"We'd love to work with you, but you'll need to integrate with our EDI system."
For wholesale distributors in New Zealand, this statement is becoming increasingly common—and increasingly non-negotiable. Major retail chains, large industrial customers, and government organisations aren't asking whether you can support EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) and B2B portals. They're telling you it's a requirement for doing business.
The challenge? Many distributors are still processing orders manually via email, phone, or fax. The gap between customer expectations and system capabilities is widening, and it's costing New Zealand distributors valuable opportunities.
This guide cuts through the complexity to give you a practical understanding of what EDI and B2B portals actually mean for your business, why they matter, and how to implement them without derailing your operations.
Why This Matters Now (More Than Ever)
Customer Expectations Have Shifted
Ten years ago, EDI was primarily the domain of large retailers. Today, it's expected by a much broader range of customers:
- National retail chains (Bunnings, Mitre 10, Pak'nSave, The Warehouse)
- Large industrial and manufacturing customers
- Government departments and agencies
- Healthcare and pharmaceutical organisations
- Construction and infrastructure companies
These customers have streamlined their own operations through automation. Manual order processing on your end creates friction they're no longer willing to accept.
Competitive Pressure Is Increasing
Your competitors who can support EDI and B2B portals have a significant advantage. When a major customer is consolidating suppliers or looking to switch distributors, the ability to integrate seamlessly often trumps minor price differences.
Put simply: if you can't meet the technical requirements, you won't make the shortlist—regardless of your product quality, service levels, or pricing.
The Volume Tipping Point
Even if your current customers don't require EDI today, consider what happens as order volumes increase. Processing 50 orders per day manually is manageable. Processing 200 per day becomes unmanageable. Processing 500 per day requires a team doing nothing but order entry.
At some point, the labour cost and error rate of manual processing make EDI not just nice-to-have, but essential to maintaining profitability.
What EDI Actually Is (Without the Jargon)
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is simply the automated, computer-to-computer exchange of business documents in a standardised format.
Instead of your customer emailing a purchase order that your team manually enters into your system, EDI enables:
- Their system automatically generates a purchase order in a standardised format
- The order is transmitted electronically to your system
- Your system automatically imports and processes the order
- Your system automatically sends back order acknowledgements, dispatch notifications, and invoices in standardised formats
No manual data entry. No errors from mistyping. No delays. Just seamless, automated processing that happens 24/7.
Common EDI Document Types for Distributors:
- 850: Purchase Orders (inbound)
- 855: Purchase Order Acknowledgement (outbound)
- 856: Advance Ship Notice (outbound)
- 810: Invoices (outbound)
- 997: Functional Acknowledgement (both directions)
What B2B Portals Deliver
Whilst EDI handles fully automated order transmission, B2B portals provide customers with self-service capabilities through a secure web interface:
For Your Customers:
- Browse your product catalogue with real-time pricing and availability
- Place orders directly (which integrate with your ERP)
- Check order status and tracking information
- View order history and reorder frequently purchased items
- Download invoices and statements
- Manage multiple delivery locations and purchase orders
For Your Business:
- Reduced customer service inquiries ("where's my order?" "what's the price?" "do you have stock?")
- Increased order accuracy (customers enter their own orders)
- Ability to serve more customers without proportionally increasing staff
- 24/7 ordering capability
- Data capture about customer browsing and purchasing patterns
The best B2B portals feel like consumer e-commerce experiences (Amazon, etc.) but with wholesale-specific features like account-specific pricing, credit terms, multi-location delivery, and bulk ordering tools.
The Integration Challenge (and Why It Matters)
Here's where many New Zealand distributors run into trouble: EDI and B2B portals are only valuable if they integrate seamlessly with your ERP system.
The Wrong Approach: Bolt-On Solutions
Some distributors attempt to solve this by:
- Using third-party EDI providers that require manual file imports/exports
- Running separate B2B portal software that doesn't sync with their ERP
- Building custom integrations that require ongoing developer support
- Manually processing EDI transactions "in the background"
These approaches defeat the purpose. You've technically "supported" EDI or provided a B2B portal, but you haven't achieved automation. You've just added another system to manage and another set of manual processes to maintain.
The Right Approach: Native Integration
Modern cloud ERP systems include EDI and B2B portal capabilities as native features, not bolt-on additions:
- EDI transactions flow directly into and out of your ERP with no manual intervention
- B2B portal orders create sales orders in your ERP in real time
- Inventory, pricing, and customer data sync automatically
- All order fulfilment happens in one unified system
- No middleware, no custom integration, no ongoing developer costs
This is the difference between "technically supporting EDI" and actually achieving the automation benefits that make EDI worthwhile.
Real-World Impact: What Changes for Your Business
Customer Service Transformation
When EDI and B2B portals are properly integrated, your customer service team's role shifts dramatically:
Before: Answering calls about stock availability, taking orders over the phone, sending price quotes via email, responding to "where's my order?" enquiries.
After: Handling exceptions, building relationships, identifying upsell opportunities, and providing strategic support to key accounts.
The transactional work disappears. The value-adding work expands.
Order Accuracy Improvement
Manual order entry creates errors. Someone mishears a product code. A quantity gets transposed. A delivery address is incomplete.
With EDI, the data flows directly from your customer's system to yours—no human transcription, no errors. With B2B portals, customers enter their own orders, taking responsibility for accuracy.
Most distributors see order error rates drop by 80-90% after implementing proper EDI and B2B portal integration.
Scalability Without Proportional Staff Increases
Perhaps the most significant impact: you can grow order volumes without proportionally growing your customer service and order processing team.
A distributor processing 100 orders per day might need two full-time staff for order entry. With EDI and B2B portals handling 80% of orders automatically, that same team can manage 300-400 orders per day whilst providing better service on the complex orders that do require human attention.
Faster Order-to-Cash Cycle
When orders flow automatically from customer systems into your ERP, through your warehouse management, and back out as EDI invoices, the entire order-to-cash cycle accelerates:
- Orders enter your system instantly (not hours or days later)
- Warehouse can pick and pack faster (no waiting for order entry)
- Invoices transmit automatically (no printing and posting)
- Payment happens faster (electronic invoicing often correlates with faster payment)
The working capital impact alone can justify the investment.
Implementation Realities: What You Need to Know
It's Not as Complex as It Sounds
The EDI acronyms and technical specifications sound intimidating, but if you're working with a modern ERP that includes native EDI capabilities, the implementation is largely configuration, not custom development.
Your ERP provider or implementation partner handles the technical details. You focus on business requirements: which customers need EDI, which document types, what your product catalogue structure should be, how pricing works.
Start with Your Biggest Customers
You don't need to implement EDI with every customer simultaneously. Start with your largest customer or the one with the most compelling business case. Prove the value with one successful implementation, then expand.
B2B Portals Can Start Small
Similarly, B2B portals don't need every feature on day one. Launch with basic order entry and real-time stock visibility. Add features like order history, reorder lists, and advanced reporting as usage grows.
Making the Decision
If you're facing customer demands for EDI or losing opportunities because you can't provide B2B portal access, you have three options:
- Continue manually and hope customers remain patient (they won't)
- Bolt on solutions to your current ERP and accept the integration complexity, cost, and limitations
- Move to a modern platform where EDI and B2B portals are native capabilities designed to work seamlessly
For growing wholesale distributors in New Zealand, option three increasingly makes both strategic and financial sense.
Questions to Ask Yourself:
- How many existing or potential customers require EDI today?
- How many orders per day are you processing manually?
- What's the labour cost of manual order processing and customer service?
- What opportunities are you missing because you can't meet customer technical requirements?
- What will your order volumes look like in 2-3 years?
The answers usually make the business case clear.
Taking Action
Start by understanding your current state and future requirements:
- Survey your top 20 customers about their EDI and B2B portal preferences
- Calculate your manual order processing costs (labour hours × hourly cost × error correction factor)
- Identify lost opportunities where you couldn't meet customer technical requirements
- Project your order volumes 2-3 years out and calculate manual processing costs at that scale
Then evaluate your options honestly. If your current ERP can't deliver native EDI and B2B portal capabilities without expensive bolt-ons and custom development, it might be time to consider whether you're on the right platform for your distribution business's future.
Project Salsa specialises in helping New Zealand wholesale distributors implement modern cloud ERP with native EDI and B2B portal capabilities. We understand the technical requirements and the business outcomes you need to achieve. Contact us for a straightforward conversation about your specific customer requirements and how to meet them efficiently.
