – Purchase order

855 – Purchase order acknowledgment

856 – Advance ship notice

810 – Invoice

With GHX, you will go through an extensive testing process where they will validate several best and worst case scenarios. This testing process is a little more thorough than most trading partners, but the benefit is that you will not have to retest any documents when adding a new partner that connects to GHX.

If you are looking for a solution that has been tested and proven on the GHX network then give me a call or head to the eBRIDGE website to see eBRIDGE Software’s EDI solutions for GHX and many other trading partners.

Thanks,
Jay Isaak
Sales Rep - MS Dynamics GP and SL Integrations
1-800-775-6921 x269
jisaak@ebridgesoft.com