EDI is automated B2B order ingestion. Purchase orders from your trading partners arrive automatically, map to your stock items, customer and pricing, and land in DataFlow as if a person had keyed them — then follow the normal validation, allocation and authorisation path.
The problem
When partner orders arrive by hand.
If a trading partner sends a purchase order and someone has to re-key it before it can be processed, every order carries a delay and a chance of error.
Re-keying every purchase order
Orders arrive by email or portal and get typed into DataFlow by hand — slow at volume, and a soft spot for transposition errors.
Codes that do not match
The partner uses their own product and account references, so each line has to be translated to your stock item, customer and price before it means anything.
Large customers, bespoke rules
A big trading partner sends orders in their own dialect, and a general-purpose importer cannot honour the quirks without someone intervening on every batch.
Partners left guessing it arrived
With no acknowledgement sent back, a trading partner cannot tell whether their order was received, so they chase by phone or send it again and you get the same order twice.
How it works
A background service that brings orders in.
Partners send; DataFlow receives, maps and posts.
HTTP, TCP and file transports
HTTP endpoint the partner POSTs to, with an acknowledgement returned. Long-lived TCP socket listener for a persistent connection.
HTTP + TCPtwo live transports
Acknowledgedpartner gets a response
Mapping to your stock, customer and pricing
Partner product references mapped to your stock items. The partner resolved to a customer, with your pricing applied.
Mappedto your stock items
Your pricingapplied on the way in
Per-trading-partner code paths
Per-trading-partner code paths for customer-specific dialects. Some large customers get their own EDI variant, handled first-class.
Per-partnercode paths
First-classnot a bolt-on
Into the normal validation and allocation path
Orders appear in DataFlow as if a person had typed them. They follow the normal validation, allocation and authorisation path.
As if typedpartner orders land automatically
Same pathvalidation, allocation, authorisation
Explore more
More integrations.
Other ways DataFlow brings orders in and connects to your trading partners.
It is automated B2B order ingestion. Trading-partner purchase orders arrive automatically, map to your stock items, customer and pricing, and appear in DataFlow as if typed — then follow the normal validation, allocation and authorisation path.
How do partners send orders in?
Over two transports. An HTTP endpoint, where the partner POSTs an order to a configured URL and receives an acknowledgement, and a long-lived TCP socket listener. CSV file drops are also supported.
Does it run inside DataFlow?
It runs as a separate background service called TheEdge, alongside DataFlow. It receives orders, maps them and posts them into DataFlow as orders.
Can it handle a large customer’s own format?
Yes. EDI supports per-trading-partner code paths, so some large customers get their own EDI variant — a customer-specific dialect — handled as a first-class integration rather than a bolt-on.
