Esker has acquired a French company specialising in computer-based communications in the EDI Transport and Logistics sector, CalvaEDI. Based in Paris, France it services over 300 customers.

For over 30 years, EDI has allowed businesses to automatically transmit business information (e.g., orders, invoices, shipping orders, etc.), significantly reducing costs, while increasing the reliability of the data exchanges.

Until now, for reasons related to implementation challenges, EDI has primarily benefited very large companies operating in industries with very high volumes and integration levels (e.g., retail, automotive, chemistry, etc.). 

The Internet, together with legislative and regulatory changes on the exchange of invoices in the public and private sectors in Europe, is raising EDI’s profile in businesses document process automation strategy.

Esker believes that EDI will increasingly complement technologies typically implemented by customers in their automation projects. The company plans to open up the use of these technologies to smaller businesses and to companies in other industries, both through targeted acquisitions and agreements with technology partners.

CalvaEDI will continue to operate under its own name as a separate entity from Esker. New services will gradually be jointly developed in order to accelerate CalvaEDI’s growth and to offer Esker customers, particularly those who have automated the order-to-cash cycle, the benefit of EDI technology integration.