Re: Walmart EDI

[Tom Hightower <tomh5480@xxxxxxxxx>]

Jeffrey Lee said the following on 12/28/2004 6:17 PM:
> Has anyone set up EDI with Wal-Mart? If so could you please let me know 
> of any quirks or things that might make this a difficult project? Also 
> if it is possible to get an example invoice or something along those 
> lines it would be helpful.
>
> Thanks,
> Jeff

<WALMART RANT ON>
One thing that'll make this more difficult than it needs to be: 
Wal*Mart.  To use cliches: They're the 800-pound gorilla; what they say 
goes; it's their way or no way.  To trade with them via EDI, YOU have to 
meet THEIR requirements, there is no vice-versa.  If they decide to 
change their way of doing things (which they have done in the past), 
you'll have to accomodate them; if you change your way of doing things, 
they will NOT change to accomodate you.
<WALMART RANT OFF>


We've used ExTol software to create the EDI documents. The we FTP the 
EDI documents file to an external AS2 server, which then does the actual 
document transfers with Wal*Mart.  Wal*Mart sends 997's back to our 
AS2Server, which FTP's it back to the 400. I have an hourly job which 
scans for any pending inbound transactions (PO's, 997's, that sort of 
thing), and runs ExTol batch programs to process them. My experience is 
that ExTol tech support is excellent.


A couple of years ago, Wal*Mart gave us the AS2 software to install on a 
server, with enough licenses to work with Wal*Mart and the software 
developers. The AS2 software was written and supported by a Dallas-based 
company called iSoft. We've since purchased additional iSoft licenses so 
we could trade with other partners via AS2. The iSoft folks were quite 
helpful in getting it working properly (as long as you don't tell the 
first-level tech your running it on Win2K, that is).


Here's a sample invoice:

ST*810*000000001~
BIG*20041224*001218348~
REF*IA*123456789~
N1*SF*OUR·COMPANY·-·AUSTIN~
N1*ST*WAL-MART·#290*UL*0078742002835~
N3*VENDOR·#468223*P.O.·BOX·215~
N4*GONZALES*TX*78629~
ITD*05*3****20050123*30~
DTM*011*20050123~
FOB*PP~
IT1**60*EA*.67**UI*04127197107~
PID*F****7#·CTL~
TDS*4020~
ISS*60*EA~
CTT*1~
SE*16*000000001~

Good Luck

Tom