Thank you, Nathan.... I try to help when I can.... and I know that as a sales manager, it's your job to hype and offer your product to the client.... but there are a lot of options out there and not everybody thinks of all of them.... We honestly have some companies that we buy from maybe twice a year.... and having some big and EXPENSIVE EDI program will not work for them.... I was kind of sad to see that one of our approved providers was swallowed up by another provider a while back, because there went the little guy's TRULY cost effective EDI system, as they offered a FREE EDI program if you traded less than 5 documents a month.... There are some really small mom & pops out there that can't afford an extra hundred bucks a month just to keep selling to a retailer that orders only once or twice a year.... There needs to be another company that can step up and provide a viable EDI solution to those small vendors out there that maybe only carry a dozen products and sell them seasonally to a few people..
Craig E. Dunham EDI Coordinator EYE Analyst Big 5 Sporting Goods ________________________________ From: Nathan Camp [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2007 9:10 AM To: Dunham Craig E. Subject: RE: [EDI-L] Re: Web based EDI solution? Craig, Nice response to Samantha, and good information. I'm glad your message will be retained in the archives. I hope it will help other retail hubs explore their implementation policies with their suppliers. Cheers, Nathan Camp Channel Sales Manager Softshare, Inc. 911 Olive St. Santa Barbara, CA 93101 www.Softshare.com Phone: 800-346-6703 Fax: 805-882-2599 ________________________________ From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Craig Dunham Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2007 8:59 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [EDI-L] Re: Web based EDI solution? Samantha, There are a TON of EDI products available with web and desk-top based applications.... Direct EDI Owens Direct SPS Commerce EZ Com Inovis GXS/GEIS DI Central.... and the list can go on and on and on.... As the EDI Coordinator for a large retailer, when I have smaller non- EDI capable trading partners, I will send them a list of our 'approved 3rd party suppliers' for EDI applications. I then tell the trading supplier to find the one that will best fit their needs, as all of the companies on My list meet our EDI requirements. You might want to ask the "big retailer" if they have any recommended suppliers. See if they have created a list of "approved" sources for 3rd party EDI needs. In order for a 3rd party supplier to get on our list, they had to complete our compliance testing program for at least 3 of our trading partners. Once they completed those tests, they were approved and did not have to test for other trading partners that sign up to use their services. >From a retailer's perspective, I'd check with the retailer you wish to do business with and see if they have any recommended providers. Then contact those providers and find out which of them offer services, suppport (and, possibly most important) cost factors that meet YOUR needs. If they're approved by the retailer, then you can fairly sure that they will meet the retailer's needs. Additionally, it would be good to get with whomever at the small division will be handling the EDI documents and have them look at the products offered by the 3rd party supplier, too. That person will be the one responsible for the day-to-day operations and transactions and needs to be comfortable and familiar with the application, process and support. That's My two bits.... Craig Dunham EDI Coordinator Big 5 Sporting Goods PS - to any 3rd party source that reads this - re-read the part of this post that says you would have to test for 3 of our trading partners BEFORE YOU CAN BE CONSIDERED APPROVED. Please DO NOT CONTACT ME with requests to be added to our approved list. Please do not contact Me with sales pitches about your product or service. I'm quite happy with My EDI system and have NO PLANS TO CHANGE FOR ANY REASON. Thank you for your time and understanding. . <http://geo.yahoo.com/serv?s=97359714/grpId=2107676/grpspId=1705005582/m sgId=20790/stime=1191427134/nc1=3848644/nc2=4776346/nc3=4836042> [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 <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EDI-L/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EDI-L/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
