Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

Over the last decade distributors have seen the growth of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) as the means of communicating business documents, especially orders, between trading partners. EDI is a timely, cost effective, computer-to-computer methodology which is becoming a necessary part of doing business. Freedom Series/ec21 gives you the means to start or grow your utilization of EDI in every phase of your communications with customers, suppliers, and freight handlers.

Different industries have developed over the years different formats that your various business documents (Sales Orders, Purchase Orders, etc.) must be in for common use by your trading partners. Freedom Series/ec21 supports all the standard formats used within the distribution industry and provides the tools to implement new formats or change existing standards if necessary.

Most EDI documents are moved between business partners using an EDI network provider as an intermediary. The network provider solves the problems different computers have communicating with each other, and the network eliminates the need for you to have sufficient data lines to handle the volume that could result if all trading partners communicated directly with each other. Whether you use a network provider or direct communications with your trading partners, Freedom Series/ec21 includes the software to handle all your EDI communications needs.

Electronic data interchange is a service provided with our business partner EasyLink Services. We currently support 850, 860, 816, 856, 810, 820 and 812 transaction sets with hundreds of trading partners. Other transaction sets are available if required.