Frequently Asked Questions

Q1: What's a Faxinating Solution?

A: Faxinating Solutions, the company, is an electronic commerce enabler, providing data integration, translation and conversion services to companies of all shapes and sizes.

A Faxinating Solution is any solution that enables a company to communicate effectively with their trading partners. These solutions can incorporate EDI, AS2, XML, Fax, Text, XSL, CSV, PDF, proprietary formats like SAP IDocs, or anything else you can dream of (or want to migrate away from).

We are experts at providing these solutions.

Q2: What type of companies use your services?

A: Typically we service organizations with extensive supply chains, such as retailers.

Companies that have a lot of trading partners often find it difficult to standardize the transmission and receipt of their electronic data. We help them by bridging the gap between themselves and their suppliers/clients.

Q3: Isn't EDI supposed to be standardized?

A: In theory, EDI works great. Each type of document you want to trade is set in stone. You just pick the version that corresponds to your document and you're ready to trade. In reality though, things are a little more complicated.

Want to send invoices to Partner X? Since they use the Detailed Invoice version 810, that shouldn't be a problem. You just need to program the link between your accounting package and your EDI software for that partner.

Now you want to send invoices to Partner Y? OK, in theory you should be able to use the 810 again with limited setup. What's that? Partner Y wants to receive a batched invoice version 882 instead? Grrr! You've got a problem.

Not to mention that different partners use the 810 document in different ways. EDI is a standard, but it is open to interpretation, which means everyone has their own flavour.

And we haven't even talked about version changes, upgrades or the differences between ANSI and UCS.

Let Faxinating Solutions manage your EDI and you'll never have to worry about EDI again!

Q4: How much do you charge?

A: We believe that you should pay only for what you use. This is where our Pay-As-You-Go pricing philosophy comes from.

We charge you only for the documents we process. For some services, this can be as low as pennies per document.

Q5: Which retailers do you support?

A: Currently we support: Metro, Sobeys, Loblaws, Provigo, IGA, Maxi, A&P, Price Chopper, Costco, Safeway, Couche-Tard, Jean Coutu, McDonalds, Shell, Ultramar, Hannaford, Shaws, Assocaiated Food Stores, Unified Western Grocers, Albertson, Kroger, MDI, C&S, KVat, Hyvee, SuperValu, Topco, Wegmans, Wakefern, Winco, Stater Brothers, ....

Q6: What are the minimum technology requirements to do EDI?

A: That depends.

If you want to do EDI yourself you first need to invest in a computer and some EDI software. That's going to put a dent in your cash.

Next you need to sign up with a Value Added Network (VAN). That will require an initial investment and minimum monthly charges.

Then you'll need to hire a consultant/EDI coordinator to integrate your back-end accounting package with the EDI software. Not to mention all the testing that's required. That's not cheap.

Finally you'll need to get someone to administer it, running it on a day-to-day basis, fixing the errors as they occur, making sure your data is getting to where it needs to be.

Once you need to set up a new trading partner you'll need to bring in that consultant again.

Is there a better way? There sure is. Outsource your EDI needs to Faxinating Solutions and let us take care of the rest.

We'll take your files (in any format you want), verify, log and track them, then deliver them to your trading partners in a timely and efficient manner. We'll also handle any new setups as required.

You'll save time, money and effort and your data will be happier!