Time and time again corporate leadership feels forced to choose between best-of-class tools and an enterprise-wide application. By leveraging the power of iEDeX™ within your company's infrastructure, systems can be integrated at the right location, with the right data, and in the right application. This integration provides automation to your business, creating increased efficiency and effectiveness through control and collaboration.
EDI and MFT Solutions
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is the process of creating, transmitting and receiving documents between disparate systems. EDI is the accepted worldwide standard for structuring information to be electronically exchanged between and within businesses, organizations, and government entities.
Even though EDI has been facilitating the transfer of electronic documents between trading partners and organizations for three decades and can provide significant bottom-line benefits, less than 10% of businesses are taking full advantage of EDI. Unfortunately, most organizations have been faced with a number of challenges to using EDI including high implementation, maintenance, and support costs.
UpNet Technologies has developed a managed EDI service that needs no new hardware, software, or onsite staff resources. It is a technology called Event-Data Exchange (iEDeX™) that allows you to translate EDI data into the exact language and format your trading partner desires without the high cost of implementation and maintenance.
Benefits of iEDeX™
Eliminates One-to-One Mapping
Traditional EDI forces companies to maintain a unique relationship with each of their suppliers and customers. A data map is developed and supported for each unique connection. Any time one of these partners changes their system, the connection is reprogrammed. UpNet's iEDeX™ technology automatically converts data between existing systems based on the information retrieved from our libraries of specifications, standards, languages, and communication protocols.
Replaces the Hub-and-Spoke Model
In order to control costs, many large companies have created "hubs" and require their suppliers to conform to their standards and communication protocols. Hubs force trading partners to assume high initial and maintenance costs for fulfilling trading requirements. Suppliers maintaining such hubs are often unable to force their customers to adopt their system and therefore are required to maintain multiple systems or lose customers. iEDeX™ creates one transparent system for all your customers and trading partners.
Eliminates Costly Investment
A proliferation of companies have introduced hardware and software designed to improve the management of EDI. Most of these misleading solutions require the purchasing of expensive hardware, software and maintenance agreements. Too often smaller companies are required to double enter information into web forms or maintain different interfaces for different trading partners. When the marketing language is stripped away, the bottom line is that these solutions remain one-to-one mapping programs, often take months to implement, and are still very costly. iEDeX™ technology usually takes only days to implement, instead of months, with no capital investment required.
Managed Service
As a managed service provider, UpNet is the outsourced EDI provider – a business communication liaison handling all communication, testing, and compliance with trading partners. As trading partner's requirements change, UpNet quickly accommodates the request and ensures customer compliance. UpNet will support trading partners to make sure all necessary data can be exchanged. The UpNet account management team will provide your company and your trading partners with the highest level of service, providing an award-winning EDI department to represent you to your business partners.
Unique Features
Managed File Transfer (MFT) is a secure pickup and delivery service with monitoring and management functionality. Rule-based management governs the process to ensure ease of use and accuracy of the files transferred. iEDeX™ affords greater security to the transfer process protecting highly sensitive files delivering peace of mind.
LifeCycle Analyzer is a browser-based reporting function that provides you with a complete picture of the lifecycle of all your transactions – from purchase orders to shipment information and, finally, to invoices. This searchable database makes it possible for you to see this information by partner, by transaction, by document or by product item. This wrap-around transaction capability allows you to analyze the business process and synchronize supply chain activities.
Status411 is end-to-end processes tracking providing users with complete, up-to-the-minute information and exchange activities. iEDeX™ technology addresses a major shortcoming of many EDI systems: lack of accessibility and readability by end-users. Our web-based tracking and reporting system is designed to give everyone involved in your business – not just the IT staff – direct access to their transactional information for the purpose of monitoring, researching, reconciling and troubleshooting their business dealings.
Managed Compatibility Services help standardize the free flow of communication among trading partners, enabling effective communication between enterprises and suppliers who may use different business practices and terminology.
How to Improve Business Relationships
- You can afford to do business with trading partners regardless of their enterprise size
- Comply with all customer requirements, no matter their size, locality, or e-business capabilities
- Exchange highly accurate transactions with trading partners in record time
- No need to change business practices to connect with trading partners
- Focus your attention on business departments and customers who need it most
Values
- Reduce the cost of doing business
- Focus management attention and redirect resources to strategic projects
- Eliminate the need to acquire EDI software and the associated annual maintenance fees
- Eliminate the need to maintain expensive hardware and network platforms
- Eliminate the need to recruit and retain specialized EDI resources
- Improve your speed to market
Features
- Lifecycle visibility and accessibility increases your control
- Synchronize your supply chain procedures
- Reduce paper, manual entry, faxes and phone orders
- Adopt the new technology without the upfront investment
Top 10 distinctions between EDI and UpNet's iEDeX
EDI is a business process, iEDeX™ is a technology. iEDeX™ technology can be leveraged to fulfill EDI requirements.
- Traditional EDI technology builds one-one connections; iEDeX™ builds many-many connections.
- Traditional EDI technology is documents-based; iEDeX™ is data element based.
- Traditional EDI technology requires system programming to facilitate an export into a proper format; iEDeX™ is non-invasive.
- Traditional EDI technology facilitate the exchange outside the firewall; iEDeX™ facilitate the exchange both inside and outside the firewall.
- Traditional EDI technology limits transparency to the sender’s side of the transaction; iEDeX™ provides transparency to the complete transaction.
- Traditional EDI technology cannot scale to meet other business requirements; iEDeX™ is flexible, scalable and agile enough to connect any network of disparate system.
- Traditional EDI technology requires significant IT resources; iEDeX™ requires minimal IT resources to use in its B2B managed, SaaS and PaaS service models.
- Traditional EDI technology works in a batch-based environment; iEDeX™ works in a near real-time environment.
- Traditional EDI technology requires additional hardware/software; iEDeX™ is an on-demand, cloud based platform requiring no additional hardware and software.
- Traditional EDI technology is cost prohibitive for supply-chain wide deployment; iEDeX™ is fast to deploy, fast to connect, delivering accelerated time to value while supporting supply-chain wide deployment initiatives.
EDI technology is typically delivered as a software solution. iEDeX™, an event based data exchange, is both an integrated process and a platform. UpNet's iEDeX™ is an innovative collaborative technology developed to facilitate data integration and data transformation.
Collaborative Trading Partner Network
Your Trading Partner Network is a complex set of relationships required to achieve your desired business results. To operate efficiently and facilitate collaboration, all parties within the ecosystem must communicate at the same level. Unfortunately, valuable technical resources are too often consumed by a small number of trading partners whose technical or operational systems do not meet minimum standards. UpNet's Customer Enablement solution empowers your business to cost effectively, and professionally serve all of your customers from a single fast to connect B2B e-Commerce platform.
Through the Trading Partner Network, you will be able to process more orders with fewer resources, ultimately improving your bottom-line. Our capabilities are delivered directly to your newly enabled customer in the format they need. Regardless of their system, your customer will have real-time access to a set of tools that will manage their orders during the entire process.
Customer Enablement provides a standardized platform for serving your tertiary customers, enabling them to leverage your existing EDI process. Our solution refocuses the time of your sales and support teams from tactical customer service duties, to strategic identification of new revenue opportunities. In this environment, all business partners must communicate and collaborate closely to deliver the right product at the right time to the right customers.
Values
- Minimize the required customer support structure
- Eliminate inaccuracies and pricing discrepancies
- Enable collaboration with trading partners of all technical capabilities
- Eliminate most phone and fax orders
- Increase the speed of new customer deployment
- Utilize existing iEDeX™ process integration with your tertiary customers
- No change in current business processing
Features
- Fast to connect in both fully managed and do it yourself on-boarding
- Accomodates all geographies
- Full visibility and transparancy to all data
- Ability to automate all activities
- Real-time exchange of trading partner data
- Confirm pricing and terms at the point of entry
B2B Integration Solutions
Business processes are growing in complexity and becoming more dependent on outside "punch-out" data sources to be completed. Manual methods of gathering this data often lead to mis-information, lack of accountability, and delays in process completion. Leveraging the iEDeX™ platform, you are able to automate data capture and validation activities. To complete your business processes, your company may require employment and address validation, trading settlements, or testing results from partners. iEDeX™ enables utilization of these partner capabilities to fulfill the business needs of your company and provide visibility, control, and lower total cost of ownership. Flexibility and integration of your disparate systems, suppliers, and partners makes the complex simple.
iEDeX™ can be deployed to produce superior results by integrating the series of events within your enterprise-wide solution. iEDeX™ enables systems to drop off and pickup data to perform and take action as intended. The solution is fast to deploy, fast to connect, non-invasive with real-time processing, enabling dexterity and utilization of your infrastructure. Delivering efficiency and realizing increased value from your existing assets.
Values
- Minimize the required customer support structure
- Reduce mis-information issues by accessing other party's data
- Increase the speed of new customer deployment
- Enhance accountability of people and process
- Eliminate costs through business process automation
- Gain visibility into external data and events
Features
- Complete the process by accessing other party's information
- Quickly connect to third party infrastructure
- Fit within your current business processing
- Ability to verify external data
Custom Solutions
"A cost effective and timely alternative to system integration."
UpNet takes an innovative approach to custom system integration, providing a technology solution that allows existing systems to operate in their distinct operating environment while still communicating with each other through the iEDeX™ platform and operating as a single integrated system. UpNet's custom integration solutions eliminate the time and expense of potentially thousands of hours of development, resulting in savings of training and maintenance costs. iEDeX™ enables systems to more efficiently work together which allows your IT resources to focus on strategic initiatives versus tactical activities. iEDeX™ allows businesses to focus on working together rather than dedicating resources to unnecessary software and hardware systems. Event-driven and transparent, iEDeX™ enables convenient access to information and real-time reporting of transaction data, partner activity, and other business events.
Virtual ERP
During the installation of a new ERP solution, the functionality of a specific departments' existing best-of-class application/system can be maintained and integrated at an operational level to achieve the same powerful business results. iEDeX™ facilitates this collaboration among disparate systems, bringing a single view to your business operations in real-time. Further driving operational efficiency between individual systems, contributing greater value and return on your IT investments.
Values
- Realize the full potential of your custom Business Process/ERP systems
- Leverage your current IT investments
- Recognize the unique strengths of each system
- Create efficiency within your best-of-breed solution
Features
- Integrates custom designed Business Process/ERP systems
- Facilitates control in the way systems interact
- Creates a seamless flow of data within your infrastructure
- Provides a single view of all information
M&A Integration Services
Frequently, one of the areas with the most unanswered questions in a merger is the integration of software and hardware systems. Prior to a merger, iEDeX™ can provide integrated financial reports based on real-time activity. iEDeX™ provides both tangible and intangible benefits, reducing the risk and stress associated with a pre-merger by creating an integrated report based on real-time operating data rather than archived reports. iEDeX™ also significantly reduces the time needed to analyze the scope of systems integration. This is done with no new hardware, software, or going inside the pre-existing systems.
Management can then focus on integrating the work plans of the newly joined companies while receiving complete visibility into the use of data. This improves systems integration, transitions, and productivity.
iEDeX™ simplifies and streamlines the process of integrating software systems. Our fast to deploy model ensures that the benefits of the custom solutions can be realized immediately. The iEDeX™ platform allows each party the flexibility to continue using their existing systems while also exchanging critical business information within their organization. Thus gaining greater intracompany collaboration through fast, secure, and reliable movement of data.
Values
- Significantly reduces the time needed in the pre-merger stage to analyze the scope of system integration
- Eliminates the costs and risks associated with the adoption of disparate information systems
- Minimizes disruption of staff productivitydue to maintaining their current IT environment
- Enables receipt of timely information necessary to make critical decisions
- Facilitates fast deployments, cutting time from months to hours
Features
- Provides complete transparency to management
- Creates pre-merger integrated reports
- Fast to deploy, fast to connect
- Operating in their existing systems means no new software or system to learn
Case Studies
AMPI embraces flexible system automation
Flexible system automation for superior results.
Associated Milk Producers Inc. (AMPI) is a dairy marketing cooperative with 3,200 member farms, 6 billion pounds of milk and $1.4 billion in annual sales. Members operate dairy farms located throughout the Midwest states of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota. They own 13 manufacturing plants and market a full line of consumer-packaged dairy products, including the Cass-Clay® brand.
APEX enables a vision with Transformation and Validation
Enabling a Vision through Data Transformation and Validation.
For the past 16 years, APEX has been leading the statement processing industry. APEX pairs effective and efficient statement design with industry leading customer support to streamline electronic statement and electronic payment platforms and enhance client and end user experiences. Organizations nation-wide have realized decreased overhead, improved cash flow and significant costs savings by partnering with APEX. APEX was named one of the fastest growing companies in America by Inc. 5000 in 2008, 2009 and 2010 and has achieved the Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal Fast 50 award in 2010.