Electronic Data Integration Finally Comes of Age: Electronic Data Integration Between Trading Companies has Always been Plagued with a Complexity That has Meant That Its Full Benefits have been Hard to Achieve. Ian Ford, MD of First B2B Limited, Argues That the Advent of "Software As a Service" Technologies Allows Data Integration to Make Its Full Impact (Data Integration‪)‬

Have you ever sat down and tried to draw your supply chain--all the companies that you buy from and sell to to make your profit? Have you then considered the information flows that enable all these transactions to take place--the enquiry, the quotation, the order, the dispatch note, the delivery note, the invoice, the remittance note--it is no wonder that electronic data integration, allowing simple, secure and instantaneous transfer of all this information between trading partners has been a holy grail for as long as computerized back office systems have been in existence. Benefits of Data Integration