Hi Dylan, Thanks for your postings regarding BizTalk. I recently started working for a mid-sized manufacturing company as a B2B Lead. The company is implementing SAP over the next few years for multiple business units, one at a time. They currently run Inovis for one Business unit and a custom built flat file processor for another. They also want to implement a customer portal for order entry, inquiry and Inventory and Invoice Inquiry. My responsibility is for both the EDI and Portal environments. I have about 8 years experience in EDI and another 6 years experience in B2B doing more application integrations using XML structures. I have used webMethods for the past 9 years, Overlapping my B2B and EDI experience. I'm intrigued by BizTalk and am thinking on using it in my current position for both EDI and B2B requirements. It seems to be a very functional product now and looks to have many of the characteristics that webMethods has. I enjoyed working with webMethods. One thing that I'm thinking on doing is if an inbound order cannot be posted to the SAP system, I would like to route it over to the customer portal so that the customer and CSR can collaborate together to fix the order (after both receiving notifications of the error) and then reprocess the order if appropriate to do so. It sounds like the orchestration of Biztalk can help separate the functions of Communications, mapping, error detection, notification and calling the backend application. I would also like to make use of the BAM functionality to help show what is processing on the portal and EDI environments at any given time. I'm not a fan of GXS especially when it comes to AI. YUK. Have not used Gentran but feel that I could easily learn it. I don't think though Gentran can help much on the portal side of things. I see tools like BizTalk and webMethods being the right tools to use going forward as they allow EDI and B2B to coexist in the same environment. Why not use one tool. I see also that the Customer Portal as being a critical piece of the infrastructure. Sure EDI is very important when it supports a significant % of the daily order volume. I see EDI and the Portal as two technologies that should be used in combination. I know BizTalk requires the .NET framework and your comments indicate that one would need .NET resources. I'm sure we would add staff to support the .NET infrastructure on the Portal side since that would require more of that skill set. I'm also looking at SharePoint for the Portal which I think is also very intriguing to read about. One question I have is how hard would it be for legacy type developers (Cobol / RPG) who have a good understanding of EDI, to get acclimated to the .NET environment to be successful Building and supporting the EDI infrastructure. I plan on getting a consultant to help initially architect and build the environment as well as do knowledge transfer to the internal team. I'm thinking that our Portal infrastructure will also be .NET but it's hard to tell exactly how we'll do that at this time. It may be SharePoint. Thanks Dylan again for your posts. Regards, Ray From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Dylan Hall Sent: Tuesday, December 28, 2010 8:26 AM To: Shawn Aker; anneco_2000; EDI-L Subject: Re: [EDI-L] Biztalk Hello Shawn,
Which versions of BizTalk have you encountered? My experience is with 2004 versions and later. BizTalk is an implementation is best supported by development and support resources committed to the Microsoft .NET framework. BizTalk can integrate very easily with Commerce Server and Sharepoint. It can be the interface between a companies back-end data system and the public facing web portal. It can coordinate activity between ERP, CRM and Accounting Systems. It has a robust Business Rules Engine that can be used in a variety of ways. In my opinion, however, it is not a good fit for an operation lacking .NET Framework development resources. Your experience has shown that. Dylan On Mon, Dec 27, 2010 at 8:08 PM, Shawn Aker <[email protected] <mailto:saker%40iaspx.com> > wrote: > Biztalk is much more of a custom solution when it comes to > it's communication/gateway(AS2) and EDI translations stuff. I've taken out > many home grown solutions "based" on biztalk because the implementer took > off and no one could figure out what the h*** they did. > > My guess is you already have Biztalk. Use it for integration between your > apps, webservices, SOA stuff etc. It's a great middle-ware tool. One thing > we've found is the license models that biztalk provides doesn't lend it self > well to large gateway and translation. > > Spend a few bucks and implement something in the cloud or behind your > firewall made for EDI. EDI is more then just an X12 definition. It's the > 997 acknowledgment, tracking, viability, key management, etc. > > Regards, > > Shawn Aker > [email protected] <mailto:saker%40iaspx.com> > > > On Mon, Dec 27, 2010 at 1:25 PM, Dylan Hall <[email protected] <mailto:dylanjhall%40gmail.com> > wrote: > >> Hello Anne, >> >> Translators like GXS AI and Gentran are well suited for data translation >> right out of the box. When it comes to EDI translation, it is not that >> hard >> to learn the language of these translation tools and create applications. >> Many of us who worked with one or two translators find learning a new one >> not that difficult. >> >> BizTalk can handle any task that you throw at it. It is based on >> Microsoft's >> .NET framework, so you can use .NET code to customize any application you >> create. You can create code libraries, custom components, adapters for >> virtually anything.It can handle all of your communication needs - and you >> can extend or customize communications to suit your needs. In addition >> ,you >> can easily go to the Internet for sample code, problem solving and best >> practices. There is lots of free information available on Microsoft's >> websites. You can even download and run the Developer Edition of BizTalk >> for >> free (no time bomb). With the download you get compliant X12 and Edifact >> Schemas. >> However, development and maintenance of BizTalk requires some competency >> in >> C# .NET and SQL server. Although, these developers/consultants tend to be >> senior, their skill set is quite readily available. >> >> Having worked with both, I would say this: >> >> - traditional translators are quick and efficient. >> - BizTalk does require more resources, however it can reward the >> enterprise in other ways. >> >> >> Dylan >> >> On Mon, Dec 27, 2010 at 1:51 PM, anneco_2000 <[email protected] <mailto:anneco_2000%40yahoo.com> > >> wrote: >> >> > >> > >> > Is there anyone out there currently working with Biztalk? How does it >> stack >> > up against tradtional EDI translators like Gentran? >> > PLEASE no Sales Reps contact for any translator. I am just looking for >> user >> > opionions please. >> > >> > regards, >> > Anne >> > >> > >> > >> >> >> [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! 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