EDI Adoption and Implementation: An Examination of Perceived Operational and Strategic Benefits, and Controls

Abstract

In recent years, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) has revolutionized the way in which businesses conduct their trading activities. Even though the popularity and potential attached to EDI is growing rapidly, knowledge regarding the nature of EDI benefits and EDI control practices is very limited. This paper reports the results of a survey of EDI users that explores these key implementation issues. This study focuses on organizational factors that are associated with EDI adoption and implementation. Findings indicate that organizations experience both operational and strategic benefits from EDI. Customer-initiated EDI users recognized slightly greater EDI strategic benefits than did other users. Also, long-time users recognized both strategic and operational benefits in greater proportions than did more recent users, and smaller firms more often cited better customer service and convenience (as strategic and operational benefits, respectively) from implementing EDI. An examination of control practices revealed that while some basic procedures such as passwords and logs are widely used, the overall EDI control structure is typically weak. The role of management support and awareness and the implications for the management and control of EDI are also discussed.