I was reading another blog or two.. yes, it was over at the Inovis blog site.. Anyway, I'd taken a week of vacation and needed to catch up on My reading.. Over there, I found blogs about SaaS (Software as a Service) and GDSN (Global Data Synchronization Network) and more and more... Then I was thinking about EDI and GTIN and UPC and SKU and all the other acronyms and alphabet soups we all have in our lives and our jobs and careers. But it made Me also think of another group of letters that used to be used in the MIS/IT industries - back when it was Computer Science - and it was GIGO.. Do you remember GIGO..? Garbage in, garbage out.... I'm wondering how many of us deal with end users that seem to forget that the computers we use - no matter how fancy and new and no matter how much RAM we're using or Ghz the processor can process at; no matter how many mbps/kbps we can download at, the computer is nothing more than a giant calculator.. It's just taking the stuff WE input and processing it to get to the output we desire. It's still all just strings of Ones (1) and Zeros (0) that we're pushing through, getting to our final destination.. ...

Just recently, I had responded to a post over on the EDI-L Yahoo! group, and this set off a "chain-reaction" e-mail chain between our esteemed "admin" John Burmeister and Myself about collaboration... of course, we were talking about the EDITalk blog-site and a book deal - co-authored by him and I... Mind you, that's just "pie-in-the-sky" kind of thinking, but it got Me thinking more about COLLABORATION and what it can mean to our EDI partnerships. It probably should be mentioned that our admin and I share a trading partner relationship. He's the EDI guy over at one of the vendors that we buy from. We also, obviously, share the EDI-L Yahoo! group, as well. When we discussed collaborating on the book (HA!), we bandied about a few titles - including "EDI DONE RIGHT! A Perspective From a Vendor and a Buyer"... Of course, I also likened it to the reputed "Rap Wars" between the East and West Coasts - and I was thinking about how we both use the same basic EDI formats and standards and data, but to different results... Late in 2007, I went to the Inovis Roadshow Training event when it swung through Southern California. Again, as I am an Inovis user and customer, I found it to be a very helpful conference/seminar ...

 I saw this post on one of the mailing lists I belong to, its something to bookmark for the future if you are in the job market for a tech and or EDI related job. Web-based Job Boards http://www.dice.com http://www.nettemps.com http://www.monster.com http://hotjobs.yahoo.com/ http://careers.msn.com/ EDI Consulting Firms http://www.edispecialists.com http://www.remedi.com http://www.sterlingcommerce.com IT Recruiting Firms http://www.miraclesoft.com http://www.sogeti.com http://www.ttinc.net http://www.teksystems.com https://portalqa.manpower.com/wps/portal/USCampus http://www.oxfordconsulting.com and many others. - Cast a wide net. Set up automatic searches on the job boards so you will be emailed daily with listings. Do not limit your searches to telecommuting opportunities as this limitation doesn't seem to be used consistently. Select Contract-1099/Independent & Contract-W2. - Decide whether you want to publish your resume. Doing so will subject you to many phone calls from many people across the world, all of whom you need to carefully vet before committing. Placing very prominent words to the effect, "Telecommuting Contracts Only" wherever appropriate and in the header of each resume page may eliminate inquiries for full-time and contract on-site positions but probably not. - Visit the forums on Dice.com. Dice was probably the first IT contractors job board and can be a good source of advice for first time contractors. While work at home contracts aren't common, I'm noticing more and more lately. I have recently been asked to lead a five person development and implementation team from my office for the first time in my career. Perhaps people are realizing it isn't always necessary for workers to be on-site to be productive. Credit: ...

Over on the Inovis blog - which I read as an Inovis customer - they posed an interesting question today - wondering why it would be that all of your transactions are not done via EDI. Obviously, we're talking about EDI-able transactions to begin with... But it then brought to mind a question posted on another group (over on Yahoo!) about specs and the value of X12 specs (vs. the banking standard of ACH) and somebody mentioned being penny-wise and pound-foolish when discussing the costs involved and another post referenced the bureaucracies and internal politics involved. In My case, it's not really any of these 2 reasons, but rather a process that is rooted in history... and another old saying: "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" And this truly is the reason I find that we're not doing MORE EDI transactions and we're still pushing around little bits of paper here and there. Chances are - especially if you're reading this - you're somehow involved in the processes of EDI. You're connected to it.... You are not EDI-Challenged.... So, to you, the benefits of EDI are a no-brainer.... You grasp the savings in dollars and cents, you get the man-hour savings involved, the error reduction and the whole thing.... You understand how EDI works and what it can ...