A lot has been covered in this thread - and to be 100% perfectly honest - I haven't read all of the replies and back & forth conversations...
Here's my 2 bits... 1 - since you've got so much invested in your existing format - I'm with many others - why fix it if it's not broken... Why reinvent the wheel? You've got hundreds of maps, a vast system and all the rest. Why not just upgrade the programs you can, tweak those that can be tweaked and find the appropriate & suitable person to fill your existing shoes...? When I was working with a big retailer, I upgraded their aged and outdated application (they were using TrustedLink i-Series) to a newer version and expanded the role EDI plays with the company. It was running smoothly and effortlessly and I took on a few more hats within the company before leaving. 2 - as has been mentioned, if you want RIGHT NOW abilities, it will need to stay in-house. To keep overall costs lower for the company, it could be possible to "partially outsource" your EDI needs. Instead of having an on-site employee (or employees), you could hire somebody to monitor, modify and run the EDI system remotely - cutting down on HR costs & expenses... Hiring a contractor/consultant to run your EDI processes could work very well and save the company money when it comes to "HR overhead" - such as any benefits your company currently offers to employees. Instead, they could (possibly) find somebody to do the work remotely for the same basic salary or hourly wage you were being paid. When I left the retailer (above), the EDI system was running smoothly and effortlessly with no issues and so it was easy to replace my role with a person making a lot less money per hour. Since EDI is so important to your company, you need to keep it up and running and going smoothly. That can easily be accomplished by finding the right peg to fit into the hole that your movement will create. My suggestion is to leave it working as is and find somebody that can understand and keep your existing EDI systems & processes in place and expand on them as needed. Change is not needed here since it's all working. And yes, once an EDI system is running smoothly and easily, the biggest changes to be made are when new trading partners come on board or when changes need to be made to maps. Since all is up and running, your search for a replacement should be somebody that understands set ups and mapping and can easily adapt to your systems and implement any new changes that need to be made. It's really that simple. Craig Dunham Bear Necessities Computing EDI Sherpa Author/blogger RetailEDI.com EDITalk.com --- In [email protected], "karnaf62" <raananh@...> wrote: > > 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? > ------------------------------------ ... 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/
