With all due respect to Right Said Fred, I’ll take a bit of their song and use it… But, let’s face it - EDI isn’t sexy. It’s not glamorous… We’re not going to get many invites to black-tie-and-beaded-gown-red-carpet-fancy events. There are no EDI “Oscars” or “Emmys” or “Tony Awards” or anything like that. There’s just data. And details. Lots and lots of details. And they do say that “the devil is in the details”… And do I know a thing or two about details! I’ve often been told that I sometimes put in TOO much detail. When I was taking some creative writing courses in college, one teacher was always fascinated and enthralled by the amount of details I’d provide in a story and another always warned Me about too much detail - to let the reader create the image in their mind, of their experiences. If you’ve read much of My work on EDI Talk (or My latest blog over at Inovis), you’ll know I do tend to go into some details - and, yes, sometimes get a bit off track with them… Now, where were we…? OH! Yes. Details. And not the men’s fashion magazine! Truly, however, it is just those details and our attention to them that can make or break our EDI career. How well we provide ...

“Your mama don’t dance and your daddy don’t rock n roll”…  Loggins and Messina (Kenny and Jim, respectively) wrote (and sang?) a bunch of years ago.  It was the year of the Bicentennial, no less.  30 years ago…  Wow.  I remember yesterday. But I digress – like that’s anything new…? But they sang that so many years ago about somebody that was kind of un-cool, un-hip, not-with-it and behind the times.  Or, rather, their parents were. But this can also be used today - right now - when talking about EDI.  We all know that EDI has been around for a number of years now – since the 80s.  A few years later than we heard about non-dancing mamas and daddies not into rock n roll…  Many of the standards we use today – ANSI/X12, UN-EDIFACT and TRADACOMS (to name a few) – all started out in the early to mid eighties.  And, in reality, none of them have changed drastically in the intervening years. Sure, they’ve updated and changed some, but, again, not drastically so.  The basic concepts still exist.  There have been some new documents, some new segments and elements; and there have been some documents, segments and elements that have left, for sure, but they're still pretty much the same.  For example, ANSI/X12 is updated almost every year, with changes, deletions and alterations made.   ...

The old saying used as a title for this blog relates back to an earlier and simpler time – before EDI, that’s for sure – and relates to British currency.  They have the Pound and the Penny and even a Half-Penny, too.  But this was all brought about by topic in the Inovis Trusted Link group (over on Yahoo!) that got Me to thinking about AS2 and costs and related things – again.  Not that I think about AS2 a lot, but… But what being "penny wise and pound foolish" means (basically) is that your so concerned with the pennies and how they're being spent, you kind of lose sight of how you're spending your pounds.  Or dollars and cents...  It's all pretty much the same.  But it's all about being so concerned with the small stuff - the petty details - that you lose sight of the BIG picture - the final outcome. Anyway, the original poster over there was wondering on where he could receive some “AS2 training” – and everybody then kind of went off into the “oh, we use ______ for our AS2 connection and love it!” kind of comments – but very few seemed to offer an answer to the poster about his question – AS2 TRAINING. Like there is such a thing! “But, ...

In some recent readings on other websites - geez, you'd wonder if I actually have a job with all the reading and blogging I do - there have been recent posts, blogs, commends, entries and more, about how it seems like the old adage about the right hand not knowing what the left hand was doing is still alive and well and with us today - no life support needed... Over on the EDI-L board, one of our own forum members, Earl, was discussing - well - venting - about his current client and some issues with testing through one of those 3rd party EDI providers (won't mention any names!)...  But if you read it, you know.  Anyway, part of this goes back to the trading partner of his client - we'll call them ABC COMPANY, INC....  So, in good faith and in following with the concepts of implementation, Earl's been working to complete the testing for his client to trade with ABC Company.  Now it turns out that the division at ABC Company that they've been testing for has been sold off to another company - XYZ, LLC.  And now testing is no longer needed. Forget about the costs that the client has encountered in testing with the EDI provider.  Forget about the costs that have ...

On another one of My readling places - the EDI-L group on Yahoo - and the topic came up about "who pays" for what...  The topic-starter was looking for some kind of "best practices" in the EDI world when it comes to new implementations.  I think a lot of the people are viewing this from the "dating" point of view - that the person who asks for the date is the one that pays for the date...  Basically, if I was to call you up and ask you to go out with Me to dinner and a movie - or drinks and dancing - or supper and se...  wait, keep that one quiet... anyway, if I'm doing the asking, I should be doing the paying... But that's not truly the case when you're talking about EDI.  When it comes to EDI, I'm doing the asking - "Hey!  I'd like to send you our PO and get an ASN and an Invoice back, electronically.  Are you game?" - but you're doing the paying...  At least in My world - the world of retail trade.  I'm requesting you to change the way that we do business and accept My orders for your products electronically - instead of via fax or mail or carrier pigeon or crazy, downtown bike ...