The duties of a caddie (Consultant) are often overlooked. Of course the caddie carries the golfers (Client) clubs, but knowing the player (Client), the multi-faceted bag of tools for the game (Business/System Integration), and the course (Client Industry) with its subtle nuances, are also primary duties of a caddie.

Well, things are a little different now. For those of you who became EDI project managers in the last few years, pay attention. Projects are not something “nice to have”, they are “we must have”. The budget is tight. Act like the assigned budget is your own money.

Even before you get hired, express this attitude to the hiring managers. Continue to explain to both the IT organization and

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.

As a long time service provider in the EDI and EAI (business and data integration) arena, we have experienced the integration toolset and terminology evolution. Those that have been in the business and data integration world for the last 10 to 15 years know today’s world is similar to that of the past, yet in many other ways today is very different.
(By Brad Loetz - REMEDI Electronic Commerce Group)

A lot of the speed of the ability of your trading partners to get up and running on your document does revolve around how quickly your trading partner can get the process running on their side, with their own internal policies, programs and systems. Could be that they're already "booked" for testing and compliance for the next 9 months and they don't do any changes to the system at the end of the year. So now you're looking at 2010 before you can get them tested, let alone into production. Setting up an EDI trading partner is a painful experience. Not because it is technologically difficult, perhaps boring, but not difficult.

EDI Roll-out is my favorite area of concentration. Would like to pass on some issues/concerns from a company just getting into the EDI arena:
"My company is in the process of getting EDI up and running. We plan to do extensive parallel testing with our first 5 trading partners to ensure everything is working properly.
I was wondering how long it would take to start rolling out other trading

Looking at "Beyond Simple SaaS" written by Scott Koegler:
"Over the last few weeks, I've heard a bit of rumbling about advanced uses of EDI data to deliver information in formats not usually associated with traditional EDI applications. Who knew that EDI could be useful for more than processing orders? After a few readers sent email queries about a press release from SPS Commerce, about some upcoming service offerings, I decided to investigate further, to see if what they were touting might be the real thing. One of the interesting propositions SPS has put forward is its ability to deliver analytics to its customers without the customer having to do any additional work, or collect any additional data."

This week, I have been visiting the GXS facility in Maryland (just north of Washington DC) for some EDI-related training and discovered an interesting bit of trivia. GXS' facility was originally built in the 1970s by National Geographic Magazine. This building has a unique architectural style not uncommon to many of the government buildings found in and around the metro-DC area.

ec-bp.org - ec-bp - E-Commerce Best Practices and EDI on LinkedIn is a brand new concept. How is it doing?

I took a look at the discussion topics that have appeared since inception. Continuing  my last month discussion on who should own EDI, I tried to evaluate each discussion as to whether it is a business issue or a technical issue.

The recent post by Tracy Loetz: "Technical or Business?" and the post by Mike Kelly on "Maximum Overdrive" were great and are serving to set the stage for me to talk about my favorite hot button: WHO OWNS EDI IN A COMPANY.