B2B Data Integration and Transformation Blog

Surprisingly, EDI training requests continue to lead our inbound service requests. This has been the case for as many years as I can remember. The circumstances that lead to training requests and engagements vary from training turnover/termination backfills and expansion of staff, to product training on newly acquired EDI and business integration tools, to rogue outsourcing firms that land contracts then need to figure out how to get staff trained on all things EDI. Read More

What happened in the World of EDI in the last decade?

Well, at the end of the 1990's there was a lot of talk about “Is EDI Dead?” It was going to be replaced by XML. VANs were going to be replaced by AS2. Everybody can do EDI over the WEB! At the end of the decade, we were all tied up with Y2K (gee! I was even an AIAG-certified inspector!). In 2000, the “bubble burst” on a lot of the “go-go” Internet companies. Some lasted a year or two until their venture capital $$$ ran out. Some even survived. We thought it would be a transition to a perfect world where everyone communicated together in a paperless environment. But we thought that too when we went from the 1980's to the 1990's. Some things did get better then. Anybody remember when they had to recompile an entire EDI COBOL program everyime you added a partner or even changed the specs? Read More

It is no doubt that these are turbulent times. Layoffs. Downsizing. Cut-backs. Everyone trying to do more with less.

Sadly, many companies have a resource that remains untapped in their very own company....data. Each year millions of dollars, time and potential opportunities will be lost worldwide because companies have not realized the potential of the data they and their trading partners have.

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We've been tracking the increase in EDI activity over the first months of 2009. From my own intuition and from your comments, this increase is counter to what any of us expected. At this point however, there seems to be an identifiable trend in the traffic, and it certainly wasn't from a source I expected.

What's been reported to me only goes to strengthen the idea that this world is increasingly a global trading community. If we didn't already have evidence of the interconnectedness of the international trading community, the coordinated decline in our mutual economies brings the phenomenon into focus. What's interesting is the way trading relationships have changed over the last few months. Read More

For those attending the U Connect 09 conference in Orlando, the event is just around the corner. We are excited to be attending and exhibiting another year at the conference. Our goal in these economic times, like that of the conference, is to help clients integrate more effectively up and down the supply chain by utilizing new and existing solutions to save costs and increase efficiencies. While these objectives exist under any economic circumstances, they are especially necessary in these times.

We welcome the opportunity to meet with you at U Connect 09.

Come see us in Orlando June 2, 3, 4, at the Orlando World Center Marriott Resort & Convention Center, booth #206. Read More