October 25, 2018

Generix Group and gs1 france present white paper on edi platform, api and blockchain

Collaborative supply chain expert Generix Group and global standards and solutions organization GS1 France publish their first white paper: “EDI, platform, API, blockchain: How do they fit together?”. The paper looks at how we use EDI now, how we can develop data exchange methods, which are progressively moving towards collaborative platforms, and why EDI, platformization, API and blockchain will play a key role in our increasingly digital world.

Press release

From EDI to blockchain

Authors Christophe Viry (Generix Group product market manager), Stéphane Cren (GS1 France head of innovation), and Anne-Claire Krid (GS1 France standardization expert) examine key EDI trends and the technology’s limitations, drawing on comments from expert users at French companies such as Metro Cash & Carry, Nestlé France, and Mondelez International. After examining the emergence of data exchange platforms and the benefits of blockchain for building ecosystems, the authors discuss the shift towards wider platformization and the resulting challenges and technological choices for data exchange. They explain why the digital transformation of commerce requires a more agile and less costly supply chain, sparking the growing use of API and the take-up of blockchain technology, which may be the solutions of the future.

Jean-Charles Deconninck, CEO of Generix Group, comments: “These practices (EDI, WEB-EDI, OCR, IoT integration, API, etc.) provide different solutions to data integration. With digital supply chains, they all have the same purpose: to supply collaborative platforms that optimize business processes. At Generix, our goal is to help our clients keep the promises they make to their customers. We’ve developed the Generix Supply Chain Hub to take on the new supply chain challenges. This collaborative solution collects data and connects users on behalf of application services to optimize supply chain execution, global visibility, and processes.”

François Deprey, CEO of GS1 France, notes: “The challenge of commerce, particularly e-commerce, is a source of major disruption in company supply chains. This results in more complex information systems, a large number of collaborative platforms, and a growing need for interoperability between these ecosystems. At GS1, we use our experience in this area to provide standards and interoperability solutions to all parties in this major digital revolution.”

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