The FOUNDATION™ VAN (Value Added Network) allows you to funnel all of your data traffic to and from your trading partners into a single connection.
By using your own mailbox connection on FOUNDATION, you can send and receive with any customer or supplier on any other network.
True Tier 1 VANs connect with each other via “interconnects,” and FOUNDATION has Tier 1 interconnects with every major VAN, such as OpenText, IBM, Loren Data Systems, and SPS Commerce, and many others. The VANs utilize mailbagging to confirm the receiving VAN acknowledges receipt.
We offer competitive pricing as well as fixed-rate packages (unheard of in the industry). To get pricing, contact us today.
“For over 25 years, I have always found the staff to be extremely professional, knowledgeable, helpful and friendly with whatever I have thrown at them — especially concerning the automotive industry.”
Malvin Newman
Data Processing Manager, AdvanTech International
To get EDI data to and from your trading partners, you can establish a mailbox on Foundation to trade with one of the retailers that utilize York for their own EDI program. But that mailbox can be used to trade not just with other York clients, but with any company on any major VAN.
FOUNDATION supports a range of connection types, such as AS2, ftp, s/ftp, GISB, and others. Some of your trading partners may prefer to bypass VANs and do direct connections, via AS2 or by hosting their own ftp server. Let York manage those connections for you, and you can still use a single connection to FOUNDATION to reach all your trading partners.
Current clients utilize FOUNDATION to trade with Amazon, Walmart, Target, Ford, Chrysler, Mid-States Distributing, Rural King, and thousands of other companies. FOUNDATION is used by retailers, manufacturers, distributors, energy traders, transportation, warehousing, and other industries. Some networks claim to operate their own VAN, but actually are purchasing their own mailbox on a Tier 1 VAN and reselling the connection service.
These Tier 2 VANs are not true VANs, and add extra hops to the delivery of your data; they may also lose access to mailbag tracking. FOUNDATION is a true Tier 1 VAN. You can access and manage your FOUNDATION mailbox and associated messages via our online portal. Or just call our customer support line for quick and helpful assistance from a live-person, North America-based representative.
How do I get data from my format into something the trading partner can understand?
This problem is solved by a translation process, and often involves translation software.
With the EDI FASTrack™ solution at York, translation can be handled intra-network, meaning you send and receive data in the formats that are natural to your own systems, and the York system will handle the conversion of the data to/from your trading partners’ formats. This approach gives some major advantages, the most obvious being it removes the need for you to purchase and maintain translation software.
The benefits go far deeper. Since your data flows through York’s FOUNDATION network, much more advanced processing can be executed, giving unlimited opportunities to solve business problems not easily handled by your ERP system.
About The Technologies
Advantages of EDI:
EDI is a versatile technology that facilitates the efficient, accurate, and secure exchange of business-critical information across different industries. Its primary purpose is to automate and improve various business processes, enhance collaboration among trading partners, and reduce manual effort and errors in data interchange.
- Data Integrity: EDI is designed for secure and standardized data exchange, ensuring data integrity and reducing the risk of errors or data corruption during transmission.
- Established Standards: EDI relies on established standards like ANSI X12 and EDIFACT, which promote consistency and interoperability across different systems and industries.
- Cost Savings: EDI can lead to cost savings by streamlining business processes, reducing paperwork, and minimizing manual data entry.
- Longevity: EDI has a long history and is well-suited for industries with legacy systems or where compliance with specific standards is mandated.
- Batch Processing: EDI is suitable for batch processing of transactions, making it efficient for scenarios with high volumes of data.
Why EDI over APIs?
APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) and EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) are both methods used for data interchange between different systems or organizations. Each has its own set of advantages and disadvantages, and the choice between them depends on specific use cases and requirements.
APIs suffer from:
- Lack of Standardization: API design and implementation can vary widely, leading to inconsistencies and potential integration challenges when dealing with multiple APIs from different providers.
- Maintenance: APIs require ongoing maintenance, and changes to API endpoints or data structures can break existing integrations, necessitating versioning and careful management.
- Security Concerns: APIs can pose security risks if not properly secured. Unauthorized access, data breaches, and other security vulnerabilities can occur if proper authentication and authorization mechanisms are not in place.
- Data Format and Structure Changes: API providers can modify the format or structure of the data they return, which may require adjustments in your application to parse and handle the data correctly.
