EDI in strategic supply chain: impact on customer service

Many inter-organizational systems are increasingly using electronic data interchange (EDI) to support the strategic supply chain by way of delivering and processing business documents. In a vendor-customer relationship, EDI can provide many benefits to both organizations; one such benefit is improved customer service. This study examines the impact of EDI on customer service, when the vendor and customer utilize EDI in their distribution operations. The primary hypothesis is that EDI improves customer service. A number of secondary hypotheses dealing with specific components of customer service were also tested. Data was obtained by administering survey instruments to purchasing managers of firms in the automobile and pharmaceutical industries. The results provide strong support for most of the hypotheses. Specifically EDI contributes to the following customer service components: order cycle time, product availability, distribution flexibility, distribution information, and distribution malfunction. An impact on post-sale product support was not discernible from the data, In addition. some industry influences were also observed on the impact of EDI. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.