Is your EDI holding you back?

In the face of digital disruption, it is possible to innovate and differentiate despite the constraints that B2B/EDI can impose with MuleSoft Anypoint Platform.

Digital disruption is having a huge effect on every industry, but the changes are most notable in verticals like manufacturing, transportation logistics, and retail. As the number of trading partners expands, and B2B/EDI message ‘standards’ continue to diverge, organisations must spend much of their delivery capacity on “keeping on the lights” B2B/EDI messaging, rather than initiatives for future growth such as digital transformation. Yet, it is possible to innovate and differentiate, despite the constraints that B2B/EDI can impose. Successful organizations are applying API and microservices approaches to drive a ‘two-speed’ model that supports innovation.

MODERN SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT

In working with retail, manufacturing and logistics firms, our partners MuleSoft’s White Paper on Modern Supply Chain Management identified that although organizations are driving towards delivering products to market more quickly, increasing agility, and streamlining business operations, EDI – the global standard for transmitting business processes and transactions, may be holding enterprises back. However, replacing a legacy or custom point-to-point B2B/EDI solution carries increased risks and/or cost. Moreover, given its adoption and organizations’ investment in it, EDI isn’t disappearing in the near future. To succeed, companies must therefore find a way to marry new architectural approaches to B2B/EDI challenges that insulate the legacy technologies from the new and abstract its limitations. This can be achieved by applying API and micro-services approaches to drive a ‘two-speed’ innovation approach that supports innovation, even in the face of legacy B2B/EDI technologies*.

THE BENEFITS OF API-LED CONNECTIVITY, APPLICATION NETWORKS, AND B2B COMMUNICATION

A microservices approach to processing EDI documents, and reuse of business logic for processing exchanges between business processes creates business outcomes for the entire IT architecture, not just B2B communication. The idea is to create smaller, agile units for business, processes, and technology, and making those units reusable and available to the entire business while still maintaining stability and control.

FREE-UP I.T. RESOURCES

Once you have your API strategy in place, the first corner of your application network is built out. Then, other groups or parts of your organization are also doing the same thing. Every time they deliver a project they might add one or two or maybe three new resources to the application network. These assets can then be discovered and consumed by a broader set of people inside the organisation. Suddenly, instead of delivering projects, I.T. is actually directing projects. They are ensuring quality and reusability; they are thinking about the important things like security and are now not needed for every single project.

MULESOFT ANYPOINT PLATFORM EXPERTISE

MuleSoft’s Anypoint Platform is the only solution that allows enterprises to abstract away the complexity of EDI through API-led connectivity. The result is a 2x to 5x faster time to launch new initiatives, connect systems, and unlock data across the enterprise and a 30% reduction in integration costs; making digital transformation a reality for businesses in transportation logistics, retail, and manufacturing.

Contact us and find out how API-led connectivity can enact digital transformation in your business.

* Download MuleSoft Modern Supply Chain Management – An API-led connectivity approach to B2B/EDI – Whitepaper 2016