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Summary
1EDISource provides a number of EDI services and offerings - ranging from a web based system that is designed for first time users to a set of enterprise targeted in-house systems that can also send and receive data to and from your in-house ERP or accounting system. Like many of the packages we have reviewed, the 1EDISource offerings ultimately do a fine job of sending data in and out of your in house systems. While the web based system is easy to set up and configure, the same cannot be said about the in-house systems, and integrating to your back-end systems ultimately requires a fair amount of work from 1EDISource themselves - which of course is going to lead to higher charges.
Strengths
1EDISource provides a lot of variables in the equation. Most businesses will most likely start with their web-based system due to its simplicity and affordable "per use" rates. Like most of these systems, however, these will become fairly expensive fairly quickly, which is where 1EDISource's in-house systems come into play. Once you can manage to install the systems - be it the Enterprise edition or the lesser ones - operation is fast enough (although not on par with the likes of EMANIO) and the data is transferred reliably. The biggest advantage of 1EDISource's solution is the ability of its customers to migrate from one product form (the web based system for instance) to another. The limitations, however, might be too much for many businesses to deal with.
Limitations
At the very bottom end 1EDISource provides a fair amount of value. Set up of their web based system is easy enough and operation is fairly intuitive (although not nearly as much as leading providers in this arena). The problem with 1EDISource comes when it's time to bring EDI in house and when it's time to begin the process of integrating data into your in-house systems - be they ERP or accounting. The reasons deal with installation and integration development. The installation part can be a fairly challenging and lengthy proposition. While ultimately we were able to complete our installation, it took a fair number of calls to the company's support department. The integration picture is a bit bleaker still. The product is easy to use - IF you don't need any custom integration done; if that's your scenario you are probably better served elsewhere since most of the integration work will require that you hire the services of 1EDISource, which, of course, will get expensive quickly.
Wish List
The biggest item on our wish list for 1EDISource would be to improve the ability to create our own integration maps. Unlike products from competing vendors the process here is cumbersome and slow and often leads to having to take recourse in the people at 1EDISource.
Product Ratings
The product ratings below reflect our evaluation of 1EDISource with a rating score that ranges from 1 to 5, with 1 equaling “fail” and 5 being an “Excellent”. Our overall score for 1EDISource is of 3 out of a total possible of 5.
| Product Area |
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| Setup & Installation |
Installation of 1EDISource was fairly challenging and required multiple calls to their support organization. Getting set up on the web based system, on the other hand, was easy and relatively pain free. |
2 |
| Interface |
While the EDI management part of the interface is clean and modern, working with the integration engine is complicated and can be fairly time consuming. |
3 |
| Features |
1EDISouce products provide all the features you may need, but integrating with other 3rd party products is not intuitive and requires a number of steps that we wish we did not have to take. |
3 |
| Ease of use |
Once again a mixed bag as the user interface for EDI management is relatively simple, but managing the system, adding and changing integration components and working in conjunction with anything that is not from 1EDISource becomes a challgenge. |
3 |
| Automation Capabilities |
Limited automation capabilities put this product towards the bottom of EDI solutions, probably since 1EDISource wants to keep most of its customers on their web based system - which pretty much tries to hide the complexity of EDI from the user. For more advanced operations, however, this quickly becomes a problematic solution. |
2 |
| Integration capabilities |
While 1EDISource has pre-built integration maps for a number of ERP systems, finishing the set up (especially with your own custom fields) or working with non-supported systems quickly becomes hard and will most likely require a call to their professional services organization. |
2 |
| Performance |
While the product performs reasonably well it's far behind in overall performance to leaders in the category like EMANIO, INOVIS and others. |
4 |
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Overall Score |
2.50 |
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About Team 
The strength of EDI Software Review is the individuals that make up the team. In fact, we believe that our team consists of a group of uniquely talented individuals. Each of the team members is an experienced consultant that is operationally savvy, demonstrating a deep levelof experience. Each member of the team has an intense commitment to board service and to working closely with the management teams of software companies to provide an unbias independant review. |
