| Is The EDI Industry Really Stagnating? |
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| Written by Scott Koegler | |||||||||||||
| Monday, 13 October 2008 | |||||||||||||
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I've been involved in a variety of industries over the years, and it strikes me that some are highly dynamic, while others seem never to change. Over the first few years of this century, it seems to me that there has been significant movement in social media/networking, internet technologies in general, online vs offline media, SaaS, and even software in general. Some of these changes have even affected the underlying processes they arose from, by making some old functions obsolete. So, why hasn't this same set of change come to the world of EDI? I posed this question to the ec-bp LinkedIN group a couple weeks ago, and was surprised at the responses I received. Actually, from the responses, I realized that I had posed the question poorly. The respondents commented that their own jobs in the EDI field were almost never 'boring', because there were always changes that needed to be made and problems to be fixed. But that wasn't my intended question. To those responses, I posted this followup question: "New software and services are created all the time for different industries and niches. With the overwhelming volume of traction that EDI has, why (or is there) aren't there any new developments being introduced? If there are any, why don't we hear about them?" I received one thoughtful answer from Craig Dunham, EDI Coordinator/System Analyst at Big 5 Sporting Goods, who put it this way: "Well, given that different spin - on developments to EDI - we have to remember that EDI is .. a process .. not an application - software - or a service. It's a process. Craig makes a good point about EDI being a process. But I've seen lots of processes change, mostly for the better, over the years. My impression is that what is required is a fundamental rethinking of the process itself, and an initiative to do more, and do it better, than it has been done by using the current process. One example that comes to mind is data synchronization. The concept of making a single source of truth from the manufacturing process through the final point of sale is generally accepted as a worthwhile goal. Each participant along the way can identify specific advantages they can garner from the accomplishment. However, the practice of implementing such a worthy goal has proven to be painful to some segments of those participating. The linking and validating of the many disparate processes and systems that make up just the manufacturing process, can be daunting in its complexity, cost, and effort. Is there a better way to accomplish the integration and synchronization needed to make the concept of data synchronization viable? That answer is beyond me... but probably not beyond some of you, who are dealing with the challenges of making things work better, faster, and with less manual intervention. I'm interested in knowing what you think about innovation in the world of EDI. For that matter, take out the "EDI", and think more globally about the processes and data that connect to and from your EDI stream. What products and vendors are in good position to change the way things are done? Who would you call on to invest their resources in making your business less complex, and hopefully more profitable? Let me know...
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