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Exploring Feature, Service and Price in Retail EDI

Wednesday, 03 February 2010 11:37 Jim B. Cantrell

For years now we have seen great changes in how we conduct business. Capabilities in out of the box systems like MS SQL Server (Probably from ’05 forward), and high speed bandwidth to name just two, have made it possible to do some very cool things over the last few years. The proliferation of EDI usage in Retail is probably one of the smaller ones, but as an end to a means it is critical in Retail. Many venture capitalists equate what EDI companies do and its function as “Middleware” because EDI doesn’t generate the data or consume it but simply communicates, transforms, etc. EDI providers spin data to serve a myriad of purposes and a wide range of applications. I am interested in how EDI users – Retailers and Suppliers – view innovation currently and how they see the EDI market.

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EDI Providers Innovating and Relevant

Monday, 01 February 2010 12:26 Jim B. Cantrell

As an industry, companies serving the Retail EDI sector need to innovate their messaging and get their staff trained to discuss more than simply helping people connect to retailers. The needs of your market are evolving and the messaging coming from sales and marketing staff doesn’t seem to be keeping pace. Sound a little irreverent? Someone has to say it. Right now people are saying the same thing about Oracle, Microsoft and others. EDI providers are not immune.

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Inventory Management Tops 'Critical List' for Companies in 2010

Tuesday, 19 January 2010 08:29 Tompkins Associates

Tompkins Associates' New Paper Shows How to Evolve to World-Class Inventory Management

RALEIGH, NC, January 11, 2010 -- Companies adapting to recession and recovery are finding that the dynamic of inventory management is shifting, according to a new white paper by global supply chain and inventory experts.

"There have always been conflicting views on the proper levels of inventory, but now we see it elevated to a whole new height of organizational tension," says Jim Tompkins, President and CEO of Tompkins Associates and the paper's co-author. "It's not that the role of inventory has suddenly changed, rather it has evolved as organizations have become more focused on managing inventory at the same time that the economic picture has made it more difficult to manage."

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EDI Gap Analysis

Wednesday, 27 January 2010 08:36 Harold DeWayne

Gap Analysis is an integral part of any EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) implementation, as well as any replacement to a company's existing software base. Analysts need to identify points where there is a difference between the existing solution and the replacement software.

When it comes to EDI, there are identification codes / qualifiers that are frequently either not present or do not match existing codes already in use with a particular document or perhaps data currently sent that a “Trading Partner” (EDI term for a supplier / customer / etc) is not making use of or perhaps data that a Trading Partner needs that's not currently being sent with your existing solution. Or perhaps it's the other way around and you're the one receiving the data. There's also the issue of which EDI transaction set to use to represent your document and also which EDI standard set to use. If you're located in Europe, you most likely will use the EDIFACT ( United Nations/Electronic Data Interchange For Administration, Commerce and Transport ) standards; in the United States, you'll most likely use X12 standards, but if you are located in either one and your trading partner is in another, you may need to support both standards. And then, there's which version of the standards you will use and if your industry has its own guidelines and/or government regulations, you'll want to investigate that as well. All these are valid questions and need to be addressed.

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SaaS + Sourcing Companies = Increased Visibility in the Asia-Pacific Supply Chain

Monday, 11 January 2010 10:44 Jim Frome

SaaS + Sourcing Companies = Increased Visibility in the Asia-Pacific Supply Chain

By Jim Frome, Chief Strategy Officer & Executive Vice President of SPS Commerce

Nowadays, in this age of globalization, there are very few solely domestic companies left. Large retailers are either directly sourcing overseas or their suppliers are. And, even if your strategy is to stay entirely domestic, your competition is coming from every area of the globe. Compared to a domestic supply chain, a global supply chain is far more complex and longer in time and distance. With a global supply chain, you’re not just talking about manufacturing products overseas; you’re talking about inventory that needs to be managed overseas, and goods that need to get passed through the port of export, the port authority, and customs into North America, where they finally enter the existing domestic supply chain.

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