What EDI is and where Supply Lens fits
Lesson 1 of 22 6 min read
The vocabulary of retail EDI (messages, standards, transmission methods and trading partners) and the job Supply Lens does in the middle.
If a supermarket, department store or large wholesaler has asked you to "get set up on EDI", this course is for you. By the end of this lesson you will be able to explain what EDI is in plain terms, name the moving parts of an EDI relationship, and describe what Supply Lens does so that your team doesn't have to.
EDI in one paragraph
EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) is the exchange of business documents (orders, invoices, despatch advices and so on) between two companies' systems in a fixed, structured format, with no one retyping anything. Instead of a buyer emailing you a PDF purchase order, their system sends a message that your systems can read line by line.
Each company in the relationship is a trading partner of the other. In this course the trading partner is usually a retailer that buys from you.
The moving parts
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Message | One business document in EDI form, for example a purchase order or an invoice. |
| Standard (or syntax) | The grammar the message is written in. Supply Lens settings refer to EDIFACT, Tradacoms and X12. Each retailer tells you which one it uses. |
| Specification | The retailer's own guide to which fields it fills, which it requires from you, and how. Two retailers using the same standard can still have very different specifications. |
| Transmission method | How messages travel. Retailers use a VAN (value added network, a mailbox service for EDI), SFTP (secure file transfer), an API, email, or AS2 (a secure, signed way of sending files directly between partners). |
| Identifiers | The codes each side uses to recognise the other, its locations and its products: GLNs, supplier codes, depot codes, barcodes. |
Why retailers love EDI
A large retailer may receive orders from thousands of suppliers. EDI lets their systems process every supplier's invoices and despatch advices in exactly the same way. That is why the retailer sets the rules and the supplier has to fit them.
Why EDI projects feel hard
The partner skills guide that Supply Lens uses internally sums it up: retailer EDI flows are "notoriously specific". Every retailer has its own:
- product codes, which usually look nothing like your SKUs
- location and depot codes for where goods are delivered
- supplier code for you
- mandatory fields and document formats
- tolerance rules for short or partial deliveries
None of these are things your ERP (enterprise resource planning system, such as Unleashed) knows about out of the box.
What Supply Lens does
Supply Lens sits between the retailer and your back-office system and handles the translation layer.
In practice that means:
- Receiving the retailer's messages over whatever channel the retailer insists on.
- Translating retailer codes into your own records using cross-reference tables built for that trading partner.
- Creating the right Documents in your ERP or WMS (warehouse management system).
- Building the replies the retailer expects, such as acknowledgements, despatch advices and invoices, in that retailer's format.
EDI Integrations are configured by the Supply Lens team from the retailer's specification and your reference data. Your job is to supply complete, accurate information and to test. The rest of this module shows you exactly what that involves.
Meet Northfield Pantry
Northfield Pantry makes granola and oat bars. They run Unleashed for stock and orders and sell direct on Shopify. A regional grocery chain, Greenway Stores, wants to list four of their products, but only if Northfield can receive purchase orders, send despatch advices and invoice by EDI. Northfield has never used EDI. We'll follow them through this course.
Recap
- EDI is the structured, system-to-system exchange of business documents between trading partners.
- A message is written in a standard (EDIFACT, Tradacoms or X12) and shaped by the retailer's own specification.
- Messages travel over a VAN, SFTP, AS2, an API or email: the retailer decides.
- Each retailer has its own product, depot and supplier codes, which is what makes EDI hard.
- Supply Lens is the translation layer between the retailer and your ERP, and the Supply Lens team configures EDI Integrations for you.
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