Forgive me for being cynical about this, but while I appreciate all of the well meaning suggestions I can't help but consider it somewhat absurd for people who have little to no direct experience of ASC X12 and little to no experience in running a not-for-profit corporation to be offering suggestions about how to improve the funding model. It's somewhat akin to me trying to tell a lawyer or a brain surgeon how to run their businesses.
A lot of these suggestions seem to pivot around people being paid too much, and giving the standards away. Neither is sustainable over the long term without other changes. There are external market dynamics which are not being considered in this discussion: X12 is a mature standard and has probably nearly reached saturation. Organizations involved in EDI-like things don't seem to care much about standards anymore when developing new applications, or at least any standards beyond the basic technology standards like XML, TCP/IP, etc. Yet, several organizations do still participate in X12 to develop occasional new and maintain existing EDI standards. The internal dynamics of ASC X12 are like many other organizations, and I think it would be inappropriate for me to spell them out. A few of the suggestions strike me as sophomoric. Get corporate sponsorship or get some big industry players to kick in some money. Get government money. If they were that easy or even feasible don't you think they would have been done by now? X12 faces an internal revolt nearly every time a dues increase is discussed, and X12 dues are lower than many comparable SDOs. My personal opinion is that DISA and X12 are very similar to any for-profit business - as long as the current funding model works they will stay with it regardless of your complaints about paying for the product. When the market declines they will either change the model or contract. Mike -- ----------------------------------------- Michael C. Rawlins, Senior Software Engineer, Inovis (a GXS Company) Sent from personal account On 10/12/2010 6:40 PM, Earl Wertheimer wrote: > > Klaus > > > Private interests? Business? Selfishness? ..Go figure. > > Meantime you have to pay $5,000+ for the X12 standards (per version > that is) so good luck! > > > Having participated for many many years in both X12 and UN/EDIFACT, > I can > tell you that neither "private interests" or "selfishness" are the > reasons for > the fees associated with the 12 publications, but instead it is part of > "business" to pay for the logistic support of a secretariat (DISA), > which in > the case of UN/EDIFACT is provided by the UNECE financed by its 192 > member > countries. > > > Yes, paying $5,000 per version maybe considered high, but unless you > have a > better business model to bring down or eliminate the cost, that is > what it is. > > 1) The latest v6020 Table Data CD is $15,000.00 for non-members and ONLY > $7,500.00 for members. Version 5010 Table data subscription is > $19,000.00 or > $9,500.00 > > So it's actually $7,500.00 and not $5,000.00 > > If DISA were at all serious about increasing the adoption of X12 they > would > give it away, offer a free download or a token amount like a few > hundred $. > > 2) According to the 2004 Form 990 (the latest that I have. I requested > others, > but DISA ignored my requests), they spent over a MILLION dollars in > Officer > compensation, salaries & other employee benefits. Actually, it's > $1,119,738.80. > > Anyone know what Mr. Connors is currently making per year? (PS: It was > $193,000 > + per year, back in 2004) That was over 10% of their total revenue. > > How much did you get paid, Klaus? (Probably zero). > > Total income from Sales of Inventory is $276,045.00 , which is about > 15% of > their total revenue. > At $7,500 per copy, that makes 36 copies (assuming Table data only) or > 614 > copies if everyone buys a single-user CD at $450.00. > > I think this includes other standards, not just X12. > > My solution? Everybody takes a 15% pay cut. Then they could drop the > cost of > standards by 50%... or operate with a few employees less. > > I'm sure Mr. Connors is a nice person, but over $200,000 per year? > > ..or get some big industry players to kick in some money. > > Earl Wertheimer > [email protected] <mailto:earlw%40spe-edi.com> > http://www.spe-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 <*> 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: [email protected] [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/
