Walmart is one of America’s largest retail companies, with outlets in almost every town and city. It encourages entrepreneurs to operate with small wholesale businesses to become one of its suppliers. However, they first need to be savvy in using the latest electronic data interchange (EDI) technology. Electronic data interchange is a software solution that allows two companies to exchange business documents with an electronic format using computers. The companies send and receive documents as trading partners. It is a safer, efficient, and convenient alternative to processing vital business documents under the manual system. In the process, entrepreneurs can save money and boost the efficiency of their businesses.
What do small entrepreneurs need to know about becoming Wal Mart EDI compliant?
Small entrepreneurs need to understand all electronic data interchange software solutions consist of two parts. These are:
- The translation portion of software solution which converts their business documents into the proper EDI format, and
- The communication section of the solution which electronically transmits the EDI documents to their recipients.
Entrepreneurs will even find many types of electronic data interchange (EDI) solutions in the market. However, they need to adopt either EDIINT AS2 or ANSI X12 version for their wholesale businesses. The full form of EDINT is Electronic Data Interchange-Internet Technology. It is the communication protocol for securely exchanging business documents in electronic formats over the Internet. AS 2 (Applicability Statement 2) is an EDI standard which allows the transmission of documents on the Internet. ANSI X12 is an updated form of the EDIINT AS2. Only then can they expect to become Wal Mart EDI compliant and become a supplier of this retail company.
Walmart further expects entrepreneurs to fulfill the following requirements to become one of its suppliers:
- They should adopt and use EDIINT AS2 version when generating 5,500 sales invoices annually, and
- If their turnover is less than 5,500 invoices, they use web-based EDI compatible with EDIINT AS2.
Advantages of becoming EDI compliant as Walmart’s standards
Small entrepreneurs enjoy the following advantages when their businesses become EDI compliant as Walmart’s standards: monitoring work from home productivity
- They can reduce their operating costs considerable by using electronic data interchange Than in a manual system,
- They can enhance the efficiency of their businesses with EDI by generating more sales in less time,
- Entrepreneurs can provide their customers with better services as they can avoid the errors of using a manual system,
- With EDI technology, they can get valuable insights into the latest consumer trends unlike the manual system, and
- EDI software technology can be scalable to the ever-changing growth needed for their businesses.
Entrepreneurs can expand the market operations of their businesses by becoming Wal Mart EDI compliant. They will be able to generate a higher volume of sales within a short time. In doing so, they can provide better services to their customers at lower operating costs. They can even avoid errors under the manual system of processing business documents. Moreover, entrepreneurs can get better insight into their customer profiles and buying patterns. Above all, they can scale the EDI technology to meet the growing needs of their businesses with success.
