EDI or Electronic data interchange is the transfer of business data from one business's computer system to another without human intervention. It is one of the features provided by Tailwind's broker and carrier software to automate an EDI business process, which was typically in the past, quite a labor-intensive paper system.
Advantages of an EDI system
An EDI system eliminates paper documents, meetings, faxes, etc. It also greatly reduces human labor and errors, and at the same time, increases the speed of the business transactions. It can be integrated seamlessly to a business's operational software such as Tailwind's carrier software, thus improving business productivity, performance, and reliability.
Overview of EDI in Tailwind Software
Typically, an EDI business process in the carrier industry involves electronic ordering, invoicing, and payment. This kind of business processes involves 2 way communication between the carrier and its customers. This is implemented as a sequence of EDI messages sent and received between the parties over an electronic network. An illustration of an EDI process in Tailwind would be the shipping of cars by Company A for Company B:
· Company B sends a message to Company A that a shipment of vehicles need to be delivered, say from a railway ramp to a dealership.
· Company A receives this message automatically in real-time using Tailwind software's EDI feature and alerts the user of a new Load Tender from Company B, indicating each vehicle 's VIN, as well the source and destination locations.
· Company A will decide to accept or reject this Load Tender. Once accepted, Tailwind software will automatically generate an order into its database.
· The order is dispatched and when completed, a message for each vehicle is sent from Company A to Company B indicating the shipment has been delivered as planned, or if needed any changes to the delivery.
· Company B receives a message from Company A that the shipment has been delivered.
· Company B sends a message to Company A indicating the amount paid for delivery each vehicle in the order.
· Company A receives this message automatically in real-time using Tailwind software's EDI feature and alerts the user of payments from Company B, indicating each vehicle 's VIN and its delivery payment.
· Company A can process the payments and update the invoice records into its database.
Standards, Protocols, and Implementations of EDI in Tailwind Software
Tailwind currently supports the following X12 EDI standards:
EDI X12 990 - Response to a Load Tender
EDI X12 996 - File Transfer
EDI X12 997 - Functional Acknowledgment
EDI X12 996 - File Transfer
EDI X12 997 - Functional Acknowledgment
The details of these standards, as well as the network protocols and value added networks (VANs), will be explained in future blogs...
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