Loren Data Corp.

(813) 426-3355PO Box 600, Indian Rocks Beach, FL 33785

www.L D.com

A Web Services API for Accessible EDI Communications ServicesAlan D. Wilensky, Analyst

bizQuirk Product Sector Strategies

Abstract

The world of supply chain e-commerce is a vital business sector, drawing together partners of disparate size, connectingenterprise systems, and putting tangible goods in motion across global trading communities. EDI (electronic datainterchange) is a key enabling technology for global commerce. Once the sole province of enterprise systems, EDI isprogressing with increased SME

adoption of the technology. While a lower entry hurdle is encouraging, challengesabound for most small and medium businesses attempting to successfully adopt EDI.The premise of this paper is that EDI is better implemented via a Web Services API. By affording a more a la carte modelof global EDI transit, as opposed to monolithic, externally configured, per connection models currently in vogue,integrators and programmers can deliver the precise functionality required. In other words, EDI communications can bebuilt in, rather than added on. Particularly in the area of custom software and systems integration, architectures thatimplement single attachment points under software control are a more elegant and lightweight methodology.The EDI gap today is evinced in a lack of standardized tools, and an industry-wide mindset that can only be described asprovincial. A survey of web e-commerce tools for supply chain and partner management seems like a parade of theponderous, closed, and costly. This lack of openness and ready deploy-ability directly affects the mid market’s ability torapidly adopt solutions that enable their trading partner processes and relationships.Although a number of products and services have emerged to ease trading partners across the interconnection abyss,most of these solutions seem to deliver connectivity at the expense of flexibility and reach. While hub and P2Parchitectures are certainly innovative, they seem to reinforce practices that result in increasing the logical distancebetween potential trading partners, and in some cases, inhibit their serendipitous discovery

. In our global system of EDIcommunications, the author feels that the industry should be maximizing opportunities for peer trading relationships, notattenuating them.In this monograph, the author will examine one major aspect of EDI commerce - the transit of EDI documents betweentrading partners. The lack of tools and API’s for enabling EDI communications within custom and OEM applications is asore point dogging the developer and integrator communities. The ability to ‘build in’ EDI communications as anembedded function should be a standard tool in every e-commerce programmer’s bag of tricks. Actually, it should be notrick at all to configure and send EDI messages.About the author:Alan Wilensky is a principal analyst with bizQuirk LLC, product sector analysts for industrial, technical, and verticalsoftware systems. Loren Data has retained Bizquirk for contract product management and industry relations advisoryservices.Please refer developer inquiries todevelopers@ecgrid.comPlease refer partnership inquiries totgould@ld.com

Monograph commissioned by Loren Data Corp.

Small and medium business /enterprise

For example, via trading partner ID directories -living entities that grow with a network

Loren Data Corp. Opens Global EDI Routing to Developers via a Web Services API

Loren Data Corp

’

s ECGridOS is a Web Services API that bridges the EDI implementation gap.ECGridOS provides global EDI document carriage via a WS standard interface, can be used al acarte

, at low cost, and presents virtually no barrier to rapid technical implementation.The leading product focus at Loren Data Corp is

better partner processes using

EDI as a catalyst for change

. In addition to the ECGridOS API, Loren Data

’

s product road map plots a course for servicesthat facilitate the creation of trading partner relations via open directories, inter-partner processmanagement using BPM, and the applications of new technologies for automated EDI datareconciliation.

2 or More Words about EDI

For the uninitiated, without taking a major detour, EDI is the intermediate format of record forbusiness documents exchanged between computer systems

. Just as small businesses have reliedon paper records for purchase orders and more complex industry manifests, the ANSI X12

standardexpands and standardizes the scope of such documents and their reliable carriage.X12 covers a lot of ground, and there has been much progress made in abstracting complexity out ofthe implementation. The push to increase X12 availability while decreasing complexity has convergedwith a push to get EDI into the hands of ever smaller businesses. In order to facilitate trade with largerupstream partners, the industry has struggled to offer simpler solutions for the SME, whileleaving midsystems integration to the wolves. Summary - standardized business documents are good. Complexand voluminous specs and tools are bad. Lets take a closer look:There are

numerous

systems (and tools) for the production, modiﬁcation, consumption, andintegration of

EDI documents

with capital line of business systems (SAP, Oracle, other accountingand inventory management). Conversely, There are very

few tools

, systems, or options forunbundling EDI global transit from the ponderous world of big solutions, long contracts, or thealternative of rather insubstantial retail EDI communications services

.There are likewise few processes for automating the establishment of trading partner technicalrelations and peerage. The EDI implementation guides of major retail and industrial buyers arelegendary for their opacity and stentorian tone. Such Byzantine processes of enabling EDIconnections between partners of unequal size has left us with an industry of specialists and a cohortof privileged resellers.

Flat rate monthly and annual unlimited licenses are available.

and increasingly, humans

Seewww.x12.org

Services Bureaus, outsourcing, web based EDI mail boxes, FTP - all with options for integration

EDI services that are conveyed to an even

partially disenfranchised

population of small and mid-sizedtrading partners seems a less than effective strategy for growth of the industry. More open andtransparent models for communications and partner processes would enhance the uptake of EDI andstimulate opportunities for technical services at all levels.

EDI the ANSI document

EDI the system of global trading partners.

These two worlds are joined by a legacy, not by technical requirements.There are numerous alternatives for sending EDI to a trading partner. The predominant methodsremain the VANs,

commerce hubs, peer to peer methods

, and hosted solutions. All of these have aplace in the pantheon of global commerce.EDI partner setups vex the large and small enterprise alike; the difference in achieving operationalsuccess seems to lie in a larger enterprise

’

s ability to

resource up and absorb

pain.EDI partner setup issues are addressed at various points along the solution provider value chain,including outsourcing EDI, retail mailbox services, and numerous reseller packaged options

. On theother end of the spectrum, we have major IT vendor gateways (IBM WebSphere PG) and VANs(Sterling, et al) proffering major supply chain integration regimes, while the SME is often priced out ofthe market due to their customization requirements, or alternatively are buried in a plethora ofcompromises.The lower end options often seem an anticlimactic afterthought, inﬂexible, almost engineered topersuade a mid-end client to reconsider higher-end solutions. The artiﬁcial merger of EDIcommunications and EDI Big-Co integration consulting has resulted in an,

‘

all you can eat or starve

’

,mentality that falls far short of serving the market in all of its wonderful complexity.

Smorgasbord, Starvation, or a Golden Mean?

A domino had to fall in favor of appropriately sized options for freelance developers and systemsintegrators wishing to add EDI transit to their toolset. Loren Data therefore adapted the Web ServicesRemote procedure calling standards to their ECGrid EDI communications repertoire.The ability to produce EDI from CLOB

system data sources is a fairly common add-on in mostIDE

’

s. There are numerous X12 EDI formating and mapping objects being offered as code libraries.Free tools also abound on forums such as Source Forge. In short, things have never been better for

value added networks

EDI over Internet

Fax Form EDI gateways, Postal mail to EDI, voice to EDI

capital line of business