EDI Implementation Services

EDI, or Electronic Data Interchange, is the structured, machine-to-machine exchange of standard business documents between organizations. EDI implementation is the project of putting that exchange into production: defining which documents to exchange, mapping them between partner standards and your internal systems, establishing secure connectivity, onboarding each trading partner, and testing until transactions flow cleanly. Done right, an 850 purchase order arrives from your customer, drops into your ERP as a sales order, and triggers an 810 invoice and 856 advance ship notice back, with no one rekeying a thing.

You need EDI implementation when a major customer or retailer mandates it as a condition of doing business, when manual order entry is creating errors, delays, and compliance chargebacks, when you're scaling and can't keep adding staff to process documents, or when you're replacing a legacy or outgrown EDI setup. If trading partners are sending you spreadsheets, PDFs, or portal screens that someone has to retype, EDI implementation is how you eliminate that cost and risk.

Our EDI implementation services cover the full path from standard to system of record.

Standards: X12 and EDIFACT. We implement ANSI X12 transaction sets used across North American retail, logistics, and healthcare, such as 850 (purchase order), 810 (invoice), 856 (advance ship notice), 855 (PO acknowledgment), 940/945 (warehouse shipping), and 997 (functional acknowledgment), as well as UN/EDIFACT for international partners. We handle the version and partner-specific variations that make real-world EDI difficult.

Trading-partner onboarding. Every partner has its own specification, qualifiers, and quirks. We manage onboarding end to end: collecting each partner's implementation guide, configuring identifiers and envelopes, running connectivity and document testing, and moving the partner into production. We build a repeatable onboarding process so adding the next partner is fast.

Mapping and translation. We build the maps that translate between partner EDI formats and your internal data model, handling code lists, units, dates, and the data-cleansing rules that keep your ERP clean. Maps are documented and tested against real partner samples, not assumptions.

AS2, APIs, and connectivity. We implement secure transport, AS2 with MDN receipts, SFTP, and VAN connections, alongside modern REST API integration for partners and platforms that have moved beyond traditional EDI. On Azure, we use integration services to bridge classic EDI and API-based exchange in one managed flow.

ERP and back-office integration. We connect EDI directly into your ERP, WMS, and accounting systems so documents post automatically and acknowledgments and exceptions flow back without manual handling.

Monitoring and exception handling. We add visibility into every transaction, with alerting on failures, 997 reconciliation, and clear exception workflows so problems surface and resolve before they become chargebacks.

We run EDI implementation as a controlled, partner-by-partner rollout. Discovery documents your trading partners, required transaction sets, systems, and volumes. Design defines the integration architecture, connectivity methods, and mapping specifications. Build develops and unit-tests maps and connections against partner implementation guides. Partner testing runs end-to-end tests with each trading partner, exchanging real document samples and validating acknowledgments. Go-live and hypercare moves partners into production in waves, with close monitoring and rapid support during the early transactions. Ongoing support handles new partners, spec changes, and monitoring after launch. This staged approach contains risk and keeps your existing partner relationships stable while new connections come online.

ARC brings enterprise integration discipline and Microsoft platform depth to EDI. We are a 3x Microsoft Solutions Partner with 13+ years of experience, 300+ engagements, 100% client retention, and recognition on the Inc. 5000 (#749) and Inc. Regionals (#57), having grown 557%. We pair classic EDI expertise (X12, EDIFACT, AS2, VANs) with modern Azure integration and API skills, so you get one partner whether your trading network is traditional, API-based, or both. As an AI-powered Microsoft solutions partner, we apply automation and intelligent exception handling to reduce the manual effort that usually surrounds EDI operations.

We scope EDI implementation to your situation. A partner onboarding project connects a defined set of trading partners and transaction sets against fixed deliverables. A platform implementation stands up or modernizes your full EDI and API integration environment on Azure. A managed EDI engagement runs onboarding, monitoring, and support as an ongoing service so your team isn't on the hook for day-to-day operations. Cost depends on the number of partners and transaction sets, connectivity methods, and ERP integration complexity, and we scope it transparently after a short discovery. Start with a free assessment.