----- Original Message -----
From: Ken Steel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2001 3:46 PM
Subject: Re: Success Story
>
> One of the problems of trad-EDI is that it does not scale very well.....
>
> If it takes a week to implement a new trading partner using trad-EDI and
> there are 500 trading partners, it will take 10 years to cover the
> partner base....
I must disagree with you and agree with Mr. Miller on this. EDI scales well IF
THE SCALE-ER STOPS TO THINK before locking in a system design and creating all
kinds of maps and integration code.
Whenever I see a client/prospect for the first time, I ALWAYS ask them for the
little "grid" with partner on one axis, document-direction on the other axis. I
tell them to make the list include "every partner, every document they ever got
asked about."
While many (most?) EDI implementation consultants implement partner-by-partner,
I always go document-by-document. (The same document in both directions counts
as two documents) . That way I know the system will be "scalable" as more
partners are added for that document - because the first partner for any
document is, in effect, a change of scale and you get an automatic scalability
test!
Yes, I usually need to talk the client out of going partner-by-partner. True,
many client/prospects have reached some kind of crisis point, ("850, 810 and 856
tomorrow or I buy elsewhere!"), but for the most part they accept that the best
plan is the plan which allows for growth ("After you get Mr. Important Customer
set up.").
In your example, setting up a system which requires a week to set up each
additional trading partner should never have happened, as long as you knew you
were going to have 500 partners. Instead, more time should have been spent
focused on, "how do I make this document easy to implement for additional
partners?" Yes, you spend a little more time up front, but you more than make
it up in volume.
Michael C. Mattias
Tal Systems
Racine WI
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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