EDI integration is the automatic exchange of business documents between your systems and your trading partners: orders in, and confirmations, delivery notes and invoices out, in the format each partner requires, without anyone keying anything in.
SublimTech implements and runs EDI on Lobster Data Platform for companies in the Nordics and the UK with many customers, suppliers and logistics partners. This page covers what EDI integration involves, when it pays off, which standards and systems come into play, and how we run an EDI project.
EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) is the exchange of structured business documents between two companies’ systems using an agreed standard. The integration is the part that connects those documents to your own systems, so an order from a customer becomes an order in your ERP with no manual steps in between.
Without integration, EDI often ends up as WebEDI or a portal: someone logs in to the customer’s system, fetches the order, keys it in and sends the confirmation by hand. That meets the customer’s requirement, but it shifts the work onto your order desk.
With EDI integration, translation, validation and routing sit in a single integration layer. We build it on Lobster Data Platform: mappings are created visually, every message can be traced, and new partners can be connected without starting a new project. Try it yourself and see what happens between your system and a trading partner:
JSONEDIFACT
Business Central sends JSON via REST API. Retail chain requires EDIFACT via AS2. Lobster translates between them.
DocumentsORDERS in, ORDRSP, DESADV and INVOIC back
Without an integration layer, each of these combinations is built as a separate connection. With a single layer, validation, transformation and monitoring are reused across all of them.
EDI usually comes onto the agenda when a large customer demands it. Retail chains, wholesalers and public-sector buyers make EDI or e-invoicing a condition of doing business, and then it simply has to work. The biggest gain, though, is for companies with many partners, where every new connection would otherwise become a project in its own right.
Our customers are typically medium-sized and large companies in the Nordics and the UK in trade, manufacturing, logistics and distribution. They run Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Finance & Operations, NAV or Visma and exchange documents with everyone from retail chains to 3PL warehouses. If you recognise several of these signs, it is worth looking at EDI integration:
The cost of manual document handling never appears on an invoice. It is hidden in the minutes spent on each order, in errors spotted too late and in the wait every time a new partner needs to get started.
A worked example: 60 orders a day, each taking six minutes to key in and check, adds up to six hours a day. With an error rate of a couple of per cent, there are corrections, credit notes and phone calls on top. You can adjust the figures to your own situation with the calculator at the top of this page.
Then there is the hidden cost of dependency. When EDI can only be maintained by one person or one external supplier, every change becomes expensive and slow. That was the situation at Constellation Cold Logistics Denmark before the EDI landscape was rebuilt on Lobster:
Build the right model once, and every new connection becomes a formality rather than a project.
Constellation Cold Logistics Denmark, formerly Agri-Norcold, runs cold stores at ten locations in Denmark for food producers with strict traceability requirements. Customers’ EDI files used to be written straight into the warehouse system’s databases, customer by customer, and knowledge of each connection was held by individuals. SublimTech has rebuilt the landscape on Lobster with one canonical data model per message type: the customer’s format is translated into the shared model, and the shared model into the warehouse system’s format. Each link in the chain is a separate Lobster profile. On the same platform, Lobster now delivers reports the warehouse system cannot produce itself, controls freezers according to the hourly electricity price and sends veterinary certificates digitally to the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration via a partner.
Your partners decide the format. That is why EDI integration is less about choosing one standard and more about being able to handle all of them from the same platform.
| Standard or format | Widely used by | Typical documents |
|---|---|---|
| EDIFACT and EANCOM | European retail, wholesale and logistics | ORDERS, ORDRSP, DESADV, INVOIC |
| ANSI X12 | North American customers and partners | 850, 855, 856, 810 |
| VDA | German automotive industry and its suppliers | Delivery schedules and despatch advice |
| Peppol | E-invoicing, for example to NHS Supply Chain | Invoices, credit notes, orders |
| XML and JSON | Web shops, APIs and newer platforms | Orders, stock status, tracking |
| IDoc | SAP environments | Orders, deliveries, invoices |
| CSV and flat files | Older systems and 3PL warehouses | Price lists, stock status, pick orders |
EANCOM is GS1’s subset of EDIFACT and is widely used in retail; the standards are maintained by GS1. Transport is a subject in its own right: AS2 with certificates, OFTP2, SFTP, web services and REST APIs, and for e-invoices the Peppol network. Lobster supports them all, so the protocol is never a reason to say no to a partner.
From April 2029, all VAT invoices in the UK will have to be issued as e-invoices in a specified electronic format, as announced at Budget 2025. According to the government’s consultation response on GOV.UK, the mandate covers VAT invoices, which are typically issued for business-to-business and business-to-government transactions, not for sales to consumers. Real-time reporting to HMRC will not be introduced alongside the mandate in 2029.
In its Tax update 2026, the government announced that Peppol will be the core interoperability network for e-invoicing in the UK. How legacy systems that cannot interoperate will fit into the future system is still being discussed with stakeholders.
The government will publish an implementation roadmap at Budget 2026, setting out the milestones to April 2029. According to GOV.UK, Budget 2026 is due on 28 October 2026.
Public bodies are already required to accept e-invoices that comply with BS EN 16931, and NHS Supply Chain requires its suppliers to send e-invoices over Peppol. If you want to prepare, you can check whether your ERP or finance system can issue and receive structured e-invoices over Peppol. E-invoicing via Peppol can run in the same integration layer as the rest of your EDI.
EDI does not stop at the inbox. The value comes when the documents land in the right places: the order in ERP, the pick order in WMS, the shipment with the carrier and the invoice in the finance system.
Business Central and Finance & Operations are typically connected via APIs, NAV via web services and SAP via IDoc. 3PL warehouses and carriers often exchange files over SFTP. Lobster has the connectors, and we have built the connections before. EDI is also often the first step towards wider ERP integration between your internal systems.
ORDERS are received, validated against item numbers and prices and created as sales orders in ERP. The order confirmation, delivery note and invoice go back automatically as ORDRSP, DESADV and INVOIC in the chain’s own format.
Purchase orders are sent as EDI. The supplier’s confirmations and invoices are read in and matched against the order, so discrepancies in price and quantity are caught before payment.
Pick orders go to the 3PL warehouse, stock status and shipping confirmations come back, and your ERP shows the stock that is actually on the shelf.
Bookings and labels are sent to the carrier. Track-and-trace status comes back and can be shown to the customer without anyone looking it up by hand.
Invoices to public-sector and private customers go out as e-invoices over the Peppol network, with acknowledgements and error handling in the same flow as the rest of your EDI.
Orders from marketplaces and your own web shop follow the same flow as EDI orders, so the order desk has only one place to look.
Do any of these flows look familiar? Then we can quickly assess what it would take to automate them in your business, and what you would save.
Get help with EDI integrationA single EDI connection is rarely difficult. It is the sheer number of them that costs. Each partner has its own fields, its own test requirements and its own certificates, and every onboarding needs coordinating with people you do not control.
That is why we build onboarding as a repeatable process: standard mappings per document type, test scenarios that can be run again, and a partner portal where the partner supplies connection details and certificates itself. Lobster’s Trading Partner Manager supports exactly that model, with automatic connection tests and a single overview of where each partner is in the process.
The result is that a new partner becomes a task, not a project.
What really sets SublimTech apart is their ability to get to grips with complex integrations quickly and find practical solutions, even when unforeseen challenges come up. We get expert advice, quick responses and consultants who take ownership of the job from start to finish.
At PanzerGlass we have had nothing but positive experiences working with SublimTech. When IT solutions are delivered quickly, efficiently and thoroughly, everyone involved wins, and that has been our experience with every one of SublimTech’s consultants.
They are clearly experts in integration, and in their field in general. They deliver high-quality solutions, meet agreed deadlines and are also a valuable sounding board when it comes to advice and developing new solutions.
Translated from Danish. The original reviews are on Trustpilot.
EDI still needs attention after go-live. Certificates expire, partners change formats and new document types come along. The question is whether you look after it or we do.
We work with both models. The choice depends on how much integration expertise you want in-house and how critical the flows are to your day-to-day operations.
You run the platform yourselves. We implement it, train your people and remain on hand as specialists when a partner changes something.
We monitor, fix errors, onboard new partners and keep certificates and mappings up to date under an ongoing agreement.
Read about managed integration services
We start with the flow that involves the most manual work, take it live and build from there. The process is the same whether it involves three partners or thirty.
We map systems, partners and document types and agree which flows to build first.
Each flow is modelled visually in Lobster, with validation, transformation and error handling built in from the start.
ERP, WMS, TMS and partners are connected with the protocols and certificates each party requires.
Each flow is tested end to end with real documents and signed off with each trading partner.
Flows go into production partner by partner, your people are trained, and operations are monitored closely from day one.
For each phase, it is clear what we do, what you provide and where Lobster comes in.
We document mappings, error handling and partner agreements along the way, so EDI does not depend on one person, either at your company or at ours. If you already run EDI on an older platform, we first go through what can be reused and what should be rebuilt.
EDI is the standard for how business documents are exchanged between companies. EDI integration is the link to your own systems, so the documents are read and written automatically in your ERP, WMS and finance system. Without integration, EDI ends up as a portal that someone has to log in to.
EDIFACT and EANCOM, ANSI X12, VDA, Peppol e-invoices, XML, JSON, IDoc and flat files, exchanged via AS2, OFTP2, SFTP, web services, REST APIs and the Peppol network. The partner decides the format, and the platform translates.
It depends on the number of partners, document types and systems. The price is made up of the Lobster licence and the implementation, and operations can sit with you or with us. We give you a specific estimate once we have been through your flows. The ROI calculator shows what manual handling costs you today.
The first flow usually takes the longest, because the platform, connections and procedures have to be put in place. Subsequent partners are quicker to connect, because mappings and tests are reused. At Constellation Cold Logistics Denmark, the target is for a new customer connection to take around two months, compared with six to eight before, because each customer is now a single mapping to a shared data model in Lobster.
Yes. We migrate from BizTalk, VAN providers and custom-coded solutions to Lobster, and we also take over the operation of existing Lobster installations. We start by reviewing flows, mappings and partner agreements, so nothing is lost in the move.
Yes, and it is one of the most common setups among our customers. Business Central is connected via API, and the EDI documents are created directly as sales orders, purchase orders and invoices. The same goes for Dynamics 365 Finance & Operations, NAV and SAP.
Peppol is an open network for exchanging standardised business documents, especially e-invoices. The UK government has announced that Peppol will be the core interoperability network for e-invoicing in the UK, where all VAT invoices will have to be issued as e-invoices from April 2029. NHS Supply Chain already requires its suppliers to send e-invoices over Peppol. Peppol can run in the same integration layer as the rest of your EDI.
Tell us which partners and document types are involved, and we will get back to you with an assessment of what can be automated first.
