This guide explains important details for getting started with EDI services. It is intended for your organization's decision makers.
aACE currently supports three EDI solutions:
When you're ready to speak with a sales rep from these companies, please send a ticket to support@aacesoft.com. Using aACE support as the liaison for this integration helps the process to go forward more smoothly.
The onboarding process requires coordination among four distinct entities: your staff, your trading partner, the EDI provider, and aACE developers. With the sheer number of moving parts and details that need to be arranged, this effort requires a project manager to pull the different parties together and make sure all the dots get connected.
Note: CommerceHub is slightly different from the other two companies. It is an invitation-only platform (i.e. a retailer already working with this solution must extend an invitation for another company to sign up). If you are already a CommerceHub partner, please indicate this in your initial email to aACE.
Evaluating an EDI Provider
When deciding which integration to use, consider not only the initial price, but also their support services and any ancillary features the solution provides. These can affect your total cost of ownership.
After you've selected an EDI solution, work with aACE Software to install and configure the necessary integration file.
aACE+ EDI Development Costs
EDI transactions involve four entities (i.e. your company, a trading partner, an EDI provider, and aACE). This means that estimating development costs for each trading partner can vary widely.
Each trading partner will have different requirements regarding the data points they want with each XML document (e.g. the 850, 855, 856, and 810).
aACE integration infrastructure currently covers approximately 90% of the most common data points. Development costs are only needed to cover time for setup and any functionality outside this existing infrastructure. In most situations, the largest development cost covers field mappings for a specific trading partner's required data points.
An additional task that may require development time is identifying and implementing order modifications, as agreed upon by the trading partner, the EDI provider, and aACE. These constraints will often require adding validations to aACE to ensure orders correctly match the trading partner's requirements.