EDI is a big step with lost of decisions. Many of the decisions are open to
negotiation, however if either partner is the "800 pound gorilla" compared
to the other, the negotiation is often very short. The last time I worked
with EDI at a serious level, XML was just beginning to be discussed.
Some of the questions to be considered are:
Are you looking at EDI with a few large partners, or a large number of
partners?
What is the dollar value of the average transaction?
What level of security and reliability are needed for these transactions?
What communications infrastructure do you and your trading partners have?
Will there be many transfers between you and your partners every day, or
will there be only one or two transfers per day?
How will you recover transactions that "go missing"? Orders transmitted but
not received, Invoices sent but not paid, order changes in dispute?
Will you be doing order entry, shipping notices, invoices, payment
authorization? What about tracking orders in transit?
The VANs provided the security, accountability and reliability, along with
the ability to confirm a document or batch of documents were transmitted
and/or received by your trading partners.
The EDI packages provide a common way to translate between your data and
the agreed upon format of the data being exchanged. Partner A might want
invoices to list their name and address, then your name and address, then
the total amount of the invoice, then the details. Partner B might want
invoice to list your name and address, then their name and address, then
detail lines, then the totals. The EDI package is where you do that
mapping. They also take care of tracking data transmission, and the trading
partner acknowledgment of receipt of the data.
EDI package pricing on the System i is typically based on processor size.
Be sure to look at pricing EDI packages on PCs. Doing EDI on a PC does
require more movement of data, but the price difference may be worthwhile.
Good luck with your new adventure!
Steve
- -
Steven Morrison
Fidelity Express
Grizzly Malchow
<grizzlym@norther
nwholesale.com> To
Sent by: "midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx"
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s@xxxxxxxxxxxx cc
Subject
09/30/2009 11:05 Ideas for implementing EDI
AM
Please respond to
Midrange Systems
Technical
Discussion
<midrange-l@midra
nge.com>
I'm looking into ways I can implement EDI at our company. This is my first
foray into EDI and I'm pretty much in the dark about what my options are.
Our ERP package offers an EDI module (at an extra charge), and they suggest
using Inovis. Due to the fact that Inovis appears to be expensive, I will
consider using them as a last resort.
I'm looking for a solution that will handle the EDI translation and VAN
requirements, but communicate with me using some other form of
technology(HTTP/FTP). The ability to FTP xml files back and forth would be
an example of how I'd like to communicate with the EDI company.
Does something like this sound possible?
Thanks,
Griz
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