How AS2 Software can save money for you...

AS2 Software is becoming an industry standard in the world of EDI. The VAN based EDI solutions will eventually become extinct much like our old friends the Dinosaur. Recently I’ve had customers running a non-integrated Web Forms solution, they basically get Purchase Orders (850) from several Trading Partners everyday through a Website program, from that they take that same document that they have spent already a few moments accessing and print it off. After that the re-key that same document into the accounting Package. Once that process is done they send shipping notices (856) and invoices (810) all the while they have to pay for each one of these transactions to the Web Forms solution or VAN based EDI provider.

What does this all mean? Just imagine 50 Purchases orders per week being printed off and re-keyed into accounting software. The average VAN based EDI company love to make money on your daily business process; just image 50 Purchase Orders (850) per week can easily be 150 Transactions per week as the break down would be:

50 Purchases Orders
50 Invoices
50 Advanced Shipping Notices


An actual VAN based solution I know would charge you $2.80 per transaction or Per Purchase Order or in the above scenario $420.00 per week for just 3 documents and if the trading partner requires another 3 transaction sets then you double the number even more. Have 3 Trading Partners doing this with you every month and you’re really paying a heavy road toll charge for something not integrated and your printing documents off everyday when the sales team should be selling more of your products.

Why not Automate that whole process, I can sell the right fit that makes sense for your company and depending on how you’re trading partner communicates "Today" the communication costs can be controlled very easily. An AS2 Connection is a secure connection between your business and your trading partner and you eliminate the need to have a VAN based EDI that charges you an average of $420 per week.

Taken from Wikipedia:

Advantages

*Elimination or reduction of Value-added network (VAN) costs
*Designed to push data securely and reliably over the Internet
*Fast and reliable connectivity
*Encryption ensures that only the sender and receiver can view the data
*Digital signatures ensure authentication; only messages from authorized senders are accepted
*The use of a hash algorithm ensures data integrity by detecting whether the document was altered during transmission
*Drummond Certification supports a level of confidence for the interoperability of the disparate software tools available for connectivity.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AS2


I recently sold a solution to a customer transmitting EDI through a VAN based EDI competitor that was not truly integrated to the Sage Accounting package. The customer was paying a high monthly fee where they should have been communicating via AS2 and not paying anything. They now have an integrated solution and no on-going fees to be concerned about and are selling more then ever.

Customers will probably have several trading partners, not all of them will communicate Via AS2 at first but are probably considering it due to the savings. Companies like Wal-Mart, Office Place and such are pushing this practice and have saved millions by doing so.

If you have any questions please contact me, I handle all of the Sage Product integrations at eBridge and would be more then happy to assist you.

Wayne Thompson

e-Commerce Integration Partner for Sage Software - Account Manager at eBridge Software