Rachel
Very nicely said. No new technology or data format will provide a panacea if
the data is bad. Remember that phrase we all learned back in our early years
in college - Bad Data In Equals Bad Data Out.
Regards
Ginny Crane
Easylink Services
Western Area EDI Business Manager
303-750-4527
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
www.easylink.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rachel Foerster" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2001 12:10 PM
Subject: Re: Success Story
> Scott,
>
> You clearly identify one of the major issues for a completely integrated
EDI
> environment....clean data, accurate product identification, correct
> units-of-measure, etc. Companies that fail to clean their data during
> implementation and testing will reap only headaches and problems.
>
> Furthermore, using a different syntax (XML) to structure the purchase
orders
> does nothing to resolve the issue of dirty data, bad, missing, incorrect
> products IDs and UOMs.
>
> It continually amazes me that there are so many XML proponents who don't
> understand this fundamental requirement, which holds true regardless of
what
> set of rules one uses to format/structure the documents.
>
> Thus, the initial critical steps for any end-to-end integrated EDI effort,
> whether using X12, XML, UN/EDIFACT, or even a proprietary file structure
> are:
>
> 1. Clean up your item master databases and get correct product IDs and
UOMs,
> and then institute procedures to KEEP THEM CURRENT
> 2. Clean up your customer/supplier files and ship-to/bill-to codes, and
> institute procedures to KEEP THEM CURRENT
> 3. Reach agreement with your trading partner on the semantic for each and
> every data element
> 4. Reach agreement with your trading partner on the business rules, i.e.,
> what does your trading partner expect you to do with the data they send
you
> and what are you willing/prepared to do with it and are you in sync with
> your trading partner on this
>
> Getting through these first essential critical steps is the challenge.
>
> Michael, this is a great success story. Thanks for sharing it.
>
> Rachel Foerster
> Principal
> Rachel Foerster & Associates, Ltd.
> Strategies for Electronic Commerce
> 39432 North Avenue
> Beach Park, IL 60099
> Phone: 847-872-8070
> Fax: 847-872-6860
> http://www.rfa-edi.com
>
>
> Michael,
> I would be curious to know out of those 66,000 line items, how many failed
> to load do to bad data sent by the customer? I have consistently battled
> Procurement managers to properly train their personnel. It is amazing to
> see how many Purchasing agents send generic part numbers and bogus shipto
> addresses. One of my customers informed me a few months ago that they
would
> be moving to an XML format next year. She stated that it was more
efficient
> than traditional EDI. I asked her if her company was going to clean up
> their database as well (notorious for sending garbage) in which she
replied,
> NO. It's as if these companies have forgotten why they implemented these
> systems to begin with. It may just be that I see the worst since I am on
> the manufacturing side and receive more than I send but it really makes it
> frustrating when you can see how much both sides can benefit from Seamless
> integration.
>
> regards,
>
> Scott
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Michael Mattias [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Thursday, June 21, 2001 7:12 AM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Subject: Success Story
>
>
> 6/21/01
>
> As anyone who has been around ANSI EDI setups knows, there is a
significant
> time
> and money investment required to put together a really good system with
full
> integration into an applications system.
>
> The last couple of days I was working at one of my clients, a major
> manufacturer
> in Wisconsin. This customer is reasonably new to ANSI EDI, only doing
> recently
> doing any of their own work on it. (For about a year, they had been
> accepting
> ANSI orders from only one customer, using a Mercator application built by
an
> outside firm).
>
> Over the last couple of months they had invested a lot of time and money
to
> get
> ANSI X.12 running with a number of other customers who had requested it
over
> the
> past couple of years, but still no one had seen any tangible benefits; it
> seemed
> EDI support was a "cost of sales" rather than an "aid to order
processing."
>
> The sales department of this firm was successful in landing a new account;
> but,
> they had to commit to being able to accept ANSI X.12 orders and provide
ANSI
> X.12 invoices. The IT department dutifully (though not without some
> grousing,
> but you expect that) set up the translation and mapping and integration,
> went
> through the testing, and on Monday the new customer sent in his first
batch
> of
> orders: 324 PO's with 66,215 line items.
>
> The orders were picked up from the VAN at 3:00 AM. By 4:00 AM, all orders
> were
> entered into the user's sales order system.
>
> The next morning, the IT people did a little math: they figured it would
> have
> taken three (3) man-weeks to hand-key all those orders. The IT people were
> amazed; and they usually don't get all that excited about productivity
> improvements in "the other building" (the sales/service departments).
>
> The next day, the customer sent in another 36 PO's with 8000+ line items.
> More
> savings.
>
> As someone who has been a long time "true believer" in the productivity
> improvements available using EDI, I just love it when a "real user" can
> finally
> and clearly see his investment pay off, so I thought I'd share.
>
> Michael C. Mattias
> Tal Systems
> Racine WI
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
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