An EDI company generally refers to an EDI VAN, an EDI software vendor, EDI consultants or EDI service bureaus. Each of these forms of an EDI company provides a specific set of services that can help you set up everything you need as you begin to use EDI within your business.

An EDI company known as a Value Added Network (VAN), is an aggregator of transmitters and recipients of EDI. This type of EDI company functions like the US postal service. This EDI company has mailboxes that its customers use to send and receive EDI data. Like the US postal service, this EDI company guarantees delivery of the data and provides a number of services to enhance their operations. Among these some of the more popular ones are analytics of traffic data and the ability to send data to multiple parties without having to maintain dedicated communications infrastructure. This type of EDI company is best viewed as a hub, concentrating EDI data from customers and vendors.

An EDI Company that Provides Software

This type of EDI company is also referred to as an EDI software vendor. This EDI company is the developer of the EDI software that many businesses purchase. This type of EDI company can provide a wide range of products and services ranging from a simple “software shop” that provides EDI software and no services, to full service companies like that can provide support, integration to your back-end system and other professional services designed to make your life with EDI easier and more profitable.

The main service provided by this EDI company is usually professional expertise. This type of EDI company is often staffed by people who have extensive individual experience with EDI and can act as your EDI administrator for a retainer. This type of EDI company focuses on particular vertical segments – either system based (like SAP)s or industry based. When arranging for services from this type of EDI company it’s important to thoroughly understand what they can, and just as important, what they can’t do for you. The EDI Company should provide a level of support, support is an important part of doing business with any EDI Company. The EDI Company should have multiple tiers of support available so that you can select the level of support that will meet your needs.

Ultimately, you would want the EDI Company that you choose to work with to be able to offer services that will help in all areas of your business. You want to be sure that the advice and help you receive is from the EDI Company is highly professional, offering advanced products and being able to upgrade seamlessly. You also want to be sure that the EDI Company that you go into business with is financially stable and there to help and support you for the long term, just be sure to research fully the EDI Company you are looking to choose.