Invigorating your partner ecosystem with a modernized electronic data interchange (EDI)

When it comes to the technology that powers your business, the difference between good and great can be the difference between stagnation and growth. Good is fine. It gets the job done, and it keeps your company afloat. But in today’s IT landscape, business leaders are realizing they often need better-than-good technology to achieve the results they’re looking for.

Here’s the thing about great technology: it’s transformative. And that means it’s not generally an off-the-shelf solution you can buy and be blown away by on day one. There’s likely potential for greatness, but the real magic comes from how that product, solution or service enables and impacts your operations and workflows over time. Electronic data interchange (EDI) is a perfect example. Companies with large and complex partner ecosystems often rely heavily on EDI to maintain effective operations and supply chains.

Modernizing your partner ecosystem and EDI with powerful integrations can unlock game-changing value for a business, but you need the right integration and implementation to reap those benefits.

MuleSoft’s Anypoint Partner Manager (APM) offers companies the opportunity to work with better-than-good technology that increases their capabilities, future-proofs their operations and makes a truly great impact.

In this article, I’m going to explain why, share some of the experiences that have led me to become a champion for this solution and explore what an implementation looks like in practice. If you’re someone looking for ways to revamp your company’s EDI and surrounding systems, I hope it’s insightful and helpful information.

Common pain points in EDI

Companies that rely on EDI to run their partner ecosystems face two key challenges. Both challenges are rooted in the inherent complexity of EDI systems. First is managing costs. Whether you need to develop new code every time you process a new kind of order, or you’re navigating the nuances of onboarding a brand new partner, changing legacy EDI is often slow and expensive.

For example, traditional point-to-point architectures severely limit repeatable or reusable code. The processes for onboarding one partner might look completely different than another. Developing new processes and manual integrations adds up quickly in both time and cost, and it becomes even more costly if you’re outsourcing those changes to third-party providers.

After managing costs, the second challenge is maintaining consistent and reliable customer service. Legacy EDI technology makes it difficult to deliver high-quality partner experiences due to a lack of speed and transparency. Slow processes and buried data make partnerships significantly less efficient. That loss in efficiency can translate to a loss in revenue for both parties.

How MuleSoft’s Anypoint Partner Manager helps you overcome these obstacles

In many implementation projects, NTT DATA has configured MuleSoft’s APM to solve both these pain points and kickstart long-term growth for partner ecosystems. When it comes to managing costs, this simplified, configuration-driven integration solution helps companies save time and money by introducing efficiencies and repeatable processes at scale. Whether on-prem or in the cloud, MuleSoft’s Application Programming Interface (API) technology and Anypoint Platform dramatically reduce the need for custom code. Less customization makes it easier and more cost-effective to scale your business. It also integrates all your EDI transactions with your ERP and other supporting systems in a reusable way. It gives leaders a clearer, more connected picture of the organization. These supporting systems may include industry and function-specific solutions including Transportation Management Systems (TMS), Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) and AP/AR Finance systems.

In terms of customer service and partner experience, the value of MuleSoft’s APM is dramatic. As part of the Salesforce family, MuleSoft puts customers/partners at the center of their technology. Automated transaction visibility, transaction replay and easy-to-adopt capabilities specifically designed for partner ecosystems and EDIs give companies the tools they need to drive loyalty and profitability in their partnerships. Plus, when you unify your partner relationships and transactions under the MuleSoft’s APM umbrella, you can easily track performance and surface data-driven insights that help you prioritize opportunities and drive further efficiency.

MuleSoft Anypoint Partner Manager and API Conceptual Architecture

Meaningful progress for a global manufacturing company

We recently worked with an industry-leading international manufacturing company to improve the efficiency of the IT supporting its vast partner ecosystem. Before working with us, the company was facing the exact challenges we’ve discussed. Its existing systems required highly customized code that slowed down production and delayed digital initiatives. It also hampered the ability to quickly onboard new partners, which made it difficult to keep up with rapid growth.

Our team worked with the client’s employees to understand their needs and operations and identified the MuleSoft platform as the most value-driving solution. By implementing a variety of MuleSoft’s cloud-driven and API-powered technologies, including Anypoint Partner Manager, NTT DATA helped the company move from manual code to configuration and from heavy infrastructure costs to scalable growth. Common workflows like order-to-cash and procure-to-pay are now automated on the Anypoint Platform, and API-led connectivity is streamlining integrations with Salesforce and SAP platforms. The company reduced its time to value in onboarding new partners and is set up for future success.

NTT DATA is here to help

We can’t emphasize the value of incorporating EDI into your technology modernization strategy, especially because your partnerships and supply chains have huge implications and impact the health of your business. While an industry-leading platform like MuleSoft’s APM can dramatically improve cost management and customer service, it’s important to work with EDI experts who know your industry and workflows and have experience with the latest technology. Rather than simply drag and drop your systems onto the MuleSoft platform, we’re committed to training your teams to leverage the new tools or managing your EDI for you on an ongoing basis.

If you’re feeling the limitations of your legacy EDI, or you’d like to learn more about MuleSoft’s APM and NTT DATA’s implementation capabilities, we’d love to connect! Send us a message so we can learn more about your situation, set up a demo and show you what truly great technology could do for your business.

— By Paul Kersey
VP of Technology, Salesforce & MuleSoft Services at NTT DATA