EDI, IDP, or PEDIF: Which One is Right for Your Industry?

Document automation is no longer optional—it’s a strategic necessity. But which approach suits your business best? Whether you're in manufacturing, logistics, wholesale, or the public sector, choosing between EDI, IDP, and PEDIF can have long-term impacts on cost, compliance, and scalability.

Quick Overview of Each Approach

• EDI (Electronic Data Interchange): Traditional, structured B2B integration using standard data formats like EDIFACT or ANSI X12.

• IDP (Intelligent Document Processing): AI-powered extraction from unstructured documents, usually involving OCR and model training.

• PEDIF: An AI powered solution using fingerprint-based layout recognition for PDF-to-data conversion with minimal error rate.

Manufacturing Industry

Manufacturers need accurate and fast processing of invoices, orders, delivery notes, and supplier documents. EDI has been dominant, but it’s expensive. IDP often fails with diverse formats and documents. PEDIF enables manufacturers to instantly process diverse document types without templates or manual setup. PEDIF’s fingerprinting technology adapts to any layout—ideal for operations handling large volume transactions and a wide variety of formats. PEDIF makers just in time manufacturing possible!

Logistics & Supply Chain Industry

Speed and accuracy are critical in logistics—whether it's handling delivery notes, shipping notifications, or proof of delivery. EDI works well for standardized shipping data, but breaks down but breaks down when documents come as PDFs or quick onboarding of new suppliers is needed. IDP systems struggle with layout variance and require much model training. PEDIF ensures real-time, structure-aware extraction without manual processing. Streamlines the flow of delivery notes and shipping documents by converting unstructured PDFs into clean, system-ready documents, boosting accuracy and operational speed across the supply chain. PEDIF turns PDF chaos into supply chain clarity!

Wholesale & Distribution Industry

Distributors process massive volumes of purchase orders and invoices and each arriving in different layouts and formats from hundreds of trading partners. EDI is often out of reach due to high onboarding costs. IDP platforms provide partial relief but demand constant training and validation. PEDIF changes the game by giving lean distribution teams a powerful automation layer. PEDIF processes PDFs from any supplier—regardless of layout—using AI-driven fingerprinting instead of static templates or predefined models. Purchase orders, order confirmations, and invoices are converted into structured, system ready data in seconds. With PEDIF, distributors can scale document automation across vendors, order types, and countries without ever needing to rebuild templates or retrain models—saving time, cost, and manual effort. No more stock shortages with PEDIF!

Public Sector & Government Suppliers Industry

Governments require compliance with standards like XRechnung, ZUGFeRD, and PEPPOL. EDI connections are expensive and slow to establish. IDP often fails compliance audits due to inconsistent output. PEDIF offers native compliance output, perfect for small,mid-sized , large-scale vendors who need speed and assurance without infrastructure investments.

Comparison Table

Industry	EDI	IDP	PEDIF
Manufacturing	✓ Scalable ✗ Costly setup	✗ High error rate	✓ Fast onboarding ✓ High accuracy
Logistics	✓ Standardized ✗ Rigid formats	✗ Needs cleanup	✓ Real-time extraction ✓ Flexible layout support
Wholesale	✗ Expensive	✗ Expensive	✓ Custom Pricing
Public Sector	✓ PEPPOL support ✗ Complex IT	✗ Fails compliance	✓ Built-in compliance ✓ Simple rollout

Not Sure Which Approach Fits Your Industry?

Tell us what industry you're in—we’ll show you exactly how PEDIF can solve your document challenges.
From agriculture to automotive, from retail to government: if it arrives as a PDF, PEDIF can process all document types (21 document types blog).

[Talk to an Expert] to see how we can help—tailored to your workflows.

Final Thought

Each technology has its place—but for businesses that need flexibility, speed, and compliance-ready automation without high costs, PEDIF is the modern choice. Book a demo with your most complex documents and see the difference.

[Book a Demo] or [Pricing Model] to compare.