Distributions (EDI Agreements)

All your EDI agreements in one place. Link gives you a complete overview of all agreements with your customers, suppliers and public authorities.

An EDI agreement is defined by a sender, a recipient, a document type, a format and a transport method. For example, an order in the EDIFACT D96A format, sent via AS2 from your organization to one of your suppliers. This is called a distribution in Link.

It is very easy to set up a new distribution when you use Link as your EDI management platform. And Link gives you a complete overview of all your distributions no matter if you exchange your documents directly with your trading partners, or if you use a VAN (Value Added Network) partner.

Set up a new distribution

There are only four steps to set up a new distribution in Link. Simply choose:

  • a sender and a recipient.
  • which type of document you wish to exchange (orders, invoices, delivery notes, etc.)
  • which format to use (EDIFACT, X12, XML, etc.)
  • how you want the documents to be sent and received (via AS2, VAN, etc.)

You are ready to test the flow once you have completed these four steps, and you will be exchanging documents with your partner in no time.

Let us take a closer look at these four steps in the setup of a distribution in Link.

Choose the sender and the recipient

A distribution requires two parties: A sender and a recipient. One of these is your organization, while the other is either a customer, a supplier or maybe a public authority, which you can choose from your list of partners in Link.

Choose the type of document

A document type could be, for example, an order, an invoice, a delivery note, a product catalog, or an inventory status aso.

There are no limits to the type of documents that you can exchange in Link.

Choose a format

You can choose between different formats for every type of document. That way, you can accommodate your business partners’ specific demands. For example, if you have a supplier who wants to receive an order in the format EDIFACT ORDERS D96A or in X12 850 V6020.

The most common format types are:

  • EDIFACT
  • X12
  • UBL
  • XML
  • TRADACOMS
  • JSON
  • Flat file (CSV, Fixed length fields)
  • … and many more

Link gives you unlimited possibilities when it comes to exchanging exactly the document formats you need.

Choose a transport type

Now all you need to do is choose how you wish to send and receive your documents. Read more about your many options for choosing a transport type.

Reuse mappings and formats easily

It can be difficult to maintain a large EDI solution with many different partner agreements, but you can make it a lot easier by reusing mappings.

The trick is to have as few formats and mappings as possible, while still being able to accommodate your many partners’ different needs.

Link lets you control the small variations that will occur across your different partner agreements so that you can avoid having a lot of similar formats and mappings. Read more about how Link lets you reuse and adjust mappings – your way.

More specific requirements?

We have given you an insight into the most basic tasks that your enterprise can manage with Link.

But we know that you probably have other requirements as well. For example, many companies can benefit from:

  • Generating acknowledgement files
  • Setting up many different kinds of batching
  • Format versioning

Do not hesitate to get in touch with us if you would like to find out more about the possibilities that Link offers.