Making sense out of EDI 852 data

We have been contacted by many vendors to major retailers in the past two weeks, looking for a solution to EDI 852 reporting.  It's not surprising since many major retailers send the EDI data out and simply hope vendors are able to use the data in some beneficial manor.  The fact is, most vendors are not in a good position to make this happen.  Especially since most vendors have many retail customers, all of which have different EDI templates and reporting requirements.  What a mess.

What is the point of making sales and inventory data available to suppliers if the data is unusuable, or inaccurate?

To make sense out of EDI 852 data requires a reporting tool capable of presenting summarized views (e.g. sales by month for each SKU and store) and then drill down capability to investigate problems.  In addition, a solid reporting tool needs to provide exception based management of the data.  This provides the vendor the ability to ingrain business logic like min and mix inventory turns and then be notified when something is out of whack. 

If you are struggling with EDI 852 data reporting, take solice.  You are not alone.