EDI Stories from the Field

Over the years doing EDI consulting we have found that many otherwise successful companies find themselves with great difficulties conducting electronic data exchange with vendors and customers.  We estimate that many companies blindly lose 10 to 30 percent of their revenue to penalties, lost of sales etc.

Story 4: What You Don't Know Will Hurt You- Order Cancellation

While conducting a review of EDI process performance for distribution company we noticed a large number of 'lost' orders.  It is common practice for customers to put a deadline for fulfilling an order with a missed shipment or acknowledgement causing the order to be considered cancelled.  This customer had almost 30% of the received orders cancelled in that way.  Senior management was aware that some orders are being cancelled but did not realize the magnitude of the percentage.  Adding insult to injury, the customer often requested increased quantities verbally which were not reflected on the invoices.