A major benefit of WebDI is that, once your documents are translated to WebDI, you can begin exchanging information with virtually any other trading partner who has a WebDI mailbox. Thus, WebDI becomes an interconnected community of companies who can do business with each other electronically.

Depending on your current business situation, you may be a candidate for setting up your own WebDI community with a number of your trading partners. Or, perhaps one of your trading partners has requested that you communicate electronically with them through a trading community that they've already established. WebDI's scalability makes it the perfect fit for either business need. 

Building Your Own WebDI Community

If you're an organization with a large number of trading partners and you're looking to do business electronically with as many of them as possible, WebDI can provide you with a point of access for information exchange within your business community. For example, perhaps you no longer want to exchange paper purchase orders and invoices with your suppliers. You can quickly and easily establish electronic connectivity with all of your suppliers via WebDI.

You may have already established electronic connectivity (through EDI, for example) with some of your supply chain partners - likely only your largest customers or suppliers. WebDI can augment or replace your existing solution so that connectivity is available to even the smallest company you do business with. Because WebDI is much easier, quicker, and less costly to implement than traditional EDI, you can achieve a high rate of compliance among your trading community.

Even if you have trading partners who are not electronically enabled, you can reach them through WebDI. They can log on to WebDI's secure site (or your corporate branded site), complete eForms containing the information you need (or upload information from their local computer), and send them to you in the format you require. When you send information back to them, WebDI optionally sends them an e-mail, page, or other type of notification to let them know that new information has arrived in their WebDI mailbox.

To build your community, we work with you to determine the type of information you want to exchange. We then assist you with recruiting your trading partners to sign up for WebDI - this may include various marketing campaigns to recruit your trading partners, the creation of online enrollment forms for your partners, etc. (For more information on the implementation process, refer to the Getting Started - Building Your Community section.)

Joining The WebDI Community

Joining the WebDI community allows you to communicate electronically with trading partners who have implemented WebDI. Perhaps one of your customers has requested that you no longer communicate with them via paper documents - instead they wish to send you electronic purchase orders and receive electronic invoices from you. WebDI makes it easy for you to comply.

In this scenario, your trading partner has already specified the type of documents (i.e., purchase orders and invoices) that you'll exchange. We'll work with you to determine how you can best send and receive this information to WebDI and your trading partner.

Even if you are not electronically enabled, you can still exchange information with WebDI. You can simply log on to WebDI's secure site (or your community's site if appropriate), complete eForms containing the information required by your trading partner, and send them to your trading partner in the format required. When your trading partner sends information back to you, WebDI optionally notifies you with an e-mail, page, or other type of notification so that you know new information is in your WebDI mailbox and that you can retrieve it there.

For information on joining an existing trading community or hub, refer to the Getting Started - Joining a Community section.