Yeah, i agree with Chris. I went back and reread the original post several times thinking I had missed something. You never did identify what was the reason the current system 'HAD' to be replaced.
I worked with a 3PL a few years back that was still using about 100+ different Clipper (yes the really old dBase offshoot) to manage a good deal of the secondary EDI processing (after receipt but before import into SAP)... You also didn't mentioned your internal platform. I know a couple of the responses indicate Unix or linux but not sure this is the best route since you didn't mention about already using Unix or Linx. And a serious consideration is if you don't already have AND are using it in house, you probably don't want to add another piece to the puzzle. What is your long-term IT goals for the company? Being consistent with the current technology and the long-term goals is and should be a very important factor when making these types of considerations. If your company is embracing .Net technologies an excellent fit is Biztalk because of the underlying technology. But even with that, there are still several other EDI technologies; Gentran Integration Suite, GXS AI/Webmethods, GXS/Inovis BizManager, GXS/Inovis TrustedLink Enterprise (both of these are what GXS is now calling Edge software), Laiason Softshare, Extol and several more after this. Making the selection process is definitely the next most important decision. Getting the wrong EDI solution will only cost you a ton of money, even more heartache, both technical and even more importantly FINANCIAL. Have you considered moving to a third party service provider or using a managed service provider? There are good and bad points of this. A major point is that the service provider will probably require all your Trading Partners retest their system and it probably won't be free . You also don't have control of your own destiny and at some point in the future, if your company does decides to move things back inhouse, you have to revisit this same discussion or at least part of it. But on the good side, outsourcing can save money long-term. But your issue with response is definitely a valid one and I agree with Dave that response will be changed because you are adding a new piece to the puzzle AND you have to make a call or set up a trouble ticket and then wait to hear back from the Service Provider. It sounds like you have been the EDI person for since the inception and the decision may be a result of your getting the new job. Congratulations, but you will probably still need to be involved for the near term simply because of your expertise with the existing system. AND as much as you can get the RFQ/RFP, demos and all the sales pitch, you never hear any of the gotcha's from the sales people. You also didn't mention who is going to take your place going forward or how big the existing EDI team or group is. I'd strongly recommend you consider getting an EDI professional (or perhaps more than one) on a contract if you decide to keep this in house. While the cost of manpower may be higher, the cost of getting the project completed with the software implemenation & configuration, mapping, system administration, etc. on a timely basis is well worth it. And you want to keep this as smooth as possible and not impact your processing (especially if the EDI handles 90% of yoru sales volume) and probably just as much on the back side. Having any soft of delay with 856's can have a tremendous impact on the customer relationship and your financial side (can you say chargebacks). Regardless of all these factors, there is significant time, energy and money that will need to be invested to make this change. do your homework and clearly & technically document your existing system AND processes or bring in a professional who is experienced with both system selection process and the actual implementation - these don't necessarily have to be the same person or persons. But any cost associated with consulting costs are well worth the cost of having a project go smoothly and NOT impacting your customers and your processes. I don't know where you are located but if you want to talk about this further offline, please send me a direct email. I'm currently available and have a 10+ year background with multiple Windows EDI systems AND multiple system migrations. Thanks, Ken Etter [email protected] ________________________________ From: karnaf62 <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Sun, March 27, 2011 6:43:30 PM Subject: [EDI-L] What should I do with our vast EDI system? We have an in-house EDI server, EDI software, 100s of trading partners, 15 different EDI transactions, X12 and XML, various custom-files exchanged using EDI between several in-house systems and much more. Since we are a "Vendor" and our Trading Partners are "The Customer", according to EDI de-facto rules, we have a custom map for each TP/Transaction. This vast system is a product of my hard work for over 15 years at my company . Everything is working very well, self supported, no issues. But(!), nothing will stay the same for ever... including myself (I moving to a new role in the company) and our aging EDI system that will have to be replaced by new software (i.e. throw away all the current maps and setups and write them from scratch). We are not opposed to outsourcing, especially with EDI which, in general, requires a one-time setup for each interchange and not much of maintenance after that. But, because we are so dependent on EDI with our customers (EDI brings more than 90% of our sales) we want costs to be down, and fast response to changes and new setups. What would you recommend? [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ ... 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