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, ...

I've got a bad case of ... EDI VIRUS BLUES? The other day - on, yes, the EDI-L Yahoo Group - I read a post about how an Information Security department of a company was worried about the concepts of viruses and hackers gaining access through the EDI system and the documents we trade via EDI.  Most of the replies were, as you would suspect, "is your infosec group smoking crack..?!?" or something to the same thought.. But it does beg the question - how susceptible to a virus attack, a trojan horse, a hack or some other kind of attack are we through our EDI processes?  There are no virus scanners and other system tools to scan the data as it's coming into the system via our AS2 or bisync communications sessions.  There's not much to stop the virus or hack or trojan from getting into the system, now is there...? Sure, you may have a firewall set-up and the data must pass through the firewall, but you've basically given it permission to travel through that wall, anyway, simply by virtue of the fact that you've given permission to the connection that the data (virus laden or otherwise!) is traveling along. But that's about the place when their concept of the attack falls flat... Look at the way the ...

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"Ch-ch-changes... Turn and face the strange..." - David Bowie belted out back in 1972.  Well, 1971, actually, but the song wasn't released until 1972.  And, as usual, I digress in the details.  But still, some of the lyrics are quite appropriate today.  And especially in the world of EDI.  Good ol' Ziggy Stardust (aka Bowie) sang out:                                    "Still don't know what I was waiting for.." That's something we hear a lot in the EDI world - once somebody finds out how well EDI can help them.  They don't know what they waited for - or balked against - when given the option of EDI.  Once they've seen-the-light, it suddenly becomes a no-brainer.  But at the time, it was strange and unknown and a change.  And we all know what people can be like when it comes to change.. Don't we? Change is hard! What's wrong with the way we've always done it? Oh, great!  Now what do I have to learn? Right now, I'm working with our Accounting group in getting them to embrace and accept the 810 EDI Invoice.  And, for the most part, I'm lucky that they're open and willing to "face the strange" and go with it..  However, where it's making My life a living hell is that they expect everything to be done.  Now.  2 Minutes ago.  ...

WHOA!!!  In My readings, I just came across this article over at EC-BP.org!  Looks like we all get to start paying for our EDI transmissions!!  Author: Craig Dunham - EDI CoordinatorRead more about Craig here: http://editalk.com/contributors/