Time is Money, Money is Time

Time is money, money is time. If there is one thing there never seems to be enough of, it would be time. Thankfully, with modern technologies, you can get that time back, and make the most of what you have.

Think about this: If you are spending one or more hours manually processing orders each day – you are losing valuable time during that can be used to grow other parts of your business. Just take a look at this stat- There are 250 days in a typical work year, and if you are spending at least 1 hour a day processing orders, that equates to 250 hours a year. When you take in account the average work day is 8 hours, all of that manual work equals around 31 work days a year. Imagine what you could do to help your business if you had that time back! Time is money, and if your time is being allocated to manually processing orders, other areas of your business could be neglected. For example, if a member of your sales team has been manually fulfilling orders, that is an hour each day that they are not selling. In a year, that will equate to a month of lost sales.  Electing to implement and EDI provider an integration hub will free up your team so they can focus on their true tasks and your business will run more efficiently. Your EDI provider will translate documents and ensure they flow into the correct system (eliminating the need for data entry). Since EDI documents travel faster than their counterparts, more orders can be processed in less time. Therefore, you are adding more time to you day and increasing productivity within this new time span.

It is also important to note the importance of real time. If your eCommerce store is not being updated in real-time, you are increasing your chances of lost sales. Inaccurate inventory levels can lead to lost sales and unsatisfied customers. Backordering can occur if the wholesaler is sold out of a product and neglects to update the retailer. With EDI, your eCommerce store can be updated in real time, ensuring all inventory levels are up to date. Your customers will never try to purchase a product only to find out it is out of stock. Money is time, and if there is a delay in updating your product catalog, you can be losing valuable customers.

Although modern technology has not added more hours to a day, there are ways to allocate your resources to make the most of the time you do have. Choosing a third-party EDI provider will handle the mapping and testing which is critical to get up and running as well as handle the daily EDI translations. A third-party provider alleviates the headaches and time that are associated with creating and maintaining an in-house EDI system.