When you decide it is time to leave legacy EDI VAN providers behind, the first questions are often about risk and speed. How disrupting is the switch? How long before you are live on the new platform—and how do you know things will just work? Based on our experience supporting professionals who manage EDI at scale and are tired of bloated fees and inconsistent or hard-to-reach support, here is what a fast, low-risk EDI VAN migration looks like from the inside.
Years ago, EDI migration projects seemed destined to take months. Today, you can expect to go from quote to go-live in weeks, without business interruption. Speed is achievable because of four factors:
You start by reaching out through a web form, email, or phone call. We respond quickly—usually the same business day. You provide the basics: a current invoice (for document traffic estimates) and the protocols and trading partner list you use. Our team reviews it for free and calculates your exact kilo-character usage. This matters, because many VANs still round usage or rely on fuzzy tiers. You get a clear quote, and you see right away if the switch will cut your costs. Most of our customers save between 40% and 80% compared to their legacy bills. We guarantee there are no setup, migration, or mailbox fees, and you always get a 90-day free trial.
Your kickoff call goes straight to the details. We ask for a breakdown of your mailboxes, EDI IDs, protocols in use (such as AS2, SFTP, REST API), and an exported list of trading partners and document flows. If you work with ERPs like SAP or Oracle, we take note of integration points. We often hear from CFOs and IT leads during this stage, and together we outline project goals—like ensuring zero downtime, transparent billing, and future scalability.
This is a detailed process, but not one that drags on. We document every trading relationship, mailbox, and Global Location Number (GLN) that needs to migrate. You help confirm which document flows are mission-critical, and which can wait. If you prefer a phased migration, moving by division or by trading partner, we help plan that. If you want a clean cutover, we prepare a full migration in a short window. Every detail—partner connections, mailbox names, even archiving rules—gets mapped.
We configure your new mailboxes to match what you have now. There is no arbitrary limit on IDs or mailboxes. All routing changes for partners on other VANs are coordinated for you. If you use fulfillment features (like label generation or packing slip automation), this is the stage where we integrate those. Data translation, if needed (say, to move between X12 and EDIFACT, or to push files into SAP), is handled transparently here, using your requirements as the starting point.
Trading partners are notified and routing tables are updated—this is almost always invisible to their systems. For the rare cases where an external test is needed, we work directly with the partner technical contact to confirm. We encourage joint testing with your most critical partners, running purchase order, invoice, and ASN cycles through the new VAN with real samples.
We focus on real-world scenarios, not just test scripts. Connectivity, document transformation, and partner acceptances are checked. If you are using our management portal, we take time to run your team through searching, archiving, and alert features. Any issues show up here—missing mappings, timing bugs, unexpected rejections from a partner—and are resolved before you go-live. Our SOC-2 compliant infrastructure adds a layer of confidence regarding security.
Go-live is set for a window that fits your operations, often a weekend or low-traffic period. All routing flips to the new VAN. We monitor for missing documents or unexpected bounces in real time. You continue to see your traffic and partner flows through the migration dashboard. The hypercare phase lasts as long as needed—usually days to a week—until all your partners and teams are confident in the new process.
The perception that EDI migrations are risky comes from old pain points—partners dropping off, missing documents, or days of downtime. Providers like us have eliminated these in several ways:
This is not aspirational. It is proven in the field. Many customers arrive at go-live surprised by how little drama there is—documents move, partners connect, and there is clarity in the invoices.
While reducing risk comes first, most customers switch because of pricing. We only bill for the exact data you transmit. Our tiered pricing gives you a predictable footprint, and as you scale, your kilo-character price drops. There are no overages or compliance fees. Companies that take the time to compare their old VAN bills to their first Nexus VAN invoice usually realize just how inflated previous pricing models were. For a breakdown of common VAN fees and billing confusion, see common EDI VAN fees explained.
Once you are live, you retain control and visibility:
With the migration complete, you can revisit internal processes. Some clients use real cost savings to unlock additional EDI automation in the supply chain. Others reinvest in improving ERP integration or onboarding new divisions and partners more smoothly.
If you are dealing with hidden fees or unpredictable support, it is often better to move before these issues affect business continuity. You can learn more about planning a seamless transition in our deeper dive on minimizing risk and downtime during vendor transitions.
Migrating to a new EDI VAN does not have to be a long siege or a leap into the unknown. With an experienced provider, a playbook built around transparency, and a team that values your margin as much as you do, the process is measured in weeks, not quarters.
If you are ready to see your true costs, get responsive support, and reduce your EDI bill, you can schedule a demo or contact a migration specialist at nexusvan.com.
