Connect Connect Internet Solutions to EDI instantly
Join thousands of businesses moving EDI orders, invoices and fulfilment updates between Connect Internet Solutions and their trading partners on XEDI, no manual re-keying.
No credit card needed ✦ Free EDI mailbox included
Getting started with Connect Internet Solutions EDI
XEDI connects a trade ordering portal with EDI, so the customers who will not use a portal are served the way they insist on being served, from the same stock and the same product data as everyone else.
One managed platform, no custom code
XEDI maps Connect Internet Solutions to your trading partners and validates every document, so data flows straight into the systems your teams already use.
A trade portal works until a customer is big enough to refuse it
A B2B ordering portal solves a real problem: your customers place their own orders, you stop taking them by phone and email, and everybody sees the same catalogue and prices. For most of a customer base it works well.
The exception is the customers who matter most. A large retailer or group will not log into a supplier's portal; they have their own systems and they expect you to receive orders the way they send them. That is not obstinacy, it is that they are doing the same thing with hundreds of suppliers and cannot keep a portal login for each.
Two channels are fine; two catalogues are not
Serving both is entirely normal. The failure is when they diverge: a product renamed in the portal but not in the EDI mapping, a price updated in one place, stock committed twice because neither channel can see the other.
So both draw on the same product and price data and the same stock position. An EDI order and a portal order should be indistinguishable once received, differing only in how they arrived, which is the point at which having two channels stops costing anything.
What your team sees day to day
You get an EDI mailbox and a portal that behaves like an inbox for the EDI side, while your own ordering portal carries on serving the customers who are happy with it.
An EDI order becomes the despatch advice from what genuinely shipped with SSCC labels where required, and the invoice follows delivery with its arrival confirmed in the dashboard.
Your ordering system keeps doing what it does. The EDI capability is bolted onto it, because we connect to any platform offering an API or file import and export.
Documents you can exchange
- Trade orders arriving by EDI alongside portal orders
- Order confirmations returned to the customer
- Despatch advice and ASN messages from fulfilment
- Invoices raised against the despatch
- Product and price data shared across both channels
Built for Connect Internet Solutions teams
Whoever owns Connect Internet Solutions in your business, XEDI keeps EDI accurate and hands-off.
- Wholesalers and distributors running a trade portal
- Sales and account teams
- Operations and despatch staff
- Ecommerce managers
- Businesses whose largest customers will not use a portal
Connect Internet Solutions EDI document types
These are the EDI flows; orders placed through your portal continue as they do now.
| Document | What it carries | Direction |
|---|---|---|
| Purchase orders | Demand from customers who send orders from their own systems rather than using a portal. | Customer to you |
| Order confirmations | What will be supplied, in the form each customer requires rather than a portal acknowledgement. | You to customer |
| Despatch advice | Pallet and carton detail from fulfilment, with SSCC labels the customer's goods-in scans. | You to customer |
| Invoices | Raised against the despatch carrying the references the customer matches on. | You to customer |
| Product and price data | The same catalogue the portal serves, published to customers that maintain their own. | You to customer |
| Credit notes | Adjustments for shortages or returns, referenced to the invoice concerned. | You to customer |
How to connect Connect Internet Solutions with EDI using XEDI
The work is making two channels behave as one once an order is received. The sequence below is what onboarding looks like from your side.
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01
We establish what the ordering portal handles today and which customers will not use it.
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02
We agree how orders and product data move between the portal and your systems.
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03
We map each EDI customer's identifiers to the same products the portal already sells.
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04
We prove that an EDI order and a portal order behave identically once received.
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05
You get both channels drawing on one catalogue and one stock position.
Ready to connect Connect Internet Solutions?
Talk through documents, mapping, testing and go-live with XEDI.
Everything about Connect Internet Solutions EDI
Common requirements
- What the ordering portal covers today
- How it exchanges data with your systems
- Product and price data structure
- Which customers require EDI
- How stock is shared across channels
What we need from you to build it
Only what we cannot hold for you. Customer requirements are ours to hold and maintain.
- What the portal covers
- Which customers and products it serves today, so EDI complements it rather than duplicating it.
- How it exchanges data
- The route between the ordering system and your back office, since EDI orders should follow the same path.
- Product and price structure
- How the catalogue is held, because both channels must sell from the same data.
- Stock visibility
- How availability is shared, so a commitment made in one channel is not undone by the other.
- Which customers require EDI
- Usually your largest. What each of them requires is already held by us.
Why suppliers choose XEDI for Connect Internet Solutions
- The customers who refuse your portal are almost certainly connected already, so serving them their way is quick.
- Customers who will not use a portal are served the way they insist on, without you keeping a second catalogue.
- An EDI order and a portal order behave identically once received.
- Product and price changes reach both channels rather than drifting apart.
- Your largest customers stop being the ones handled manually.
- If a customer raises a problem, it comes to us rather than to your sales team.
Why not just ask customers to use our portal?
Most will. The ones who will not are typically your largest, because they order from hundreds of suppliers and cannot maintain a login for each. Serving them their way is usually worth more than the portal saves.
Will we have to maintain two catalogues?
No, and that is the thing to avoid. Both channels sell from the same product and price data, so a change reaches both rather than leaving them to diverge.
Can both channels share stock?
Yes, and they should. How availability is shared is agreed at the start so a commitment made in one channel is not quietly undone by the other.
Plan your Connect Internet Solutions EDI setup
Everything you need to scope, map and go live with Connect Internet Solutions, in one place.