Managed EDI vs Modern EDI: How to choose?

What is EDI — and which delivery model is right for your business? A principal solutions consultant breaks down legacy vs. modern EDI, chargebacks, and how EDI connects to your ERP. EDI compliance is mandatory for most enterprise trading partners — and getting it wrong is expensive. One supplier in this episode racked up $400,000 in chargebacks from a single trading partner over late ASNs. Across ten partners, that's a $4 million problem. Jeremy Erwin, Principal Solutions Consultant at Celigo, spends his days solving EDI for distributors, brands, and manufacturers. In this episode he and Nate cover what EDI actually is, why every trading partner runs a different version of the same "standard," how VAN, AS2, and SFTP differ in practice, and the real line between legacy EDI and modern EDI — which comes down to who controls your mappings. They also get into where EDI meets API, why APIs won't replace EDI at supply chain scale, and where AI genuinely helps an EDI program versus where it doesn't belong. What you'll learn: ✅ What EDI is in plain language, and why it still matters in 2026 ✅ The three flavors of legacy EDI — custom builds, standalone translators, and managed service — and what each costs you in control ✅ Managed EDI vs. modern EDI: the factors that should actually drive the decision ✅ How chargebacks and vendor scorecards turn an EDI typo into a revenue problem ✅ How EDI connects to your ERP, OMS, and WMS — and why users should never see an EDI document ✅ EDI vs. API: why they coexist instead of compete ✅ Where AI fits in EDI configuration and monitoring — and where it's a bad idea ✅ How to get started without building from scratch or losing control CHAPTERS: 00:00 Introduction 01:44 What is EDI and why does it still matter 02:28 Trading partners and the "non-standard standard" 04:17 The documents that move: POs, ASNs, invoices, inventory advices 06:22 How EDI lands in your ERP, OMS, and WMS 09:13 Where Ariba and Coupa fit — and why EDI is still the highway underneath 12:30 Connectivity explained: VAN, AS2, and SFTP 15:50 Chargebacks, late ASNs, and the $400,000 story 19:07 Vendor scorecards and what happens when you fall below threshold 20:12 The three legacy EDI models and who each one is built for 22:32 What modern EDI changes: prebuilt trading partners plus control 25:04 How EDI connects to your enterprise stack 27:02 AI and EDI: where it helps, where it doesn't 29:38 Migrating off a managed EDI provider without breaking anything 32:08 Is EDI going away? The Suez Canal answer 34:02 Starting from zero: modern EDI plus a managed services partner 38:09 Next steps 👉 Get a demo: https://www.celigo.com/request-a-demo/ 📚 Related reading: https://www.celigo.com/blog/managed-edi/ Subscribe for more on intelligent automation, EDI integration, and enterprise iPaaS strategy. #EDI #EDIIntegration #CloudEDI #ManagedEDI #EDISolutions #WhatIsEDI #EDIvsAPI #SupplyChain #Celigo #iPaaS