So you want to be a rock and roll star? Then listen now to what I say. Just get an electric guitar Then take some time And learn how to play.
And don't pay attention to the man behind the curtain. Happy whatever Art! Brian Lehrhoff, EA ([email protected]) Messaging Consultant 201-913-4506 Upgrade your Quickbooks for 20% off at http://ea.brianlehrhoff.com Circular 230 Notice is located at http://ea.brianlehrhoff.com/230notice.html ________________________________ From: Art Douglas <[email protected]> To: [email protected]; 'Dylan Hall' <[email protected]> Cc: 'Paul McTeigue' <[email protected]>; 'EDI-L' <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, December 18, 2012 2:27 AM Subject: RE: [EDI-L] Career growth as an EDI mapper Pete doesn't know what he's talking about. (I'm joking, Pete.) EDI is really all about master data. If the item tables aren't right, you'll never get the orders in, the shipping cube and weight will be off, the carton dimensions will be wrong and the receiving dock will reject the order, assuming you managed to fit it all on the truck. If the customer tables aren't right, you'll never be able to properly ship - or bill. If the product descriptions aren't right, your orders will be a mess, and the customer will go looking for another vendor. If the manifests aren't right, JCP and Macy's will invoke chargebacks which will wipe out your profit for the entire month, let alone this order. If the pricing is wrong, you'll never get paid in a timely manner. Oh, and if any of these things are wrong, it's assumed first to be an EDI problem. Once you get to know the people who own the master data and convince them to normalize it, correct it, maintain it, review it, and document it for future owners, you should just about be ready for a C-level job of your own. So make sure you're on good terms with Marketing, A/R, the warehouse, Customer Support, shipping, manufacturing, purchasing, and sales - oh, and make sure you know your DBA's, network engineer's and IT specialist's favorite adult beverages. These IT guys (or gals) must be your best friends. I also say, learn to toot your own horn. You obviously can't go around bragging on yourself. But you can put out news bulletins that read something like this: TO: Accounts Receivable, Customer Service, Sales, IT SubJect: MajorCustomer Converted to EDI Effective today, orders for MajorCustomer's 16 national and 23 international distribution centers will be received via EDI. This should save the C/S order entry crew somewhere around 65 hours per week in effort, freeing them to work on our backlog of orders with LeutenantCustomer. We are also testing Invoicing with M/C, and expect to implement early next month. Hopefully this will reduce the current 45-day order-to-cash cycle by speeding the delivery of invoices, and reducing disputes. This is the sixth customer this quarter to have converted to electronic ordering. Of our 50 largest customers, accounting for 68% of our Sales Order lines and over 82% of our sales dollars, 64% now send their orders electronically. Our goal is to implement the remaining 36% by Q2 next year. Then (assuming Sales doesn't add a new big customer or two) we will be able to divert precious resources from data entry to active Customer Service. To have a great career path, learn your technical craft, develop a positive attitude, communicate, communicate, communicate, learn the firm's business, make friends with key players in every key department . oh, and make nice nice to the HR lady. Your job is to think out of the box. Hers is to keep everybody safely in the box, to keep the firm out of hot water. You threaten her. Deeply. Good luck. Art EDI Guy From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Pete Austin Sent: Monday, December 17, 2012 2:43 PM To: Dylan Hall Cc: Paul McTeigue; EDI-L Subject: Re: [EDI-L] Career growth as an EDI mapper Frankly, the sky is the limit. Here is the cool thing about *most* EDI positions. There are very *very* few roles that give you more insight on how an organization works. From the ground up. If you work for a small to medium sized company you get to know everything. As an example, take a look at supply chain. EDI is all about Orders. I mean you have to get them in. No orders, no sales. No sales, no business. Might as well close the doors. So you get to know all about the ordering process, order fullfillment folks, the entire back end system, shipping, etc. Not really, EDI is *really* all about the invoices. You aren't billing, no money comes in. No money, might as well close the doors. So you get to know all about the invoicing process and all of *those* folks. Actually, EDI is all about the trading partners. You get to know them very well. Solving problems, ensuring reliable, repeatable implementations, etc. You get to know all of your bigger trading partners. Although a case can be made that EDI is really all about the transaction with all of its records, fields, tables, and processes. You get to know all of your company's tech folks, DBA, desktop support, etx. Or maybe EDI is about the VANS and the entire message flow, or, or, or And to top that off, if you haven't met enough folks yet....just screw something up. You get to have an intimate conversation with the 'C' level folks - though it is sometimes tragically brief. Seriously, look at all that you know. You can venture off into *any* of these areas. (assuming you actually worked to learn all of that) I started as an EDI technician for EDI Inc a number of years ago. I went on to manage their national technical support, then on to become responsible for Mobil Oil's North American EDI operations, then for a company that went from $2 bill to $4.2 bill in two years. I was recently responsible for the design development and implementation of a global eCommerce system for a company with operations in 15 different companies. Now for something different, I am responsible for rolling out a cardiovascular system for Kaiser's mid-atlantic states. And those are just some of the highlights. Depending on your interests, you can head off in any direction. It depends on your skills, dedications, and ability to sell yourself. Best wishes, Pete On Mon, Dec 17, 2012 at 4:08 PM, Dylan Hall <[email protected] <mailto:dylanjhall%40gmail.com> > wrote: > You can get more into the business side by becoming an analyst or a > coordinator. There is always a demand for someone he can assess the needs > of the client and explain technical specifications in "human terms". > On the technical side, have you had an opportunity to expand your expertise > in communication protocols, mappers, B2B document formats? Try and research > the most popular ones as this will make you more marketable. > > DH > > > > > On Mon, Dec 17, 2012 at 12:55 PM, Paul McTeigue <[email protected] <mailto:paul_mcteigue%40msn.com> > >wrote: > > > ** > > > > > > If you have been full-time in EDI for 4 years, then you have > extraordinary > > capabilities that can easily be exploited in other industries outside of > > EDI. Expand your horizons. > > > > You now understand automated machine-to-machine communication of data and > > everything that is required to make this work seamlessly. The world is > your > > oyster. Think of the "Internet of Things" that is rapidly becoming a > > reality > > and leverage your existing skills. > > > > From: [email protected] <mailto:EDI-L%40yahoogroups.com> [mailto:[email protected] <mailto:EDI-L%40yahoogroups.com> ] On Behalf Of > > Mahendra Swarnkar > > Sent: December-17-12 12:07 PM > > To: [email protected] <mailto:EDI-L%40yahoogroups.com> > > Subject: [EDI-L] Career growth as an EDI mapper > > > > > > Hello all, > > I am new to this group , so please excuse me if my question is not > relevant > > to this group. I have been an EDI mapper for around 4.5 yrs . Now I want > to > > take a step further . Could any one let me know what other career aspects > > are available where I can leverage my current expertise and also able to > > work on other verticals of EDI. > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > > > > > > > > > [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 > > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] [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 [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! 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