No more PDF chaos: How to automate your supply chain without EDI
Millions of PDFs travel through the supply chain every day – but hardly anyone uses their potential for automation.
In supply chains, countless documents are sent by e-mail every day – orders, delivery notes, order confirmations, invoices. In the vast majority of cases, as a PDF. But as digital as the format sounds, the reality behind it is analogue.
Instead of real machine communication, the documents end up in the inbox as e-mail attachments and have to be opened, checked, typed and transferred to the ERP systems by hand. This costs time, ties up specialist staff and leads to errors – in short: an efficiency killer in the middle of an increasingly networked economy.
Why EDI is not enough – and leaves many companies out
Electronic data interchange (EDI) has been the gold standard in supply chain communication for decades. But EDI only works if both sides have mastered it – technically, organizationally and budgetarily. For many small and medium-sized suppliers, EDI is simply not practical.
As a result, while large customers process orders via EDI, PDFs continue to arrive by e-mail from smaller partners. A digital divide is emerging. And companies that actually want to automate their processes end up with manual processing again – simply because the supplier can't do EDI.
PEDIF closes this gap with 100% accurate PDF automation
This is exactly where PEDIF comes in: The solution completely digitizes incoming PDF documents and converts them into structured, system-compatible formats – without any employee intervention and without the business partner having to adapt their processes.
PEDIF recognizes fields, checks content, adds missing information and creates an electronic order in XML or EDI format from a PDF, for example. This is made possible by a hybrid process: rule-based fingerprints ensure 100% accuracy, augmented intelligence compares special cases– and everything happens fully automatically in the background.
This is what it looks like in practice – an example from purchasing
A medium-sized company receives an order via PDF from a long-standing business partner. Previously, this order was printed, checked and manually entered into the ERP system. This took an average of 20-30 minutes per receipt.
With PEDIF, things are different:
The PDF order is simply forwarded to a central e-mail address.
PEDIF extracts the relevant data with 100% accuracy.
The data is automatically converted into the desired format – for example, as an EDI ORDERS message.
The ERP system seamlessly transfers the document and triggers internal follow-up processes.
The time required: less than 30 seconds. The error rate: practically zero. The employees: relieved. Cash flow: accelerated.
Conclusion: No EDI? No problem. PEDIF brings structure to the PDF chaos.
Supply chain automation must not fail because of reality. PEDIF is the digital bridge for all those who want more efficiency – but do not have EDI partners on the other side. The solution integrates effortlessly into existing systems and creates digital communication even where previously only PDFs by e-mail were possible.
This is how a PDF becomes a structured data set. From manual work – an automated process. And out of chaos – a real digital supply chain.