A new report by GS1 UK reveals that UK organisations can make huge cost savings by automating their processes such as ordering, invoicing and receiving goods.
EDI is a well established technology that can make business transactions faster, more accurate, more efficient and less costly by removing manual paper-based processes.
The report identified that EDI usage in the UK grocery industry is very widespread. Grocery retailers and suppliers currently use the technology for 87% of purchase orders, 84% of invoices and 38% of despatch advices - this saves the sector £650 million every year.
The research also highlighted that the grocery industry could save a further £288 million each year if the technology was fully adopted.
EDI usage was found to be much lower in other industries. GS1 UK’s research found that industries as diverse as healthcare, government and food service can make equivalent savings by using EDI.
According to the report, 81% of UK companies still using some form of manual paper-based processes. Significant cost savings can be made by eliminating the use of paper documents and replacing them with EDI messages.
"Since implementing the full EDI process using electronic orders, Advanced Shipping Notices and electronic invoicing with our trading partners, we've seen a reduction in manual intervention for our invoicing process from more than 20% to less than 2%.
This has improved our process efficiency, reduced the number of ordering and invoicing errors and freed up time for our pub managers to concentrate on serving customers better," says Concepta Lowry of Data Quality Management Manager, Mitchells and Butlers. The report can be downloaded at GS1 eDox! back | 
