Four benefits to logistics companies when using EDI

EDI use in the shipping and logistics sector is growing faster than any other industry. The move to use EDI is due to the many impressive benefits. Here are four that are relevant to logistics providers:

Cost savings

When you switch to EDI transactions, you can realize cost savings as high as 35% immediately. These savings are from paper, printing, storage, reproduction, filing, and postage alone. In the case of a major electronics manufacturer, the order processing cost dropped from $38 per order to less than $2. You will see these benefits even if your organizations starts off with a web based EDI System.

Speed

The gains in speed are even more impressive. Several organizations state that business cycle speeds improve by as much as 61% with EDI. Now, rather than waiting days or weeks for a purchase order to go through the post, the entire process takes minutes to complete.

Business efficiency

All the cost and time savings allow staff to focus on activities that further business goals, rather than just placing and tracking orders. Also, an organization can maintain less inventory thanks to shorter order and delivery times.

Strategic

The greatest gains are strategic. According to Act Data Services, Inc. 1-800-ACT-DATA: Every order and all tracking between storefronts and supply chain are processed without any intervention. Also, Management can watch the status of transactions in real-time. This kind of data enables better and faster decision making. You could enhance a product or even develop a new one and bring it to market faster than ever before.