Retail EDI

Thanks to Todd Gould (of Loren Data – see the article about his newest ECGridOS concepts), I spent the better part of a day at recent ASC X-12 trimester meeting (September, 2009) and got to talk with some industry heavy hitters about the state of EDI and how it can continue to soldier on into the future.  EDI has been around for thirty years, and has some serious potential for the future –as it has for a lot of years.

One of the things I discussed with Todd (and others) is the cost issues involved.  We discussed how we can “expand” EDI … to the masses.  My suggestions were to expand the concepts of EDI to “the every-man”…  Make it more affordable, more available and far less complex and confusing then it appears to be.  But one of the things that still holds court for EDI from my perspective, is the cost issues.  So many people think EDI is “expensive” – but in a lot of ways, it’s not.