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 to attend. One of the things that made it great, for Me, anyway, was to be in some of the same training sessions and groups with some of My trading partners that also use Inovis products. One of the trainers likened Me to the “800 pound gorilla in the room”, as, in most cases in the EDI world, it is the buyer - the hub - that dictates what EDI documents will be used and what segments and elements and data is required to be there, what data is optional and what data we will not accept nor send.

Having Me, the 800 pound gorilla, helped with those that were there that are suppliers - either Mine or somebody else’s - gain some insight into “WHY” we send and require what we do on the documents we trade. And being able to discuss some of the issues that we have with the data we trade with each other helped us to understand a little better the why we do what we do. It’s not just because I thought the segment looked cool. There’s actually a reason for that MSG segment or that ISS segment.

Another aspect of collaboration that is kind of front-and-center for Me is a data collaboration with many of our vendors. Often times, it is beneficial for a supplier to receive some sales and stock and order level information about the products we buy, have bought and are planning on buying from them, so that they, in turn, can be sure to have the products on-hand for our orders, or at least have the ingredients - the stuff, if you will - to make the products we’re going to be ordering in time for our orders.

In this regard, there are a number of SAAS solutions out there - from big and small providers - to fill that need. We’re looking at one and working with one of them to create that data flow to provide the history of the item(s) we buy from them, our sales history and trends and allow them to possibly forecast what we’re going to be buying in the future, so that they can better plan their own levels of stock - those ingredients - from their own suppliers. This will help them to better serve our needs, which, in turn, will help us better serve our customer’s needs - the general public.

Nike (or Reebok or Adidas or UnderArmour or _________) will be able to look at the sales and inventory history for their products we carry and sell and better be prepared to fulfill our orders. Or maybe they can see that SOC (Some Other Company) is selling that same product in the same area and is just kicking our butt and maybe help us to rethink the way we do things. Maybe we’ve got too many SMALL sizes in an area that is rife with MEDIUM and LARGE sized folks. And our SMALL folks are unable to find anything besides MEDIUM and LARGE in their stores. Of course, our own buying group will be able to look at this same data and figure that out too, except for the data of how our competition is doing it.

Collaboration is an important thing in our lives - professional and personal - and works hand-in-hand with the concept I’ve covered before - about partnerships and relationships - and allows us all to prosper and grow our business. By sharing needed information, we can better help those that help us to actually help us. They can be better helped by those that help them, as well.

Wow, that was a nifty bit of alliteration, eh?

But, let’s take that collaboration thought to another level. Over on that Inovis blog, they also posted about No Supplier Left Behind and how something called MMOG/LE (read their blog!) is being used in the Automotive Industry to try and streamline the automakers processes - so that maybe it will help them with some of the issues that they’ve been facing of late. It’s hoped, at least from what I read, that this program (MMOG/LE) will help to cut costs and automate a lot of that effort between the automaker and their supplier. I’d commented about how, back in the late 80s, Chrysler had worked with some of their suppliers to create the “America” car program. It was applied to 2 different car lines - The Omni and Horizon compacts and the Aries and Reliant mid-size - over at Dodge and Plymouth. It was a program to work with suppliers to cut the costs of many of the parts used in building those cars, and also by Chrysler limited the options available on those cars, thereby eliminating the need for some parts that may have been slow moving options, anyway. The cars came equipped decently at a great price and had only a few option groups available.

This concept - this collaboration between Chrysler and their suppliers - created a program that worked pretty well for the manufacturer, as well as for the dealers and the final consumer of the car. It also helped the suppliers of the parts, in that maybe that seat fabric that they supplied now only had to come in 2 colors, instead of 6.

There are dozens (if not hundreds or thousands) of ways that collaboration can be used in the world of EDI and in our lives in general. Think of the different documents that could be traded between EDI partners - the 846 Inventory Inquiry/Advice or the 852 Product Activity Data both come to mind - that could allow vendors and buyers to better understand the products they have on hand 0r need. The products that they have too much of or not enough of. Think of the concepts of using a 3rd party provider (Edifice and AfterBot come to mind) that allows a supplier/vendor to see the product history - taken in many cases directly from a retailer’s POS data - and see how well those widgets are selling and what colors are selling better in what stores.

Collaboration is yet another tool that we can use to enhance our Trading Partner Relationships, as well as our business relationships, to better serve our own needs and our own customers. And isn’t that one of the primary goals of EDI?