I used to manage technical support for a company called EDI Inc. (ok, all of you old...um...seasoned...uh, salty....uh crusty...folks, fifty cents for the person that can name the application!)
To set the stage, I *think* that 286's were the norm, with 20-40 meg drives, and we'd *finally* gotten X-Modem going - those flat ASCII blasts to a .LOG file were treacherous. And we wont even talk about Bisync to Railinc; drinking really does help burn out the memories. I kid you not: I got a call from a very pleasant, and quite nervous lady, "My EDI is broken." I gotta tell you, that one statement speaks volume. You can tell a lot from a person with a statement like that. Of course, being the consummate professional, I respond with, "Ummm, Ok, can you tell me a bit more? What does that mean, "My EDI is broken."? She responded with a, "Well, it doesn't work." Being the amazingly perceptive, on-the-ball kinda guy that I am, I had actually already deduced that. It is nice being one step ahead of the customer. "Ok, so.....are you getting any error messages?" "I don't know." "Well, can you tell me a bit about that? Are you seeing any errors on the screen or written to the printer?" "I really don't know." "Well, can you take a look and let me know what you see?" "No, I really can't." Ok, so after a few rounds of professional 'what the hell are you talking about', it turns out the system had been running for over a year, untouched. And someone had swiped the CRT for other purposes. I suggested that she locate a screen and plug it in. There was this long, embarrassed pause and then, "Should I get a keyboard too?" And, after a year, the only problem was a full disk. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of John Fiorino Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2007 2:36 PM To: [email protected] Subject: RE: [EDI-L] System I (AS/400) EDI Software "When EDI is done right, it is a lights-off activity, managed only by exception." Here! Here! :-) John Fiorino _____ From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Pete Austin Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2007 13:44 To: 'Steve D. Becker'; [email protected] Subject: RE: [EDI-L] System I (AS/400) EDI Software Interesting. One of the services that we offer is to assist companies in fully automating their environment. I have a client running 30 million claims per year - add another 10 million for other ancillary transactions. They only have one person providing part-time support. The other folks in the group work on EDI development activities. The client that I mentioned earlier today with 400k claims/day is actually in the process of ramping up to 1.4 million claim transactions per day. They have 5 people in their group to manage all support efforts, *and* all project work. When EDI is done right, it is a lights-off activity, managed only by exception. Pete -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:EDI-L%40yahoogroups.com> com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:EDI-L%40yahoogroups.com> com] On Behalf Of Steve D. Becker Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2007 12:57 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:EDI-L%40yahoogroups.com> com Subject: RE: [EDI-L] System I (AS/400) EDI Software Plus, the AS/400 solution would actually work reliably. Upfront cost and lifecycle cost are very different beasties, and the latter are too often ignored in making decisions like this. In our shop, we have about 2.5 FTEs babysitting the Windows network, which provides the expected "personal-productivity tools", a term that is too often more ironic than accurate. Our core business applications run on the AS/400, and I think about it every now and then. Regards, Steve Becker Sports, Inc. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:EDI-L%40yahoogroups.com> com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:EDI-L%40yahoogroups.com> com] On Behalf Of Carl Galgano Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2007 10:37 AM To: 'Earl Wertheimer'; 'Thompson, Glenn'; [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:EDI-L%40yahoogroups.com> com Subject: RE: [EDI-L] System I (AS/400) EDI Software Unitizing a different translator would involve redoing his interface and all his maps, partner relationships, communications etc. That can get quite a bit more expensive that just the communications cost between the PC and iSeries. Utilizing 2 iSeries boxes would almost certainly be less expensive. To deploy a decent Pc based translator, I would think at minimum you are looking at 4-6K in hardware and software, and then the implementation expense to redo all the maps, interface, etc. Deploying a second iSeries in the same tier can be done for about 6K, and utilizing Distributed Data Management (DDM) on the iSeries, the applications will never have any idea that the EDI translator is sitting on a different iSeries. Very minor tweaking would be required to make this totally seamless to his applications. cjg Carl J. Galgano EDI Consulting Services, Inc. 770-422-2995 www.ediconsulting.com 600 Kennesaw Avenue Suite 400 Marietta, GA 30060 -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:EDI-L%40yahoogroups.com> com [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:EDI-L%40yahoogroups.com> com] On Behalf Of Earl Wertheimer Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2007 12:14 PM To: Thompson, Glenn; [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:EDI-L%40yahoogroups.com> com Subject: Re: [EDI-L] System I (AS/400) EDI Software Glenn Why not put the EDI stuff on a normal PC and save piles of money? The difference in licensing costs is probably more than setting up the communications between the PC and the AS/400. To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:EDI-L%40yahoogroups.com> com <mailto:EDI-L%40yahoogroups.com> > From: "Thompson, Glenn" <[EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:gthompson%40blockcorp.com> .com <mailto:gthompson%40blockcorp.com> > Date sent: Wed, 18 Apr 2007 11:04:56 -0500 Subject: [EDI-L] System I (AS/400) EDI Software > I'm a little peeved at the moment. I shouldn't be, because I know how > the games works but it still hacks me off. > > > > We are running EDI on our System I (AS/400, Iseries, etc.). We are > upgrading our System I and the new box is in a higher "tier". Our EDI > translator provider wants us to pay them a "L A R G E" sum of money so > we can run the existing software on the upgraded box. > > > > No more functionality, no new features, no changes, just the same > version running on the new box. As I said I know how the game works > but I can't believe that companies are still doing this. But as long > as they can get away with it they will continue. > > > > I guess other than venting I'm wondering if other people have run into > this and if they able to "negotiate". > > > > Glenn Thompson > > Senior Analyst > > > > > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > > > ... > Please use the following Message Identifiers as your subject prefix: > <SALES>, <JOBS>, <LIST>, <TECH>, <MISC>, <EVENT>, <OFF-TOPIC> > > Job postings are welcome, but for job postings or requests for work: <JOBS> IS REQUIRED in the subject line as a prefix. > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > __________ NOD32 2201 (20070418) Information __________ > > This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus system. > http://www.eset. <http://www.eset.com> com <http://www.eset. <http://www.eset.com> com> > > Earl Wertheimer [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:earlw%40spe-edi.com> com <mailto:earlw%40spe-edi.com> http://www.spe- <http://www.spe-edi.com> edi.com <http://www.spe- <http://www.spe-edi.com> edi.com> ... Please use the following Message Identifiers as your subject prefix: <SALES>, <JOBS>, <LIST>, <TECH>, <MISC>, <EVENT>, <OFF-TOPIC> Job postings are welcome, but for job postings or requests for work: <JOBS> IS REQUIRED in the subject line as a prefix. Yahoo! Groups Links ... Please use the following Message Identifiers as your subject prefix: <SALES>, <JOBS>, <LIST>, <TECH>, <MISC>, <EVENT>, <OFF-TOPIC> Job postings are welcome, but for job postings or requests for work: <JOBS> IS REQUIRED in the subject line as a prefix. Yahoo! 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