My piece the other day on the OpenText CEO being replaced caused a surprising amount of outreach from former employees and folks I have met in my nearly 20 years of working and writing about the supply chain space. Something is definitely afoot, and my outreach to contacts in the industry confirms it.
For decades, electronic data interchange (EDI) has been the quiet backbone of global supply chains. But after a decade of pouring resources into internal integration and ERP modernization, companies are starting to look outward again, and they do not like what they see.
Legacy EDI networks, once considered unassailable, are now showing their age. Closed systems, brittle architectures, and a lack of modern APIs have turned many of these platforms into obstacles rather than enablers. The result is a wave of enterprises rethinking their approach to supply chain connectivity and turning to iPaaS-driven, API-first networks.
A Decade of Internal Systems Integration Paves the Way
Whether it is cloud platforms or their marketplaces like NetSuite and Salesforce, or iPaaS deployments, it is clear that digital transformation is well on its way to delivering the promises foretold for some. Enterprises invested heavily in internal digital transformation with modern ERPs, workflow automation, and low-code platforms. The goal was to streamline operations and break down data silos.
That investment worked internally. But it also raised expectations. Today’s IT and operations leaders expect the same agility and transparency from their external B2B networks that they have achieved internally. Legacy EDI networks built around closed protocols, rigid onboarding, and costly professional services simply cannot keep up.
Why the Legacy Leaders Are Losing Ground
Three of the industry’s biggest incumbents illustrate this shift:
- IBM has doubled down on massive, complex implementations that cost millions as bolt-ons to legacy systems, with little true innovation or transformation. While this fits global megacorps, it leaves mid-market and fast-scaling firms underserved.
- OpenText has treated its EDI business like an ATM, focusing on cost cuts and margin extraction. Service levels and innovation have suffered, driving customers to explore alternatives.
- SPS Commerce and True Commerce are increasingly seen as fragmented portfolios of acquired products, offering inconsistent user experiences and limited scalability. Introductory products often require customers to move to an entirely different platform when they outgrow them.
In short, these platforms are stuck, and their customers know it. Some historical players, like Cleo, have begun modernizing their stacks and may benefit from the shift.
The Rise of iPaaS Models Being EDI-Ready
While legacy networks struggle to modernize, a new generation of nimble, cloud-native platforms is gaining ground fast. Innovators like Boomi, Orderful, Celigo, and Axway are no longer just peripheral integration tools. They are becoming full-fledged connectivity hubs for global supply chains. The iPaaS space still has some vendors playing catch-up in B2B. Workato and SnapLogic have limited capabilities according to a recent Forrester Wave, while mid-tier players like Jitterbit and MuleSoft are still working to expand API support and network connectivity.
What sets the innovators apart is their focus on EDI and supply chain onboarding. These platforms offer intuitive developer experiences, self-service onboarding, and real-time visibility into every transaction. They can connect new partners in hours instead of months, and they scale effortlessly across regions, regulatory frameworks, and industry standards.
This combination of speed, flexibility, and reach stands in stark contrast to the monolithic, service-heavy models of legacy stalwarts like IBM and OpenText. As these agile networks continue to mature, they are well positioned to take market share from the incumbents. Players like Loren Data, with their API-first ECGrid platform, are also positioned for success as this market upheaval continues. Other legacy vendors have begun acquiring assets and modernizing, such as Cleo, while startups like Crstl and Justransform are making interesting plays into the legacy EDI space.
What It Means for Enterprises
The message is clear: the old EDI playbook no longer works. Businesses that cling to legacy networks risk falling behind, while those that embrace modern, API-first connectivity gain speed, resilience, and control.
Digital transformation does not end at your four walls. It extends across your entire trading network, and the next decade belongs to companies that treat EDI as a strategic platform, not a sunk cost.
Legacy EDI networks are closed, service-heavy systems built around rigid protocols and long onboarding cycles. iPaaS platforms are API-first, cloud-native, and self-service oriented, enabling faster partner onboarding, real-time visibility, and easier integration with modern ERPs and apps.
After a decade of internal digital transformation, enterprises expect external B2B connectivity to match their internal agility. High costs, brittle architectures, and slow change cycles in legacy EDI stacks push teams to consider API-first alternatives that scale quickly and transparently.
With reusable mappings, prebuilt connectors, and self-service portals, iPaaS can reduce onboarding from months to days or hours. Teams can test, monitor, and promote integrations through pipelines instead of waiting on professional services queues.
For most firms, iPaaS modernizes EDI rather than replacing it outright. You still exchange X12/EDIFACT with trading partners, but you manage translations, APIs, and event streams in a unified, cloud-native platform with observability and automation built in.
Legacy models concentrate spend in setup fees and ongoing professional services. iPaaS shifts cost toward usage-based or subscription pricing with lower setup effort. Many organizations see reduced total cost of ownership through faster onboarding and fewer custom projects.
iPaaS platforms typically provide real-time dashboards, message tracing, alerts, and retries out of the box. This improves SLA compliance and speeds root-cause analysis versus ticket-driven black-box support models common in legacy networks.
Modern iPaaS platforms offer fine-grained access controls, audit logs, tokenized API access, encryption in transit/at rest, and compliance certifications (e.g., SOC 2, ISO 27001). These controls are easier to standardize across integrations than bespoke legacy setups.
Start with low-risk trading partners or a single transaction set (e.g., 850/810). Stand up iPaaS alongside current flows, mirror messages, validate parity, then cut over. Expand by segment, using reusable mappings and CI/CD pipelines for repeatability.
Track onboarding time per partner, error rate and mean time to resolution, percentage of flows with end-to-end observability, change lead time (mapping updates), and OPEX tied to integration support and professional services.
Prioritize EDI readiness (X12/EDIFACT), API/event support, self-service onboarding, prebuilt connectors to your ERP/WMS/TMS, strong monitoring and alerting, role-based access, versioned mappings, and transparent pricing aligned to your message volumes.
John Mecke
View More PostsJohn is a 25 year veteran of the enterprise technology market. He has led six global product management organizations for three public companies and three private equity-backed firms. He played a key role in delivering a $115 million dividend for his private equity backers – a 2.8x return in less than three years. He has led five acquisitions for a total consideration of over $175 million. He has led eight divestitures for a total consideration of $24.5 million in cash. John regularly blogs about product management and mergers/acquisitions.
