B2B Data Integration and Transformation Blog

This past week, we celebrated the 4^th of July.  This holiday is often filled with family gatherings, fireworks, cookouts and remembering our Freedoms that we enjoy.  In a recent blog that I read by John C. Maxwell he states, “I’ve often said that while we can’t choose what happens to us, we can choose how we respond to what happens to us.”  He references one of my favorite quotes by Viktor Frankl. “Between stimulus and response there is a space.  In that space is our power to choose our response.  In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”  You can read more of Mr. Maxwell’s blog at http://www.johnmaxwell.com/blog/celebrating-your-freedoms. 

Last month Remedi in partnership with IBM hosted a 30 minute webinar “coffee break” focusing on the new version of IBM’s Control Center 6.1 visibility software solution.  The coffee break was well attended and we received great interaction and questions from out attendees.  Visibility into data is definitely a hot topic in the minds of our clients, especially with B2B Integration and EDI.  I’m sure this is why our 30 minute webinar was so well attended.  Now that a month or so has passed, I wanted to highlight a few of the talking points covered in the new version of Control Center 6.1.

Think about the planning required for changes affecting the platforms, applications, and data within your department.   Many leaders start by updating an architectural diagram to validate current state, before creating a visual document illustrating future state.

But what about your department’s organizational chart?  Regardless of staff size, do you have a plan on paper that reflects your team’s current state and creates a roadmap for what it will look like in the future?

On Sunday my wife and I went to our local large grocery store chain to get what we needed for the week like every other Sunday.  While walking into the store I saw all the plants for sale outside of the store, with firewood.  I walked in to see all the bakery supplies, flowers, Japanese food bar, the deli, bread aisle, fruit and vegetables etc.  When I looked at the labels, I saw that the tomatoes were from Mexico, oranges from Florida, etc.  I wondered, how did all this food from different countries get to one store?  Do all the items just show up at each store?  Is there one person that coordinates all the shipments from the vendors?  The store would have to have an army of employees to coordinate all these orders and shipments.  For them to make money it would have to be automated, right?

I am going to take a time out on my blog series outlining the IBM B2B Integration products and their capabilities.  I'm just not as prepared as I should be, so I'll pick it up next round.