Cut the cost of standards maintenance and testing

Reduce the cost and effort of new EDI partner implementations

Speed the correction and resubmission of failed transactions

Improve the success rate of incoming transactions

How do you cut the cost of standards maintenance and testing?

An EDI business analyst found that inefficient, manual processes were slowing the adoption of new transaction guidelines. Text editing tools used to develop new standards were unwieldy and made searching through lengthy guidelines to make edits or find errors slow and awkward. Finally, it was difficult to compare existing and new standards to find differences, making migrations a nightmare.

Solution

Foresight was able to help his staff centralize standards editing and publication, analysis and testing, and comparison and migration into a single tool, and create a searchable electronic reference library for standards and guidelines.

Result

Vastly faster and more efficient guidelines maintenance, testing and analysis, and migration, and a significant reduction in fixed transaction processing costs.

How do you reduce the cost and effort of new EDI partner implementations?

A vice president for operations for a large food service logistics corporation was frustrated by how long it took to ramp up EDI for new business partners. Each new partner implementation required the services of an EDI analyst to sign them on, synchronize data standards, and test the new connection before his company could reap the efficiencies of electronic transactions. Costs were higher than they ought to be and the back-log of unconnected partners was growing.

Solution

Foresight was able to help him automate his implementation processes and reduce the effort needed to maintain his network.

Result

Now, EDI partners go to a web portal where they self-register for EDI and are guided through testing. He can monitor and measure program effectiveness, customize error severity levels to tighten or relax definition of non-compliance, and synchronize transaction data codes with industry code tables. Automated Analysis Report Summaries reduce the time and cost of problem-solving, troubleshooting, remediation, or validation. Implementation and maintenance costs are dropping and the backlog of unconnected partners has disappeared.

How do you speed the correction and resubmission of failed transactions?

An EDI analyst was frustrated by the financial and customer relations costs of incoming electronic orders that failed to meet his company’s standards for message format or content and had to be returned for manual correction. He wanted to cut the cost of correcting and processing these transactions twice and reduce his customers’ frustration in being unable to process orders in time to meet their customers’ needs.

Solution

Foresight enabled him to go beyond exception reporting to automate the return, correction, and resubmission of failed transactions.

Result

Lowered transaction processing costs and improved customer satisfaction.

How do you improve the success rate of incoming transactions?

A director of EDI was stymied by the high rate of transaction failure among incoming EDI orders. Printed reports took up reams of paper and were difficult to analyze. Without insight into why these transactions failed, he was unable to make any effective changes. Meanwhile, each failed transaction cost his organization extra telecommunications charges and personnel costs for correction.

Solution
Foresight enabled him to improve his reporting using a customizable dashboard that organized claim information as needed. Using a “top ten” error report, he was able to pinpoint the most common sources of errors and work globally among all of his customers to remove those causes.

Result

A significant drop in transaction failure rate, lowered transaction processing costs, and a corresponding rise in customer satisfaction with his company’s ordering processes.