Managed EDI: Compare Services and Responsibilities

Ask which EDI tasks the provider will handle

TrueCommerce's managed-service page describes document transformation, mapping, validation and proactive monitoring. Orderful's integration-services page describes architecture, development, testing and production monitoring. These are vendor descriptions of offerings, not independently verified service-quality results.

Ask each candidate to mark every task as included, additional cost, customer-owned or outside scope. The useful comparison is the work transferred under your contract and the work retained by your team.

Sources: [1] · [2]

Separate setup from day-to-day support

Build two lists. The first covers preparing the connection and proving the required exchanges. The second covers keeping them working after launch. Ask who owns new partner setup, document changes and staff training in each phase.

• Before launch: requirements, access, mapping, testing, training and acceptance.
• During operation: alerts, investigation, coordination, reprocessing and reporting.
• When things change: new partners, retailer specifications, system upgrades and volume growth.
• At exit: records, documentation, credentials, notice and transition assistance.

List what your team still needs to do

Orderful's published services description assigns customers trading-partner relationship management and the provision of test data and access to their systems. Use that as a prompt to ask every supplier what participation it expects from your own people.

Request a named internal owner for business decisions and ask how the service will obtain missing product, order or shipment information. A proposal should explain how questions move between the supplier, your staff, the warehouse and the trading partner. Confirm these responsibilities with your implementation practitioner.

Sources: [1]

Read support hours and commitments carefully

Compare monitoring coverage, help-desk hours, response targets and escalation arrangements separately. Orderful's reviewed integration-services page states a two-hour response during specified weekday business hours and mentions after-hours follow-up. TrueCommerce describes a 24/7 service desk in its managed-service materials.

Those descriptions do not establish identical commitments. Ask for the actual terms attached to your package, the handling of urgent incidents and the meaning of response versus resolution. Request costs for any enhanced support rather than assuming the advertised model includes it.

Sources: [1] · [2]

Compare the provider's work with your team's work

Illustrative scenario: a distributor has five retail partners, about 5,000 EDI messages per month and an existing warehouse process. It asks each candidate who will handle a rejected shipment notice, a partner requirement change and a new retailer. These are hypothetical procurement questions, not measured provider results.

Use the cost worksheet to place quoted fees alongside internal work and any required third-party services. Ask for evidence or a scoped demonstration of important responsibilities. Keep proposed time savings as assumptions until your own process has been assessed.

Questions worth asking