Decision Time: In-House or Leverage Existing EDI Technologies

Based on your readings of the "Making informed decisions", "EDI Education", and the "Trading Partner Requirements" you now know what is needed.  It is ok, at this point, if you do not know how to fit "EDI" into your organization.  That is the point of this article.

Each trading partner has their own expectations of what they would like for you to do.  Some may want to exchange the retailer transactions, and other the carrier transactions.  In that case, the EDI system would need to "plug" into your ERP and TMS systems.  Does this seem like a lot of work?  Well, it is.  So the first decision is whether or not to take your entire EDI processing "in house" or to use get some help from a 3rd party.  You can buy costly EDI software which requires computer servers, communication software, and people to run and maintain these on a daily basis; and you will need to keep up with your "Hubs" ever changing EDI requirements.

Or another solution is to leverage pre-existing software from using a 3rd party.  Those solutions and services are plentiful.  Here are a few,

Let's say you want to run your own in-house software, or you already have your own EDI system, you can still leverage off of the EDI VAN solution.  Doing so could help reduce your monthly VAN bill.  Not much work for lots of savings.

Or, you want to outsource your entire EDI processing to a 3rd party.  In essence, to have the outsourcer become your "EDI Department".  Many EDI companies provide this service as well.

Or, perhaps, you are pressured by one or two companies to do EDI, and you do not have anything that resembles an I.T. staff.  EDI Web technology exists to trade EDI via your web browser.

These are to name just a few.  There are more EDI Solutions available as you will see by reviewing the above links.

The Relationship Components of EDI

"Making Informed Decisions about your EDI Initiative" requires an understanding of the components of the EDI relationships.  The jobisez.com can help broaden your knowledge of this understanding.  The website has 400+ pages defining the trading partners that exchange EDI.  There are over 75 pages dedicated to the transaction sets; and there are more than 1400 pages containing a wide variety of Implementation Guides.

The Trading Partner pages are easy to browse.  There you will find out which set ids each trading partner exchanges, there EDI envelope IDs, versions, and more.

The Transaction Sets defines the purpose of each transaction, which trading partners exchange them, and point you to many of the guidelines.  These guidelines will help you better understand the requirements of how each trading partner uses the EDI standards.

Also, we are pleased to announce a new feature to the jobisez.com website.  The new feature will allow you to build your very own EDI Website Portal.  The intent of this new feature is to allow those companies that cannot create a website with their EDI requirements.  When a company has their EDI requirements available online, then their trading partners can search for that portal and, hopefully, reduce the number of phone received by the EDI Coordinators.

Knowing how the relationship components work together is the purpose of the Jobisez LLC's EDI pages.

See also (added 3/21/2015):
EDI Education
Decision Time

EDI Education

As noted in our "Making Informed Decisions about your EDI Initiative" article, Education is one of the most important tools in your toolbox.  A little knowledge does go a long way sometimes, but too little knowledge can be dangerous.  Jobisez LLC has compiled and created many webpages so you can learn the basics of EDI before approaching a decision making process.

There are 30+ pages dedicated to Training.  The pages talk about the...
1. Background of EDI,
2. Communications,
3. Software,
4. Trading Partners,
5. Transaction Sets,
6. The EDI World,
7. Solutions,
8. Governing Agencies, and more.

There is also a Blogs page where you will find many industry leaders blogs.  Keeping up-to-date with blogs like these will keep you stay in "the know".

The EDI News page is updated about 20 times a month with the latest in EDI happenings.  You will find press releases about the healthcare system, carrier logistics, new technologies, etc.  This is one webpage where you can go to find the latest news without searching for it.

There is also an Advice page where you can post your questions and get responses back from other EDI people from around the world.  Perhaps their experiences can help you.

It is our hope that the Knowledge-Base section really helps you understand the basics of EDI.

Please leave a comment if you would like to see more on our Education pages.

Thank you!

See also (added 3/21/2015):
The Relationship Components
Decision Time

Making Informed Decisions about your EDI Initiative

There are several factors required in making proper choices for a business decision.  Education, Resources, Incentive and an Action Plan are required for implementing or changing business goals.  The challenges are abundant.  But companies, like Jobisez LLC, take some of the guess work out of executing an effective EDI plan.

Education:
Information from a Knowledge Base will be needed to become educated on the past, present and future technologies of the EDI industry.  This data will give you enough information so you can build a vision for your company.

Resources:
Building your vision takes time and resources.  Knowing your EDI trading partners and their transaction sets is a daunting task.  But, when you understand their requirements, you can start developing a scope for your EDI project.

Incentive:
After building a scope, you begin seeing how tying your ERP and TMS systems into an EDI system can benefit your company.  And you may also start to see the cost involved in such an undertaking.  Such costs may be prohibitive, and perhaps, leveraging off existing EDI Solutions, may help.

Action Plan:
Realistic objectives are needed at this point.  Building and following through on an action plan are key.  Knowing how to plug into the EDI backbone which can get you from point 'A' to point 'B' is crucial.  Looking into some EDI Services may be beneficial in learning about the EDI business intelligence.

Wrap Up: Does your company have the education, the time, the money, and the drive to build and carry out an effective EDI Plan?  Or do you require help?  Try leveraging off of some existing EDI technologies so you can build an effective EDI Solution for your business.

See also (added 3/21/2015):
EDI Education
The Relationship Components
Decision Time

Faster is Better (Part 3)

Jobisez LLC knows that your time is valuable and that you do not need to sit and wait for a webpage to load.  So Jobisez LLC has tripled its bandwidth.  You will not really notice much of a time speed change on pages like the homepage, because pages like that are relatively small and have already been optimized for peak performance.  However, with many large EDI Implementation Guidelines on the site, IGs that are large PDFs, you will notice a large performance gain on your side.

Jobisez LLC has always known that when seeking an answer on the web, Faster is Better.  Jobisez LLC may not have the most Trading Partners on the web, the most Transaction Sets on the web, the most Solutions, the most Services, but the site has all that and is free to use without requiring a sign-in ID.

Only when communication is needed, does Jobisez LLC ask that you Create a Logon Id.  This is only required because emails are sent to you for Services such as EDI 852 Conversions, or if you ask for a RFQ on an EDI Solution like an EDI VAN quote.

It is Jobisez LLC's hope that your time surfing the jobisez.com website is fast and pleasurable.

Jobisez LLC.