Hi there! I have zero technical experience and just learned that I will be in charge of implementing EDI with NetSuite at the small startup I work for. We are a supplier working with several large distributors most of which use SPS. Does that mean we will need to use SPS too? How long did it take you to implement EDI at your company? Any consultants in this group? 😅

Hey Sarah, I've worked with SPS before. They'll assign a team (probably overseas) to work with you through your implementations. Generally, it'll be one implementation per distributor and can take a few weeks to get all set up and tested. If you're not technical and don't want to take on learning the nuances of EDI, I'd highly suggest getting someone with some experience since you'll most likely be adding new partners periodically and needing to update/troubleshoot existing connections.

We can help with this project if you’re needing a consulting our your end.

If most of your large distributors are already using SPS that should cut down on the task of generating EDI docs that will pass from their systems to Netsuite. So, yes you will need to use SPS to integrate with your trading partners. Just make sure to define what EDI docs you will need between your systems.

No, you don't need to use SPS Commerce and I wouldn't recommend them either. Technically you can have any EDI partner you want. It's just a matter of choosing the mapping specifications. Either your EDI partner will have to use SPS Commerce mapping specs, or SPS Commerce will have to use your EDI partner mapping specs. I've managed many EDI integration projects and I currently use TrueCommerce for 20+ EDI integrations in the company I work for. They offer a decent pricing, service, support, etc.. plus they use NetSuite as their own ERP. If you are lucky to get a good implementation specialist with them the EDI implementation will run smoothly. Let me know if you have any other concerns. I'll be glad to help..

Loving this thread - also trying to manage and oversee all things EDI as a "first timer". @Gustavo Doná why don't you recommend SPS? One plus I've heard on them v True Commerce (not yet validated) is that they serve more trading partners.

In summary they are more expensive and lack technical resources. In our experience they were very responsive when they were trying to make us their customers, but after that it was really hard to reach out to them. Regarding TrueCommerce, there is a pre-built connection between SPS Commerce and TrueCommerce, so technically you can easily have access to all SPS partners through that. I am going live soon with a customer that uses SPS Commerce, while we use TrueCommerce. The only thing is that SPS started to push a service agreement on whoever is trying to integrate with their customers which for me doesn't make sense at all. I think it's an audacious way of trying to expand and acquiring new customers. In our case we pushed back on all their attempts. It was a red flag for me as well because, I don't know how, SPS Commerce convinced some of our customers to push all their vendors to be integrated via EDI, and even that our customers would only enter orders to vendors that were integrated via EDI. How come? These projects can take time. How SPS Commerce can handle so many projects at once? It isn't possible in my opinion.

@Gustavo Doná We are now in a big rush to implement as we have several clients that want to purchase but will only do so if we have EDI and I have only heard terrible things about SPS

I see. I think you can't go wrong with TrueCommerce. Their UI is a bit outdated but it works, and they have good support too. I just recommend making sure you have a good implementation specialist to help you and you're good to go. I personally recommend Douglas Linek. He's really good! Before him I had a really hard time with two other implementation specialists that were actually delaying our projects. After escalating it a few times to their delivery manager, they put Douglas on all our ongoing projects and it went really smoothly from there :) If you have any other concerns feel free to DM me as well..