What to Do When Your EDI Costs Are Too High: A Guide for CTOs and Ops Leaders

Modern organizations allocate around 8% of their revenue to IT, with an increasing share going to electronic data interchange (EDI) systems. As the EDI software market surges to a projected $5.3 billion by 2032, rising costs are becoming harder to ignore.

Between legacy infrastructure, manual processes, and third-party support, the hidden costs of EDI can spiral quickly, stretching internal teams and straining budgets.

From managing legacy tools to providers that charge per transaction, we’ll break down the cost categories to watch and show how modern platforms like Orderful can reduce your total cost of ownership.

Breaking Down the True Cost of EDI

EDI costs often appear predictable at a glance. Items such as licensing fees, transaction charges, and support services are fully visible on the budget sheet. But the total cost of ownership (TCO) can reveal much more.

Visible Costs 

Software licensing and transaction fees are just the beginning. Many businesses also pay for ongoing maintenance, software updates, and consulting hours to manage integrations or troubleshoot system issues. These expenses may fluctuate with volume, leading to budgeting challenges over time.

Visible costs can increase as businesses grow, particularly when EDI systems lack integration with accounting software or other business systems, which can introduce duplicate workflows or manual reconciliation steps.

Hidden Costs 

Behind-the-scenes expenses can quickly accumulate. Manual data entry, error correction, and support tickets consume valuable time and distract skilled team members from more critical work. Onboarding new trading partners sometimes moves more slowly than expected, delaying revenue and straining vendor relationships.

Over time, the EDI team may also spend more hours managing exception handling and partner-specific configurations, leaving less time for improvements that support evolving business needs.

Infrastructure and Opportunity Costs 

Businesses managing on-premise systems face expenses for a range of items, such as server maintenance, security, compliance updates, and backup protocols. Meanwhile, when IT teams are involved in EDI operations, their availability to support more strategic initiatives within the organization decreases.

Legacy systems also tend to drive up total EDI costs over time, especially when customized integrations, outdated communication protocols, or limited scalability force companies into workarounds or dependence on third parties. These limitations go beyond the technical and make their way into budgets.

Signs That EDI Is Straining Your Budget

Even when costs aren’t obvious, certain patterns can signal that your EDI environment is putting unnecessary strain on organizational finances. Here are some of the most common red flags:

1. Escalating Transaction or Volume-Based Fees

Many EDI providers charge by transaction or trading partner. While manageable initially, these costs can grow disproportionately as your business scales, especially during peak seasons or expansion periods.

2. Growing Reliance on Third-Party Support

If internal teams can’t make routine changes without outside help, such as onboarding a partner or modifying a map, consultant costs can add up quickly. They also often come with scheduling delays that slow time to value.

3. Increasing Dependence on Internal Support

Frequent support tickets, troubleshooting, and error-handling workflows can pull teams away from strategic projects. Over time, this operational drag becomes a significant hidden cost that can interfere with long-term success.

4. Delayed Trading Partner Onboarding

Long onboarding cycles slow down revenue, delay supply chain coordination, and frustrate vendors. If onboarding a new partner takes weeks or months, it may be time to re-evaluate your EDI system’s flexibility.

5. Accumulated Technical Debt

Highly customized or patched-together EDI systems may have grown unreliable over time. The more businesses rely on hardcoded logic, outdated communication protocols, or legacy interfaces, the harder it is to respond quickly to issues and the more expensive upgrades and maintenance become.

Strategies to Reduce EDI Costs

Cutting EDI costs involves rethinking how data moves through your business. A modern EDI system reduces costs by eliminating complexity, improving efficiency, and scaling without surprises.

1. Shift to an API-First Architecture

Many legacy systems rely on rigid, file-based processes that are expensive to maintain and slow to adapt. API-based EDI platforms allow for faster integration, easier data flow, and real-time visibility, reducing implementation costs and long-term support demands.

2. Choose a Platform with Pre-Connected Trading Partners

Pre-connected networks streamline EDI onboarding, reducing the process to days instead of weeks, without custom maps or expensive consulting hours. These network effects dramatically reduce time-to-value and avoid operational bottlenecks. 

3. Embrace Self-Service Capabilities

Platforms that empower internal teams to manage configurations, mappings, and testing reduce reliance on third parties. This cuts service costs and gives teams greater control over timelines and outcomes.

4. Move to the Cloud

On-premise infrastructure often carries costs for server maintenance, security updates, and compliance. Cloud-based systems shift this burden to the provider, offering scalability, security, and predictable pricing models. 

5. Automate Where It Matters

Automating common processes like purchase order handling or invoice reconciliation reduces manual data entry, minimizes errors, and accelerates throughput. Integration with an ERP system or MRP platform further streamlines your system's capabilities. Over time, this lowers support costs and frees up internal bandwidth while improving data quality and consistency across business processes and data exchange with trading partners.

Why Modern EDI Platforms Like Orderful Win on Cost

Reducing EDI costs requires both targeted savings and strategic budget decisions. Modern EDI systems are designed to eliminate inefficiencies that make traditional EDI so expensive to maintain and time-consuming to scale.

Unified, Cloud-Native Architecture

With a modern EDI platform, there’s no need to manage siloed tools or patch together point solutions. A unified platform offers centralized control, faster updates, and seamless integration with other business systems. Cloud-based infrastructure also eliminates server maintenance and upgrade cycles, offering predictable, usage-based pricing.

Faster Onboarding, Faster ROI

Legacy onboarding cycles can take weeks or months. Orderful accelerates this process through pre-connected trading partners, intuitive workflows, and self-service tools. The result is faster revenue capture, reduced resource strain, and a measurable decrease in time-to-value.

Built-In Scalability

As transaction volume grows or new trading partners are added, modern EDI platforms scale without introducing new licensing, infrastructure, or manual workflows. This flexibility keeps operational costs on track with actual usage instead of locking businesses into rigid pricing tiers.

Transparent Cost Structure

Modern EDI providers are rethinking the pricing model altogether. With predictable subscription fees and fewer surprise charges, such as support calls, connector upgrades, or custom configurations, leaders can plan with confidence and avoid runaway expenses.

Real-World Results

Organizations that move to a platform with predictable pricing like Orderful often see immediate savings in onboarding time, support overhead, and infrastructure costs. More importantly, they gain the agility to respond quickly to trading partner demands, market shifts, and internal growth.

Example Case: Food Manufacturer Achieves 50% Reduction in EDI Costs

Leading private-label food manufacturer 8th Avenue Food & Provisions faced challenges with its legacy EDI system. They were experiencing prolonged partner onboarding times, and their current system wasn't keeping up with their business needs. 

By transitioning to the Orderful cloud-native EDI platform, they streamlined operations significantly, with notable results. They saw a 50% reduction in EDI costs, a 50% decrease in required EDI resources, and a 50% faster onboarding process for trading partners. 

8th Avenue also achieved complete transaction visibility and a threefold increase in time-to-value for new integrations. This transformation enabled them to scale quickly while maintaining positive supply chain relationships.

Rethinking EDI for Long-Term Efficiency

Legacy EDI systems can quietly chip away at budgets through a mix of visible fees and hidden inefficiencies. Licensing costs, manual processes, onboarding delays, and infrastructure overhead all add up, making it more difficult for organizations to scale efficiently.

Modern, API-first EDI platforms like Orderful offer a way forward. With built-in scalability, seamless partner onboarding, and transparent pricing, these EDI solutions help reduce the total cost of ownership without sacrificing capability or control. MRP or ERP system integrations let organizations expand their current EDI capabilities.

Speak to an EDI expert today for a closer look at where your EDI costs are coming from and how to reduce them.