Electronic data interchange

It has to be converted directly from this unstructured format using a lot of processing rules.

It has to be converted into a specific EDI format.

The insurance company understands when the claim comes in from the provider and therefore the provider gets paid for it.

So I think this health insurance space obviously is one that we spend a lot of time in and that we handle claims for, we do adjudication for, we do coding for these claims.

And I imagine cash, they're wanting to get paid faster, probably see more factoring, more financing come, carriers are thinking more about cash flow.

Yeah, well, and I think that's where visibility on time with EDI applications and so that our ability to have those metrics in place that allows us to pay faster makes everyone better.

So we have a big focus within our organization on our digital accuracy.

So what's happening in the physical world is also visually represented.

So we have the e-commerce transactional side with our distribution partners, as well as some direct customers and customers.

We have EDI, a lot of EDI in the manufacturing space to distributor.

You see it less so distributor to contractor, but definitely a lot of just recurring things in EDI from manufacturer to distributor.

It works.

If it works, don't change it kind of a thing.

And many of our large distribution companies are great partners in EDI with us today.

So we have that channel going on within the digital space.

And then we have your traditional like emailing POs, sales order automation, and that kind of sense too.

You know, does this warrant us to do this for a phase one project, right? How important is this for you? So, you know, those are type of the things that, you know, just really quickly off the top of my head, I could think that you want to, you know, bust into phase one really fast and leave maybe some of the more heavy lifting items.

Maybe EDI is something that maybe you could fall back on phase two potentially, maybe not.

Just saying, right? Or full handhold, like I said, bar scanning could be a phase two.

Portals could be a phase two, maybe potential project.

I think it's going to be more painful to teach that warehouse team how to now sit behind a desk and do all of the pick-pack ship directly in the ERP if they're used to doing it in a mobile handset.

It might be worth, if you're already on a WMS, that's a phase one item because it doesn't disrupt the business workflow that they're used to.

I think EDI, you can look at in the same way.

If you've already got it, you've got to keep it.

I think that works for everything.

Mostly relying on EDI, by the way, still today.

Still API.

Yeah.

smoking, of course.

And so I was writing, taking notes and the guy leaves, you know, bye-bye, great seeing you.

And the boss says to me, what do you think? And I said, boss, What is EDI? And we don't have all that.

We just have simple databases.

They may be melting ice cubes, but they can survive a lot longer than most people would expect because of the workflow element.

I mean, like the reason that EDI still exists, perhaps some would argue is because change is hard, particularly when it works.

Right.

Precisely.

Yeah, of course.

The stacks get complicated.

I think EDI is actually a great example of that, right? Like the change related to changing out EDI.

When you think about like our tech stacks as brokers or carriers, brokers have like kind of the easiest tech stacks.

I think it's, you know, there were some tech providers and people from the customer side that helped drive this as well.

But just thinking about the API connectivity, like, LTL is not an environment where you can rely on emails, phone calls, and even EDI alone.

You got to have live data being transferred back and forth between parties that are doing business with each other.

So all those things have been a great thing, a positive thing.

Um, it's, it's bonkers.

Um, uh, you know, the, sometimes the most advanced it gets is an EDI, a sort of creaking old EDI from the '80s that they've still got running, 'cause, um, no one's had time to change it.

Um, and of course, with that, what you end up happening, uh, what you end up seeing is a lot of people oper- operating on different sources of truth.

And so you'll have a vessel that has, say it's a, a Maersk container on an MSC vessel or whatever it may be.

... new designers, is coach them into how to put something into retail.

I was like, "Baby, I could do this in my sleep." I was like, "You don't have to tell me anything about a EDI, a UPC code.

I breathe sle- it's my second language.

I got this."

... for them to be like, "As long as the product looks good, then you're in." And then I made the samples, and then that was that.

But I was in the store.

Do people still use EDI? Is that still a thing?

Uh, yeah.