Case Study: Fresh Produce Business employs Smart Data Connectors in Legacy ERP

Company Overview

Our client is a mid-sized fresh produce supplier specialising in the distribution of fruits and vegetables to national retailers across the Australia and New Zealand. With a legacy ERP system in place, the company faced challenges in meeting the electronic data interchange (EDI) requirements of its largest retail customer, a major national grocery chain.

The Challenge

To maintain its partnership with the retailer, our client. needed to comply with strict EDI mandates for purchase orders, invoices, and advanced shipping notices (ASNs). However, their outdated ERP lacked native EDI capabilities, and a full system replacement was cost-prohibitive. Manual data entry led to:

• Order processing delays (24-48 hours instead of near real-time)

• High error rates in invoices and ASNs, leading to chargebacks

• Limited scalability to onboard additional retail customers

The Solution: Smart Data Connectors

Datasys implemented smart data connectors, a middleware solution that seamlessly integrated with their legacy ERP while enabling EDI compliance. The solution included:

• Pre-built EDI templates for the retailer’s 852 (inventory), 855 (PO acknowledgment), 810 (invoice), and 856 (ASN) transactions

• Automated data mapping between ERP fields and EDI formats

• Real-time synchronization to eliminate manual entry

• Error validation & alerts to reduce compliance issues