Tom, There must be a deeper question here, such as, is it your job to track down problems with the Excel spreadsheet file. Otherwise, who cares what it is called?
I implemented a similar scenario a while back that ended up saving the company tons of money by eliminating a lot of manual data entry. I was the EDI guy, I took credit for it, and I helped the staff members who incorrectly formatted the CSV file that Softshare Delta sucked in and created the app file. I think it's not technically EDI for the reasons you have spelled out, but we certainly took credit for the productivity jump. It seems to me that increasing the corporate reliance on "EDI" is one way to avoid outsourcing. Keep the boss happy, call it EDI. Then work to get those "trading partners" up on traditional EDI or XML. Art Douglas Chief Consultant Blackwater Network 877-464-8915 -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Tom Smith (Yes, that's REALLY my name!) Sent: Friday, December 07, 2007 9:52 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [EDI-L] Here we go again (Is it EDI?) My boss and I get along pretty well. We just have some very different ideas about what EDI is/does. Scenario: Customer A sends us orders in a comma delimited flat file via FTP. Our EDI translator formats into a flat file that will go into the OP system. I'll call that EDI. Customer B sends us orders in an Excel spreadsheet vie e-mail. Someone here extracts the spreadsheet, checks the data & reformats as needed, and then saved into a particular directory. It is then picked up and parsed by a Visual Basic program that creates the flat file that eventually goes into the OP system. I can accept A as EDI because; the file is computer generated, is transmitted via FTP, is translated by an EDI tool, and almost never requires human intervention. Basically it goes from their computer into ours. I say that B is not EDI because; a person creates the spreadsheet, (I know this because the format is inconsistent.) sends it to person, who further manipulates the spreadsheet, (Due to the inconsistent format) and then the spreadsheet is imported via the Visual Basic program. I say that EDI is the computer to computer exchange of business documents. He says EDI is the B2B exchange of documents. Again, what say ye? ... 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! 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/
