Just had to weigh in on this... I was an EDI Administrator for a multi-billion $$ international packaging company that had a major customer ($700mm/year) where our shipment to that customer would not leave until we had received the 997 for the ASN that was sent. About 2-3 times a month I was up at 2, 3, 4a because one of the plants placed a trouble ticket that the 997 had not been received within the 2 HOUR timeframe.
If an EDI system is set up correctly, it should automatically generate the 997 upon receipt of the original document. How quickly you send the 997 back is up to your own scheduling AND your TP's expectation. I have come across some TP's who don't like to generate a 997 at all, but I view this as a professional courtesy of sorts: If I send you an EDI document, be "courteous" and let me know you received the document by sending me back a 997. Remember, simply put, 997's are nothing more than a document acknowledgement. The real good players in this area will actually create meaningful content in their 997's which identify when you have errors in your EDI documents and how many documents in a group were accepted or errored out and the very best ones, will even provide coding/content about why the document errored out within the 997. Most of the major companies run operations that are 24/7 and thus their reasoning for requiring 997's be returned within a specific period of time. And in return they will (or should) also provide you with your 997's usually within the same period. 856's are usually the most stringent in terms of scheduling and having to have them to your TP within a specific period of time. But there's usually a good reason for this, whether you want to listen or accept it or not and it's not to generate additional income for the company (but that email thread has already been covered a few months back). With the smaller companies who don't "trade" with larger companies, you can usually get by with 24 hr (or 3 day for weekends) turnaround for documents AND 997's. But with the larger players in the industry, it's an entirely different set of rules and expectations. I now work for a company that exchanges both ANSI X12 and EDIFACT documents with major companies all around the world, trading between 75-100K transmissions a month and we do this with a team of 4 people, from system admin to mapping on top of being involved with a system migration from Webmethods to Biztalk. I've also worked for the small Mom & Pop companies who have done 20-50 transmissions a month and several in between. If your EDI system is configured correctly and you have your maps developed correctly, a lot of this becomes very simple processes. Hope that wasn't too heavy.... Ken Etter [EMAIL PROTECTED] ----- Original Message ---- From: Earl Wertheimer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [email protected] Sent: Monday, September 15, 2008 11:48:11 AM Subject: [EDI-L] Home Depot late 997 reminder Sometimes this EDI business gets to be a bit absurd, and seeing that it's Monday morning, I thought I would brighten up the rest of your week... One of my clients emailed me, saying that they have received multiple (3) late 997 notifications from Home Depot. "Please acknowledge by September 13, 2008 07:29:34 AM EDT. If you are unable to acknowledge these transactions by the required time, notify your EDI Production Support contact or call the EDI Hotline at (770) 433-8211 Extension 10036." A quick reading of the email reveals the following: Time Sent: September 12, 2008 04:32:15 PM EDT Hours Late: 14 Most of my clients are SMBs (Small Medium size Businesses) and run their EDI operations during regular office hours. This one does a large volume of traffic using the Easylink VAN (as compared to AS2). So, Home Depot is expecting a 997 within about 14 hours for a transmission sent on Friday afternoon at 4:32 PM. Saturday morning????? ? WTF? I don't even know where to start... Are they _that_ stupid? Is this a new chargeback initiative? Is it a different day or timezone in Mumbai? Do they _really_ want us to automate the sending/receiving so that 997s get returned within 14 hours? I'll let you know what we find... Earl Wertheimer [EMAIL PROTECTED] com http://www.spe- edi.com [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/
