It is interesting to me the diversity in the titles of the people I speak with that deal with EDI at different companies.  From EDI Analysts, EDI Managers, EDI Directors, CIOs to CFOs, VPs of Sales, Business Development Managers, and Business Analysts, they are all affected by EDI one way or another.  They have all become involved in my conversations with companies that are in the process of architecting, planning, or evaluating their EDI environment. 

Gone are the days when EDI was simply lumped in with the IT Department and rarely had representation or consideration at the C-Level Executive Roundtable.   Today, with the escalating importance of eCommerce to companies’ bottom lines, EDI is relied upon to increase efficiencies, protect company/consumer data security, and drive revenues.  Therefore, EDI now has a place at that roundtable and is heavily leveraged and relied upon to help shape a company’s eCommerce strategy. 

Whether it be integration with a company’s internal applications or integration with a company’s external business partners, the impact of EDI is clearly emerging from the shadows of some of its IT big brothers.  The revolutionary and expanding capability of EDI technology in the industry continues to evolve and allow for EDI to increase its visibility and importance within a company’s eCommerce initiatives.  So, what is the answer to the question, what drives EDI in your organization, IT or Business?  I believe it is driven by both; a blending of both areas of a company that need to work together to create and execute an EDI and business strategy that helps support an organization’s initiatives.  This is quite a difference from past years and decades and has been a long time coming.

As always, I welcome your feedback or comments.  I can be reached at shulme@remedi.com.

One of the best things about what I do on a daily basis is that I get to talk with clients about their ideas and blueprints for their EDI/eCommerce environments in the near-term and the long-term.  This is the time of the year that strategic planning is high on the priority list for companies as they review and evaluate their current situation.  One of the questions I am most asked of by clients is what my thoughts are on utilizing software in an in-house installation or a virtual capacity.  There are many different flavors to the in-house and virtual possibilities, but for the sake of brevity associated with a blog, let’s use these terms as general terms.  In-house referring to having EDI/eCommerce software on-site, installed within your company’s premises versus virtual referring to EDI/eCommerce software installed outside of your company’s premises or hosted by another company that offers this type of service.   As companies evaluate all of the factors that go into this decision, it can lead to quite a difference in opinion within organizations. 

As you dig into the concept of in-house v virtual, it becomes apparent that this is not a decision that can be reached quickly.  As in any decision, you start to realize that there are many layers as you begin to evaluate your options.  This is not only a decision that impacts IT but it also impacts many other business units within your organization.  Careful consideration must be taken to understand the difference between the two options and how it will impact your EDI/eCommerce environment in terms of overall control and maintenance of your environment, risk management, trading partner relationships, and return on investment, just to name a few. 

The answer to this question is not a simple one, but there is comfort in knowing that there is a solution available for every company based on each company’s particular needs.  The advancements made in technology and the options available are growing weekly and yearly.  Be diligent in your process to understand what option is best for your EDI/eCommerce environment and organization. 

As always, I welcome your comments and feedback.  I can be reached at shulme@remedi.com.

As we kickoff 2012, REMEDI is busy putting in motion our company plans for 2012 that we developed in planning sessions in 2011.  Many of you may have completed your planning for 2012 or may currently be in planning mode for 2012, which brings me to the question, what are your top 5 EDI and eCommerce initiatives for 2012?  Through conversations with our clients, I have been able to identify 5 very important EDI/eCommerce initiatives that they are attempting to tackle in 2012.  These are in no particular order but are the 5 initiatives that were the most consistent across everyone that I spoke with late in 2011. 

1.  Improve processes and efficiencies within their EDI environment

2.  Upgrade/implement/migrate to new tools that will allow them to improve processes and efficiencies most effectively

3.  Gain better visibility into their eCommerce data and understand better how that data impacts their business

4.  Evaluate/re-evaluate their current EDI application(s) and how it fits into their long-term vision of their corporate eCommerce strategy

5.  Initiate a long term eCommerce strategy and investigate and understand how new EDI/eCommerce technologies impact that strategy both now and into the future

It was interesting to hear how important it was for companies to take a look at their own internal environment, evaluate what was working or not working for them currently, and how to improve upon it or simply start over with a new EDI/eCommerce strategy.  It is great to see that companies are moving forward and actively making business-critical, long-term decisions based on the new eCommerce technologies now available.  It seems that EDI is finally entering a new level of acceptance within business units of companies and is now being recognized as a critical, strategic piece of the eCommerce puzzle.

I would love to hear feedback about your top 5 EDI/eCommerce initiatives for 2012.  Please feel free to contact me directly at shulme@remedi.com.

Although it has been a while since I was involved in the techy parts of EDI, I still remember getting implementation guides from trading partners that were so different you questioned what part of the standards were standard.  We did some very creative things in the map and pre and post processing to get a customer the data they demanded

When I started my career in EDI, I worked for Owens Corning and I remember dealing with CIDX, TDCC, and VICS “standards”. Then I moved on to work for Alco Health Services (which is now AmerisourceBergen) and we used “standards” developed by NWDA, HIBCC, and UCS.

Although we use the term standard when referring to trading partner and industry specific X12 implementations, in reality, each of those groups developed an implementation guide, which is a subset of the X12 standards, based on that particular company or industry’s needs and business practices.

I think when people hear the word standard, they envision something more rigid and strict, but the definition of standard is “a structure built for or serving as a base or support“.   By this definition, the X12 standards really are standard.

For this project, our client was a national provider of wireless, voice, and broadband services to business and residential customers.

Client Challenge

Our client was under a tight deadline to replace a version of Connect:Enterprise that was to be sunset.  With significant file transfer volume running in a production environment, the prospect of being on an unsupported version was not a risk the client was willing to accept.  Additionally, the client wanted to upgrade to a managed file transfer solution that possessed exemplary monitoring, control, security, and audit / compliance / service level agreement support.

Our Solution

First, we provided an expert in Sterling File Gateway (SFG) who reviewed the current installation (the client had already installed SFG) and tuned the system for performance.  Next, an overall data flow design was developed.  When the flow was finalized, a plan was put in place to migrate the 450+ trading partners from Connect:Enterprise to Sterling File Gateway.  Next the technical work was done – creating templates,  PGP server install, configuration match with Sterling Secure Proxy and SFG, and testing. The final part of the project was training employees.

The Results

A successful migration of the partners from Connect:Enterprise to Sterling File Gateway!

Techy stuff…

• Hardware(and OS): Unix
• Software(and version): Sterling File Gateway v2.1, Sterling Control Center, Sterling Secure Proxy v1.2, Sterling Connect:Direct v4.1.00
• Number of trading partners: 450+

To learn more about this project in detail, please contact us.  To learn more about our Sterling B2B Integrator services, please read our product page.

Below is an excerpt from a blog post I read yesterday called 7 Traits Managers Find Irresistible by Steve Tobak.  It is directed towards employees, but I think it applies to consultants as well!

1. You do what it takes to get the job done. This is, or should be, number one on every manager’s list of things they value most in employees. This was one of the first lessons I learned early on and it made a huge difference in my career.
2. You meet your commitments. When you say you’re going to do something by a certain date, folks can set their watch by it. When you say it’ll cost $x, your boss can take that to the bank. You hold yourself accountable so your boss doesn’t have to. Just knowing you’re there reduces your boss’s stress. You challenge the status quo.
3. You’re brave. You realize that business is a full-contact sport and you’re going to take some body blows. You can take some punishment. Competition doesn’t freak you out. Confrontation doesn’t scare you. You don’t shy away from visibility. Rather, you get a charge out of it.
4. You challenge the status quo. You’re genuine, direct, confident, and comfortable in your own skin. You tell it like it is and say what’s on your mind. You don’t drink the Kool-Aid or sugarcoat the truth. You don’t BS; when you don’t know, you say so. Authority doesn’t scare you so you don’t treat your boss or the CEO like a demon from the underworld.
5. You’re an innovative problem solver. You look at things from different angles and turn problems on their side to come up with unique solutions. The harder the problem, the greater the challenge, the more you dig in to find the answer. You live to solve problems.
6. Your razor-like focus. You don’t lose it at the first sign of trouble or complexity. Instead, you’re calm and steady. You stay focused when everyone else is running around like chickens with their heads cut off. You’re an island of order in an ocean of chaos.
7. You’re low maintenance. You don’t whine and complain. You don’t need to have your hand held for every little thing. You don’t take things personally. You’ve got reasonably thick skin. Folks don’t have to walk on pins and needles around you and worry about offending you.

As IT continues to evolve at warp speed, it is imperative to keep the department working at peak efficiency. Upgrades can be costly and can result in downtime, but can also offer features that help your organization be more effective and efficient. So what happens when your software version(s) is no longer supported by the manufacturer? Companies continuing to operate unsupported software may save money in the short-term but open themselves to a risky business scenario, particularly when running mission critical ERP, EDI, B2Bi, and MFT applications that are past End of Fix, End of Support, and End of Life time periods.

What are risks and costs of using unsupported software?

1. Operational failure
2. Loss of functionality or flexibility of product
3. Legal and regulatory issues
4. Security vulnerabilities
5. Difficulty integrating with other systems
6. Increased support issues
7. Breaches of contract
8. Service Level Agreement issues

Application rationalization is a simple first step to analyze the current architecture to determine redundant applications, overlapping functionality, and software that is not exactly current. As more companies move into a service-oriented architecture implementation, this analysis is a cost-effective way to ensure that the IT resources are utilized in the most efficient manner.

How do redundant systems come about anyway? Often clients implement replacement systems with new initiatives being first in line. They have the best intentions of converting processing from old legacy systems to the new systems as time and budget permit. And in more than a few instances this conversion just never takes place. The result, system redundancy and overlaps in functionality.

What is the next step in the process? Companies spend countless IT dollars to develop plans to upgrade, consolidate or rationalize their integration environment. REMEDI Electronic Commerce Group provides complimentary assessments to assist with project planning and budgeting related to B2B and MFT software upgrades and consolidation. Our upfront plan projects an estimate of time, resources and monetary effort to upgrade/consolidate to a new environment.

We get called quite a bit to do training.  Many clients have internal resources that have come and gone and to get everyone on the same page, they hire us to do customized training.

This client is a distributor and retailer of fashion, luxury, and sports eyewear.

Client Challenge

Our client had DataStage TX software already installed but resources were not familiar with all that the software could do.

Our Solution

We developed a customized training program based on requirements from the client.  We provided a combination of classroom and side-by-side training to 3-5 resources.  The training included materials that the client could use for reference after the course.  All of the exercises covered analysis, mapping, testing, and implementation in real-life integration scenarios as defined by the client.

Basic instruction on the use of the DataStage TX Design Studio components used to define business processes and transform data for use on one system to another.

Training on the following topics:

• Defining data structures
• Defining data properties
• Defining data components
• Validating data definition
• Building in additional validation
• More about mapping
• Functional maps
• Functional map wizard
• More efficient type definitions
• Error handling
• Map optimization
• Map execution
• Text file importer

Training on the concepts and techniques necessary to optimize and improve the performance of maps and solve complex transformation problems included the following topics:

• Art of the type tree
• Art of the mapping rule
• Using router maps
• Using Internet and utility adapters
• Optimizing performances
• Creating custom reports from the audit log

The Results

Not including preparation time, the training was delivered in one week with follow-up consultations via phone for a few weeks after delivery.

The training was delivered successfully and REMEDI was invited back in to assist with some highly complex 837 maps after the training engagement.

To learn more about this project in detail, please contact us. To learn more about our WebSphere services, please read our product pages.

This project was very typical of many projects we get…installing Sterling B2B Integrator.  The client manufactures tape in the United States with sales globally.

Client Challenge

The client was in a sticky (ha, ha) situation…how to install and configure Sterling Integrator (SI) 5.0 in a clustered environment?

Our Solution

The obvious solution…install and configure Sterling Integrator   In addition, we wanted to provide a maintenance plan, and make sure the client understood how the system was setup and how to keep it running smoothly.

The Results

The deliverable was the installation, configuration, and documentation of an SI 5.0 clustered (2-node) environment.  In addition, we tested for load balancing and failover, the application server(s) were tuned to optimize performance, and the interface adapters were configured and tested.

We developed a system maintenance and monitoring plan to ensure ongoing operational stability.

We conducted an environment review and knowledge transfer session to educate client resources on system administration.

Outsourcing this project allowed the client’s resources to focus on the implementation and migration phase of the project.

Techy stuff…

• Hardware(and OS): Windows 2003
• Software(and version): Sterling Integrator (GIS) v5.0
• ERP: SAP

To learn more about this project in detail, please contact us.  To learn more about our Sterling B2B Integrator services, please read our product page.

Well, I haven’t done a good job of doing a case study each week.  Actually a miserable job…I only lasted one week!  I have now put it on my calendar (I know, this should have been done before).

This case study will focus on a project we did converting Gentran: Server Unix Visual Maps to Sterling Integrator Maps using the X-Link Conversion Engine tool.

Client Challenge

The food and food service distribution company was running both Gentran: Server for Unix and Sterling Integrator.  The maps from Gentran: Server do convert to Sterling Integrator Maps, but there can be some tweaks, so each map must be tested.  This lengthy process of testing over 120+ maps seemed daunting so it was delayed.  The distribution company wanted to eliminate maintenance and support on two systems.

Our Solution

We came to the table with X-Link, which is a product that converts Gentran Visual Maps to Sterling Integrator Maps.   Manual map unit testing, end-to-end testing, and tweaking can take up to 24 hours per map to complete and X-Link can reduce this time by as much as 80%.

The Results

We used the X-Link Conversion Engine to perform a proof of concept conversion on 4 maps of varying complexity.  The client elected to perform the finalization of the converted maps internally by completing map logic for functions in the Visual Mapper not supported in the Sterling Integrator mapper, updating Sterling Integrator code lists, and testing to ensure maps produced similar results as Visual Maps.

After a successful proof of concept, we converted the remaining 123 maps. The maps were converted and returned to the client in less than one day.   The maps were reviewed internally with an average time of 2-4 hours per map.

Techy stuff…

• Hardware(and OS): Unix
• Software(and version): Gentran Server for Unix 6.1, Sterling Integrator (GIS) v4.2
• Number of maps: 120+

To learn more about this project in detail, please contact us.  To learn more about our Gentran or Sterling B2B Integrator services, please read our product pages.