As I was thinking of a topic for this blog, I focused on some of the things that I tend to get heated about in the EDI consulting world. That didn’t take but a few minutes…

Europe has an excellent example of a store chain where ELECTRONIC COMMERCE is King. It is called Shecklers (www.schlecker.com) . It is referred to as a “drug store” (pharmacies here are just pharmacies….no shoe polish, potato chips, etc). So Shecklers is a variety store, dollar store, convenience, you get the idea.

I’m sure all of you have heard of both the success and failure of companies outsourcing their EDI development and support to offshore IT consulting firms.

  We all know the metaphor about the 800-lb Gorilla, or the large customer who gets his way.  Dealing with these brutes can be quite the challenge, especially given the delicate politics of the situation.

Last BLOG I wrote about the French Riviera I focused on the high tech park in Sophia-Antipolis. This time I will introduce the Principality of Monaco. It is tiny: just 430 acres, or less than a square mile in size. Only about 5,000 of its roughly 30,000 residents are Monégasque citizens; the rest are French, Italian, and other foreigners who have come to Monaco for work, fun, and tax breaks.

While most of us are familiar with all the aspects of electronic commerce as it exists in North America (EDI, XML, ANSI, etc), we sometimes think the rest of the World is different and maybe not as sophisticated. I'm not going to try and cover the whole World (today anyway), but just my little niche: the French Riviera (where I happen to live).

As someone who earns a living in EDI and as an avid blogger, I am excited to begin what I hope to be a long line of interesting and helpful posts within the realm of Electronic Data.  Like yourselves, I have logged several years of "doing EDI" in one capacity or other, and have both the scars and success stories to show for it.  Like most of the EDI relationships I've set up, my posts will probably be "non-standard".   :)