Compare what each approach asks of the customer
| Approach | Typical input | Customer requirement | What still needs attention |
|---|---|---|---|
| Manual entry | Messages, calls and documents | Keep current ordering habits | Staff capacity, interpretation and data entry |
| OCR within a document workflow | Images and scanned documents | Send sufficiently readable documents | Mapping extracted text to products, units and order fields |
| EDI | Agreed structured business messages | Establish and maintain a compatible exchange | Partner onboarding, mappings, validation and exceptions |
| B2B portal | Customer-selected catalogue items | Place orders in the portal | Customer adoption, catalogue setup and commercial rules |
| AI order intake | Supported messages, files and voice inputs | Provide enough information in supported channels | Catalogue matching, uncertainty and validated system delivery |
These approaches can coexist
A distributor can use EDI with large trading partners, a portal with customers who prefer self-service, and AI intake for requests that still arrive through messages or files. OCR may be a component of a larger document-processing solution. Avoid comparing a single OCR step with an entire AI order workflow as if they were identical products.
Choose by your actual order mix
A portal can be effective when customers adopt it and catalogue selection solves the problem. EDI can fit stable relationships with compatible systems. AI intake can be useful when varied customer formats create repeated interpretation work. Very small or simple workloads may remain manual. Compare handling effort, setup requirements, exceptions and final ERP output on representative orders.
Ask for evidence
Use the same sample and success criteria when evaluating options. A polished demonstration is not enough to establish customer adoption, reliable SKU matching or a working integration. Test difficult requests and document what happens when information is missing.
Evaluate the same requests across options
Build a representative sample that includes structured documents, informal messages and unclear product descriptions. Check the full path to the business system rather than only the text recognition step.
For each option, record what the customer must change, which data must be maintained, how uncertain items are handled and what manual work remains. A portal that customers already use successfully may be a better fit than adding another intake workflow.
Use EDI where compatible trading partners exchange agreed structured messages. OCR can read text inside a wider document solution. AI intake can address less structured channels. These methods can coexist; none removes the need to validate the complete implementation.