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Tangentia Offers Support for SWIFT 2020 Updates

SWIFT is a messaging network designed to facilitate the global transfer of funds. It works by sending electronic messages from one financial institution to another to notify them when a transfer of funds is made.

Each year, SWIFT updates its service based on changes requested by their customers. This update is the MT Standards release and it ensures the message types (MTs) exchanged by SWIFT users continue to meet their needs, both for existing businesses and new businesses.

The release for 2020 is called the Standards MT November 2020 and includes the following
changes:

Payments MTs to facilitate migration to the ISO 20022 Program and to ensure compliance with regulatory and FAFT requirements
Manual and automated solutions for mandatory payment confirmations
Support for additional security information to be transported in messages as per regulation
Support for local regulatory requirements
Support for local regulatory requirements
Increased structure to messages for both party fields and trade party fields
New features that offer support for changing business processes and new financial instruments
Clarification of definitions to ensure improved consistency in messages and improved automation
Changes agreed to during a fast-track maintenance process

Applying the changes in the SWIFT Standards Release Guide is mandatory for all financial institutions. However, making the required changes can be costly and it is important to balance that cost against the resulting benefits.

Tangentia can help with the update process, ensuring it is as efficient as possible and minimizes costs, while ensuring full compliance. We have extensive experience implementing SWIFT EDI gateways using solutions from IBM WebSphere Transformation Extender (WTX), IBM Sterling B2B Integrator, GXS, TIBCO and others.

Contact Tangentia for more information on SWIFT 2020 updates.

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Tangentia is a Platinum Partner of IBM and well as partners with Automation Anywhere, UI Path, Blue Prism, Adobe, Microsoft, Salesforce, Amazon and leading enterprise software vendors. We work with customers globally with offices in Canada and India to implement their RPA strategies using an agile methodology.
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With 2019 Nearly Over- Where are AI, RPA & EDI going in 2020?

2019 was a significant year for Tangentia. As a recognizable ‘global boutique’ consulting firm that provides bespoke services in Canada, USA and India—we are excited about the progress we saw.

Whether it was our core B2B business of EDI(Electronic Data Interchange) and Ecommerce or the development of our new AI(Artificial Intelligence) and RPA(Robotic Process Improvement) segment, we empowered many businesses to improve their core operations.

But what trends really defined 2019? And which ones will continue to lead the way into 2020?

2019 Was a Milestone Year For Tangentia

2019 was the year we committed to automation through our AI and RPA service offerings. While we had some exposure previously (mostly through providing staffing solutions), we expanded our offerings by creating a new range of services that focused on key problems that businesses face in a multitude of industries. We expanded our partnership with IBM to become a Platinum partner of IBM for Watson AI. Also we are global partners for Automation Anywhere, UI Path and Blue Prism in the RPA space.

We also consolidated some of our legacy services, improving our B2B business segment—which includes our legacy EDI and Ecommerce business. These services continued to grow substantially outside of North America with many significant wins in 2019 in India including India’s largest retailer.

Our global headquarters also moved in Toronto, from Willowdale to the Waterfront district, which saw us join the likes of Google,Uber, LCBO, Royal Bank, and soon Microsoft in what is arguably the fastest-growing tech hub in the world. We are beyond excited to be located in such an innovative area of the city.

How Will 2020 Impact Digital Transformations?

Company accomplishments are important, but the real value is in the lessons we learned from the exciting technologies that we offer.

So, what were the main takeaways from 2019?

Automation Isn’t a Magic Bullet

The RPA industry saw between 600-1000% growth in 2019. These numbers are large and signify that many companies are investing in this technology heavily. Major players in this industry have become unicorns in the investing world as the markets realize the potential that automation has.

However, AI, RPA, automation, and similar technologies aren’t a guarantee. Companies that invested millions into this technology without a plan saw minimal results.

Automation is a catalyst for innovation, but your business needs the right systems in place to take advantage of it. The goal of RPA is to enhance existing systems that are already working. An automation solution will decrease costs, improve efficiency, and other core metrics- but only if an organization understands what areas they need to improve.

It’s important that a company makes small changes that compound over time. We encourage our clients to push for real value and not to fall victim to the marketing pitches that they’ve heard about automation. Our team even has a Continual Process Improvement(CPI) using RPA model that we encourage our customers to try out.

In 2020, we expect to see more companies identify how RPA can help their organization cut costs, improve productivity, and make their business more agile.

EDI Isn’t Dead. It’s Evolving

Yet again, critics made the claim that EDI is dead. But as an EDI solution provider, I can assure you that EDI isn’t going anywhere.

If anything, EDI is evolving and adapting to the digital age. At Tangentia, we see EDI as any B2B communications between two business entities and not through the traditional lens of ANSI X12 or EDIFACT. And while this traditional EDI may be slowing down, XML and API formats aren’t going anywhere—especially in the age of integration. Today, businesses rely on countless apps having the ability to communicate and synchronize flawlessly. This alone will ensure the longevity of EDI as companies look to simplify B2B communications.

Legacy companies will always rely on some form of EDI, while modern startups have the benefit of building out in the digital world. Still, even startups require EDI solutions using either the XML or API formats.

Digital Transformations Matter – But You Must Define What It Means to Your Company

Digital transformation is the buzzword today. Every company is claiming they are making a digital transformation.But what does it really mean?

An effective digital transformation should be all about making incremental changes that drive long-term value and improve the user experience.

For example, a business may use an invoicing system that takes one month to complete. They could realize substantial gains by automating this process down to several days.

One advantage that we can offer our clients is the perspectives we have gained from working in Canada, the United States, and India. We can help companies identify what’s working in one region and find ways to adapt that same technology in another.

Digital transformations aren’t going anywhere in 2020. Successful companies are always looking to modernize and improve the way they connect with customers, employees, and partners. However, we expect to see companies focus more on what their personalized digital transformation looks like.

Where Is Tangentia Going in 2020?

Agile Digital Transformation

Our unique agile approach to digital transformation has allowed us to deliver complex digital transformation projects for the largest beverage alcohol distributor in the world, the largest retailer in India and many mid sized companies worldwide. We will continue to stay true to our belief in the power of the iterative agile delivery model.

Global Boutique

Tangentia is a ‘global boutique’ firm. We know how to execute using a global delivery model with much less overheads than our competitors and that provides our customers with high-end services at a value driven price.

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Interested in Automation but don’t know where to start? Looking for somebody to help maintain, support and enhance your existing bots? Or just want to say hello? Contact us now. We promise a human will answer your query, not a bot.
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Tangentia + Dynamics 365 Business Central – Cloud ERP made easy

The latest trends in the marketplace have shown that companies have begun to be more and more open to keep their data on the cloud. This is fast becoming true with their ERP systems. For Microsoft, it is not just a strategic decision to therefore re-brand their ‘on premise systems’ but a means of keeping up with the competition. Customers these days are not just looking for an ERP system that handles the finance and operations of the company but also embeds ecommerce solutions. This allows for a one stop shop cloud based solution that companies can exponentially benefit from.

Keeping the above in mind Microsoft has introduced ‘Dynamics 365 Business Central’ (formerly known as Microsoft Dynamics Navision) which is available on both “Premise” and on “Cloud.” Business Central offers organizations a single, end to end solution for managing finances, operations, sales and customer service and a solid opportunity to easily upgrade from entry-level accounting software and legacy systems.

Business Central is customizable and brings the full power of Dynamics NAV to the cloud. One of its most telling features – it provides businesses with tools that they can use to analyze their cash flow by analyzing historic data to make predictions for future periods. The cash flow forecast feature is made all the more dynamic as it can utilize the Azure Machine Learning to model various scenarios and provide groundbreaking insights into what to expect for the future. Azure Machine Learning allows the business to extend the time horizon for cash flow forecasts. It has the following models to calculate forecasts:

ARIMA (Auto Regressive Integrated Moving Average)
ETS (Exponential Smoothing State Space)
STL (Seasonal Decomposition of Time Series by Loess)
TBATS (Exponential Smoothing State Space with Box-Cox transformation, ARMA errors, Trend and Seasonal components)

What it does differently is that it applies advanced statistical methods to the historical data to generate data in the future and include that data when calculating the forecast. When we predict receivables or payables, we use the due date as a date field and not the document date or posting date, so we don’t need to define and apply a payment term to the predicted results.

Azure ML is free in Business Central; you just need to turn it on. If you have two years of data, you can expect to forecast values accurately for up to four months. Business Central has introduced a ‘threshold’ factor that can be adjusted in the Cash Flow Forecast setup. The field is called “Variance %” and allow you to specify range of deviation, plus or minus, that you’ll accept in forecast.

The Tangentia Advantage

Tangentia EDI Engine

Tangentia has been at the forefront developing custom integration solutions that has previously connected the client’s Microsoft Navision ERP system to their Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), ecommerce and Warehouse Management Systems. (WMS)
The Tangentia Navision Engine (TNE) has supported MS NAV version 4.0 all the way to MS Dynamics NAV 2018. As of May 2019, Tangentia Navision Engine also seamlessly integrates and connects your EDI trading partners with the Business Central Cloud ERP. TNE has the following features:

Single user interface for all your EDI, WMS and ecommerce needs
Guaranteed EDI connectivity to 2000+ retailers worldwide
Supports ANSI X12, EDIFACT, RosettaNet, cXML, Tradacoms, ebXML etc.
Lifetime EDI Compliance – no additional cost for trading partner mapping changes or label modification
One-time flat EDI integration fee utilized across all trading partners
Highly customizable to meet business processes that might vary from company to company

Tangentia RPA and AI

RPA is making a real impact in enterprise space and empowering knowledge worker by helping them focus on the more meaningful and value-added side of their work and offloading more mundane and repetitive tasks to an RPA powered robot. There is an enterprise workforce revolution underway led by RPA and AI/Cognitive technologies.
There is a plethora of solutions providers in this space, each with its own specialty. However, there are three main vendors that come to mind. They are – Automation Anywhere, Blue Prism and UiPath in alphabetical order. Among these, UiPath is probably the fastest growing since it has recently received funding from big Silicon Valley Venture Capital firms in series C and D rounds.
Gartner predicts that by 2022 worldwide RPA spending will total $2.4B with an expected CAGR upwards of 30% in the next five years.
Here are some of the trends:

Digital Transformation: Traditional businesses are faced with competition from the likes of Amazon, Airbnb, Uber, Google, Microsoft and Facebook to name a few and are forced to change their business models to adapt to the new digital reality.
The rise of the Omni channel: Consumers are increasingly preferring to do their shopping digitally and interact with merchants with minimum touchpoints in a seamless manner across all channels.
Availability of Actionable Data: Digital businesses are able to collect data and actionable insights about their customers in real time and adjust to the market demand accordingly. For example, Uber rates go up if there is a high demand in an area for its rides on account of some event. Similarly, Airbnb is able to hike its listing rates based on the demand in an area.
Scalability: It’s much easier to scale up if you are a digital business. It took much less time for Airbnb and Uber to overtake their traditional counterparts in terms of market size and market cap.
Flexibility: Digital business is more efficient, responsive to customer needs and able to cross-sell.

Tangentia provides end to end implementation services around the three main automation solutions – Automation Anywhere, UiPath and Blue Prism. Some of the benefits of choosing Tangentia are:

A strong commitment to client success over our own.
A rich history of past experience in implementing RPA solutions.
Knowledgeable resources with certifications in RPA solutions.
Strong domain expertise in specialized verticals e.g. BFSI, Healthcare, Telecom, Insurance etc.
A strong partner ecosystem that brings the best of breed solution offering.
A delivery model that is global and based on Agile Methodology and best practices.
A metrics-based approach to ROI.
Good past client references

Identifying and working with a right partner is the most important and crucial step to ensuring a successful RPA journey.

Tangentia Procure-to-Pay

With Tangentia’s EDI, Automation, and Ecommerce services, we can provide a complete streamlined Procure-to-Pay process for the Global enterprise. The Procure-to-Pay (P2P) is an end-to-end process starting with requisitioning goods and services and ending with making payments for them.

The 7 Steps Procure-to-Pay process involves:

Raising the Purchase Order
Vendor confirmation of Purchase Order
Advanced Shipment Notice
Receipt of Goods
Submitting Documents to Finance
Vendor sending Invoice to Customer
Final Payment to Supplier

This apparently simple process can be complex due to legacy systems, and errors from manual entries, leading to unnecessary costs. Implementing an Procure-to-Pay cycle can provide an opportunity to bring efficiency to the process and save costs.

Tangentia Order-to-Cash

With Tangentia’s EDI, Automation, and Ecommerce services, we can provide a complete streamlined Order-to-Cash process for the Global enterprise. Order-to-Cash (OTC or O2C) is the top-level business process for receiving and processing customer orders.

The order to cash process is simple and can be illustrated with the following steps:

Customer sends a purchase order
Vendor creates a sales order
Vendor ships and delivers goods
Vendor sends invoice to customer
Customer pays the vendor

Order-to-Cash systems affect all areas of a business and are critical to operational success.

In a standard system, orders are received via different sales channels, such as phone, emails, fax, online channels or through sales persons. This input complexity added with other manual entries, makes the process error-prone and the system inefficient. Implementing an Order-to-Cash cycle can provide an opportunity to bring efficiency to the process and save costs.

With Tangentia’s EDI, Automation, and Ecommerce services, we can provide a complete streamlined Order-to-Cash process for the Global enterprise.

About the Author

The author, Akash Singh is the Head of Project Management Operations(PMO) at Tangentia. He oversees projects around EDI/ Ecommerce/ RPA and AI from a delivery standpoint ensuring client satisfaction and success.

Tangentia is an expert in implementing Digital Transformation solutions leveraging technologies like RPA, Artificial Intelligence, EDI and Ecommerce.

Tangentia implements solutions around Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central and you can learn more here.

To learn more about Tangentia EDI solutions Click Here

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Interested in Automation but don’t know where to start? Looking for a reliable Automation reseller with the best possible pricing? Looking for somebody to help maintain, support and enhance your existing bots? Or just want to say hello? Contact us now. We promise a human will answer your query, not a bot.
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Six reasons to use Tangentia EDI for Microsoft Dynamics NAV integration

Founded in 2003 in Toronto, Tangentia has grown rapidly to become the leader in Global Boutique technology solutions. Through a ‘Think Global, Act Local” strategy that is implemented via offices in Toronto, Calgary, New York, Goa and Bengaluru, Tangentia has built an impressive roster of 1000+ customers. Rounding up our growth story, Tangentia Inc. has made it to the Profit 500 List of Fastest Growing Companies in Canada for the last 6 years in a row and Tangentia America LLC is now an INC 5000 company.

Tangentia EDI is the oldest of the six divisions of Tangentia; the others being Tangentia Digital, Tangentia Automation, Tangentia Cloud, Tangentia Security, and Tangentia Consulting.

Why should businesses integrate their EDI data with their ERP?

Large enterprises and SMBs that supply to major retailers such as Walmart, Costco, Amazon, Loblaws and Hudson’s Bay are mandated to utilize EDI as a means to exchange business transactions. This enables efficient and secure electronic exchange of business data between them.

To respond to this mandate, each supplier maintains an EDI system that they use to electronically communicate with their enterprise-level customers. Additionally, each organization also maintains their own ERP/Accounting System to manage their business processes and information.

With the huge amount of data that is going back and forth from different sources, it has become a necessity for every business to consider integration between their business applications.

1) Integration automates manual tasks: Enables focus on higher-value tasks rather than data entry.

2) Integration increases shipping & invoice accuracy: Real-time sync from ERP to EDI and vice versa enables accurate order fulfillment.

3) Integration allows quicker turnaround: Speeds up order processing, providing a competitive edge in today’s fast-moving world.

EDI integration has been a complex, time-consuming and resource-intensive process for customers, large and small. Tangentia EDI, through its cloud-based, SaaS offerings such as Tangentia Gateway, Tangentia Grid, and EZ Border Solutions, makes the entire EDI integration process seamless.

Tangentia EDI’s Navision Engine integrates directly with Microsoft Dynamics NAV, and connects businesses with trading hubs in the Retail, Automotive, Logistics, and Industrial sectors.

Six reasons to use Tangentia EDI for Microsoft Dynamics NAV integration:

1) Stability: Backed by the global Tangentia Consulting & Technology Organization

2) Credibility: 75+ Microsoft Dynamics NAV implementations worldwide

3) Flexibility: Integrations to 50+ ERP/WMS/eCommerce systems

4) Reliability: 1000+ EDI customers globally

5) Scalability: Connect to more than 2000+ trading hubs globally

6) No EDI chargebacks: Guaranteed EDI compliance to trading partner specifications

1-877-TANG-BIZ
sales@tangentia.com

How to Pick an EDI Service Provider … Do they have a Karen?

I have worked next to one of the hardest working, most knowledgeable and talented EDI sales and support people in the business for over two years. Her name is Karen and she has been working with Tangentia for close to 5 years. She arrives early and stays late. She has the best attitude and is always willing to put in a little extra effort. In every case, it’s not just a little extra effort but a lot of extra effort. That’s what you want when choosing an EDI provider.
Sitting next to Karen, I am always amazed at how she manages to get so much done. She is always working. She works so hard she literally has to be reminded to go have lunch. There is no one person that I have ever worked with that has impressed me more. Any company would be lucky to have a Karen.
When selecting an EDI provider, most things are the same. The prices are similar. The services are similar. Every vendor wants your business, and you as a client are looking for a secure, scalable solution that just works. If you are thinking about switching EDI service providers, you have your pick. But the question you have to ask yourself is, do they have a Karen?
Without a doubt, Karen leads our customer service team on all accounts. Listening to her laugh, I would say she is probably the happiest person in the world. Customers love her, her colleagues love her, and I’m confident you will, too.
I was asked to write an article to help us sell our EDI services. When I thought long and hard about why I would choose Tangentia for EDI, sure the technology is world-class and setup is easy. You’ll definitely save money and the system is also super user-friendly. But besides that, the real reason I would choose Tangentia is because I know that if I did need support, I could call Karen and she would not only solve my problem, but also put a smile on my face and make my day. This I can guarantee.
So if you are new to EDI and considering your options, or if you are looking for alternatives to your current EDI provider, the question you should ask any vendor is “Do you have a Karen?” Chances are they don’t, because there is nobody like Karen. We are lucky to have her on our team, and you will be, too, when you decide to choose Tangentia as your EDI service provider.
To work with Karen directly and have her setup your company on EDI, just send her an email with your contact details to:
kbriones@tangentia.com
She will promptly call you back and will be so happy it will make you smile.
Thank you, Karen, for all that you do.
We love you.

PS: A note from Karen…
Thank you so much for your kind words. Never did I imagine that I can be blogged about in this lifetime. Your blog submission truly made my day – should I mention it made me tear up a bit? Hehe.
As for the blog requirement, since this could be published on our official blog site, my edit suggestion would be to emphasize the characteristics that all of us at Tangentia share as a team, rather than as individuals. It would be a great opportunity to highlight the things that set our team apart from our competitors which are: our team’s consistent hard work, positive attitude, and going the extra mile to help our customers overcome their challenges.

PPS: As you can see, even when Karen is recognized for her efforts, she goes out of her way to share the credit with the entire team. That’s a real team player.

1-877-TANG-BIZ

sales@tangentia.com

Stories from the last 15 years – Do you want to keep driving trucks or change the world?

Ask most people in Toronto about what they remember about 2003, and many might remember the crippling power outage that shut down most of the North East in August of that year. For me personally, it was the start of Tangentia towards the end of 2003.

I always wanted to start something of my own but the catalyst was when the French company I worked for at that time sold their operations in Canada sans me ( yes I was literally the only employee left in Canada). I decided that if I was going to have to build a business from scratch, might as well do it as an entrepreneur rather than an employee. Throwing caution to the wind, I looked around and found Mohan who was somebody I hired as a java programmer at a previous job in Montreal and who had also moved to Toronto.

Mohan, believe it or not, had got himself a truck driving license and was driving refrigerated containers to Chicago from Toronto! Having been to business school and having read Steve Jobs do the “do you want to sell sugared water all your life” to John Sculley, I asked Mohan “Do you want to drive trucks all your life or change the world” and he agreed to help me during the week and drive his trucks over the weekend. So now I had a programmer and I took on all the remaining positions in the company.

We got our first project which was for a customer in Montreal that wanted us to install an AS2 software on an AS400 and integrate it with their JD Edwards ERP system and they wanted it done ASAP. With no projects in hand, we had to think fast. We asked them if they had their maintenance agreement with IBM up to speed and they said yes. Far from installing software on it, neither Mohan nor I had ever seen an AS400 server but I felt that if somebody could do it then we should be able to do it as well.

It was already past noon in Toronto and the customer wanted the install done the next day in Montreal and we did not budget any travel costs. So this is what we did: Mohan got a rental car and he drove to Montreal – I got hold of IBM support and conferenced Mohan as he drove to Montreal, and we figured out that the AS400 libraries were different from a windows directory etc. However, with Mohan’s strong UNIX background, we were able, over the next 5 hours that it took him to drive to Montreal, to understand what had to be done.

Mohan stayed with his uncle as we obviously had not budgeted a hotel and walked into the customer’s office the next morning. We had a few minor hiccups but before the end of the day the software was installed and the customer who was a large apparel manufacturer was transacting EDI purchase orders and invoices seamlessly with Walmart via AS2. I spoke to the customer a couple of years later and everything was still working as we had installed it!!

We got lucky, as in 2003 Walmart was mandating all their vendors to move their EDI from the VAN ( Value Added Network) to AS2 and we got very busy doing these small migration projects all over North America. This is the origins of the Tangentia EDI & Ecommerce group that 15 years later has 1000+ customers globally including many Fortune 500 companies that outsource their entire B2B Infrastructure and Order Management to us.

Somebody wise once said – the harder you work the luckier you get.

1-877-TANG-BIZ
sales@tangentia.com

Wallgreens is phasing out SupplierNet

Walgreens announced in their March newsletter that they are rolling out their SAP implementation to the Distribution Center (DC) level, and will be retiring SupplierNet EDI portal beginning April 2018. What this means is that all Walgreens vendors are required to use EDI to exchange electronic business data with Walgreens.Walgreens, along with other major retailers worldwide including Walmart, Costco and Hudson’s Bay, utilize EDI to manage a massive amount of business data that they exchange with their suppliers and trading partners. In a typical setting, suppliers who wish to do business with these major retailers are being required to become EDI-compliant to enable them to receive electronic purchase orders and send electronic shipment notices and invoices.

Tangentia’s Tangentia Gateway solution is a web-based EDI solution offering that has EDI connectivity with more than 2000+ trading partner worldwide, making it one door for many opportunities to quickly start doing business with some of the world’s largest retailers. It enables SMB and large enterprise companies to be fully EDI compliant with their trading partners’ requirements at a fraction of time and cost. Tangentia Gateway is hosted and managed on our cloud, running 24×7, and ensuring that all transactions are seamlessly received end-to-end. Tangentia’s award-winning security cloud infrastructure, built in partnership with IBM’s cloud services offers cost-effective enterprise EDI. EDI has never been more secure, more reliable, and consistent in delivering your important transactions.

Tangentia Gateway also helps organizations successfully integrate their EDI data with their ERP/WMS system. We have the experience and flexibility to custom integrate with various ERP/Accounting systems such as NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics NAV, SAGE 300 (formerly Accpac), SAGE 100 (formerly Business Vision), Sage 50 (formerly Simply Accounting), Quickbooks, SAP B1, SAP R/3, SYSPRO, Oracle, AX (Axapta), GP(Great Plains), Acomba, JD Edwards and many others seamlessly. Furthermore, Tangentia Gateway also seamlessly integrates with eCommerce platforms such as Shopify, Magento, and WooComnmerce, which eliminates the need to manually key in data that are coming in from your eCommerce sales channels into your ERP / Accounting system which improves efficiency and faster fulfillment.Once your EDI data is integrated with your accounting system, any change in EDI specifications by one of the trading partners will no longer mean a change in your accounting system. Tangentia Gateway automatically validates product info, shipping data, and internal pricing rules, creating cross-references where necessary, to maintain the integrity of suppliers’ accounting systems and databases.Do reach out to us today to establish your EDI connectivity with Walgreens and more.

1-877-TANG-BIZ

sales@tangentia.com

Tag: edi

Tangentia Offers Support for SWIFT 2020 Updates

Tangentia Offers Support for SWIFT 2020 Updates

Get Started Today

With 2019 Nearly Over- Where are AI, RPA & EDI going in 2020?