Introducing The Jobisez EDI Dashboard

Progress continues at Jobisez LLC.  Our last post talked about how we increased the speed and file size (from 500KB to 10MB) of the Online Translator.  In this email we introduce your own EDI Dashboard on the Jobisez site.  On the Dashboard, you will be able to view the transactions you have processed using the Online Translator.  Please contact us if you have any suggestions as this Dashboard is a new functionality added to the website.

More enhancements coming soon!  Such as…

1. (Optionally) create FAs when a Transaction Set is processed.
2. Cross document lookup (ie. Look up an Order# or UPC# across all documents processed).
3. Business Intelligence:

1. Analytics on your EDI 852 data.
2. Tying the EDI 852, 830, 832 and 846 for JIT and CR.

4. Using Dropbox as a “hot” directory to process your EDI.  Then there would be no need for uploading files using the website.
5. Use a Contractor to build a “Jobisez map” which would create an output format that your organization desires.

 The EDI Online Translator is also very helpful with translating document types that you do not have a map for already.

Online Translator Improvements

We have been very busy at Jobisez LLC to make your experience even a better one on the Jobisez website.  Lately we have been improving the infrastructure by making the EDI Online Translator even quicker.  We have increased the maximum EDI file size you can process, using the Online Translator, from 500 kilobytes to 10 megabytes.  The Translator can process any ANSI-X12 or UN-EDIFACT transaction set.  So, do not be surprised when you process a 2 MB file (for example) and it seems to take only one or two seconds.  

As you know, the translated file creates a CSV file which is emailed to you and the CSV file is also placed in your Dropbox.  (When you initially signed up for an Account, you received an email which described how to interface with the Jobisez Dropbox system.)  Simply put, you only need to install Dropbox on your Desktop (go to Dropbox.com for instructions on how to install their desktop app). 

You may also have noticed that the EDI 816s and EDI 852s work best in the Online Translator because they, in nature, spreadsheet friendly.  The other document types also create CSV files but are more generic in nature.  If you wish to see other document types in a fancier format, please contact us. 

When you translate a large EDI file through the translator, it most like create a very large CSV file, when that file is emailed to you, your email provider might not be able to process the email due to its size.  So, you will need to use the Dropbox app to get the CSV file.  And it is for this reason Jobisez LLC may eliminate the emailing of the CSV files.

How to Delete your Jobisez Account

If you wish to delete your Jobisez Account, please follow these instructions...

1. Sign on to Jobisez at https://edi.jobisez.com/services/signin.aspx .

2. Click your Name which is located on the top of the page.

3. Then Click 'Delete Account' near the bottom of the next page.

4. For confirmation, reenter your credentials and click the 'Permanently Delete' button.

Sorry to see you go.  

Best Regards.

Year End Considerations for your EDI Program

As you know, the jobisez.com site has been expanding since 2006 by giving you more and more relevant EDI information.  The jobisez.com site has trading partner information, implementation guidelines and a knowledgebase.

But did you also know that Jobisez LLC can also help lower your EDI costs?  By joining a group of other smaller companies, your KC volume falls into a better pricing tier.  That pricing tier lowers your EDI VAN cost.  But do not worry, you will still get your very own VAN mailbox with your own sign on credentials.  Fill out the form on this page if you are interested in saving money, Lower your EDI VAN Bill.

Thank you for your time,

Jobisez LLC.

I Got EDI Data, Now What?

Action, action, we want action, A.C.T---I.O.N.

Okay, so you read our "Making informed Decisions" article, and learned all you could from it.  You noticed the "Action Plan" section and said, "now what?"  Well, if the Solutions in the "Decision Time" blog did not tickle your fancy, then maybe you would like to try the Services offered/suggested by Jobisez LLC. 

If you were emailed an EDI Interchange and would like to process it, you can try the Tools on the jobisez.com website.  One tool translates or converts EDI to CSV.  After the data is translated, then the user will receive an email with the CSV attachment; and data is also available online; and also available on Dropbox.  (Note: Not all transaction sets have a user-friendly CSV format, yet.  But we are working on them.)

If you find that you need some more expertise, perhaps the Freelance Consultants page of consultants is what you are looking for.  Read the entire page to get a better understanding of their experiences.  Or maybe you, yourself, are an EDI Contractor and would like to Post your Resume on the jobisez.com website.

We hope you find these Services helpful.

Thank you for your time,
Jobisez LLC.

See Also:
EDI Education
Decision Time

EDI Online Lookup System (BETA)

Announcement:

The beta version of the EDI Online Lookup system is now available. 

In order to use the Lookup system, you will either need to sign-on or create a user-code.  After you translate an Interchange using the EDI Online Translation tool, you can then visit the EDI Online Lookup page to view all your transactions.

This beta version will be growing over the next couple of months.  The plan is to have the Lookup system give you the ability to search for transaction using many different search criteria, then display both the EDI document and a Friendly Online report.

Jobisez LLC.

Translate EDI Interchanges into an Excel CSV Files and Online Report

Over the years, Jobisez LLC has developed online tools to help translate your EDI 315, EDI 816 and EDI 852 transaction sets.  Many people thought, what about all of the other transaction sets!  Well, look no more, Jobisez is announcing a new tool which will translate ANY valid EDI interchange.

This new tool is nearly complete and can be found in the EDI Tools section of the website.  The tool will allow you to translate any EDI Transaction Set into an Online Report and Excel CSV File(s) by browsing for an EDI file on your computer and clicking "Create CSV" button.

Let's talk "Online Report".  Do you find it difficult to find an Order or Invoice in your EDI files?  Do you want to be able to search all your archived EDI data for a Location, or UPC code?  Do you want to find a specific retailer's 820 document so you can test with it?  Do want the 850, 810 and 856 just by searching on the PO number?  Do you want a tool that you can give access to your user community so they can see if a certain purchase order came in instead of you looking all the time?  Do you want the tool to be robust and search very quickly? 

These are all the criteria Jobisez took to develop the Online Reporting Tool.  We hope you like it!

However, there are some restrictions: The uploaded file must contain complete EDI Interchanges (the EDI file can contain one or more interchanges.)  It will work with ANSI X12 ('ISA' thru 'IEA'), UN-EDIFACT ('UNA/UNB' thru 'UNZ'), and TRADACOMS ('STX' thru 'END').  The uploaded file cannot be more than 500 KCs.

Let us know what you think by responding to this blog.

Thank you,
Jobisez LLC.

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 calls 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

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.

UPDATE: Enhancement to EDI 852 Tool to CSV

The SDQ limitation has been lifted. The ZA02 (quantity), ZA03 (UOM), and N9*ST (location) will also be mapped to the CSV when present. Go to this page to convert an EDI 852 to CSV, https://edi.jobisez.com/services/tools/edi-to-online-csv.aspx

See more.

Convert an EDI 816 to Excel CSV File

Jobisez created another translation tool.  This new tool converts an EDI 816 to CSV file.  The Organization Relationship transaction set is sent by the retailers, and it contains store location information.

The EDI 816 typically contains Store Name, Duns or GLN number, Address, City, State Zip and Country.  It may also contain Contact Name, Phone, Fax and Email Address.  As well as Effective, Opening and Closing Dates of that Store.

If you do not have a Jobisez account, you can create an account for free.  Then visit the 816 Conversion page.  If you are already signed onto Jobisez, you can "Browse" for an EDI 816 transaction set on your computer and create an Excel file by clicking "Create CSV". Then wait a couple of moments and your initial and translated files will be emailed to you. Upon the receipt of the email, you can then open the CSV file attachment using Excel. Within Excel you can then analyze the Organization Relationships data using the Excel tools you are already familiar with. Please verify that the data generated is correct. (Currently only works with one 'ISA' interchange. The EDI data cannot be more than 250 KCs.)

Visit this page to learn more about the EDI 816 transaction set.

Please respond to this blog post with any questions you may have.

Thank you.

More Upgrades to the to the EDI 852 to Excel Tool

Jobisez has added some additional improvements to the EDI 852 conversion to CSV tool.  See the "Improvements to the EDI 852 to Excel Tool" for previous upgrades.

As of February 9, 2014, the Tool also captures the CTP Pricing elements and the Pack and Inner-Pack on the PO4 segment.  These new elements are displayed in the CSV file, and you can manipulate these cells using Excel's features that you are already familiar with.

In addition to capturing these elements, the tool has been updated to email you the CSV file instead of displaying converted data on the webpage.  The email will contain your initial EDI file, as well as the converted file.  You can easily store both files together in your email system.

We are preparing to make several more changes in the near future, so keep watching this blog to be updated.  If you have any suggestions on improvements, please contact us.

Jobisez LLC.

EDI VAN Annual Budget

Many companies are planning their next year's annual budget soon.  This is a good time to revisit your current EDI VAN bills and determine if you are paying too much.  For those that are paying too much, you might be able to shave some cents off each KC. 

Some "cents" you say.  Sure!  Remember that a KC (Kilo-Character) is 1000 characters.  If you are exchanging 10,000 KCs a month at 10 cents per KC, that is a total bill of $1000/mo.  Trimming that down to 8 cents per KC would lower your bill to $800/mo.  Which is a saving of $2400 a year. 

Ah, now does it make sense? 

Some companies also offer tiered pricing.  This means, the more data you exchange, the lower the price per KC.  If you are interested in lowering your VAN bill, then fill-out the Jobisez EDI VAN form to find out what you could be paying per KC.  The form will ask only for your Name, Email Address and Number of KCs traded last month. 

After entering this information, you will receive an email stating the cost per KC and the advantages you would get from a tiered-1 VAN.  If you like the price, then you will receive an Agreement and we can get the ball rolling. 

Lowering your VAN bill is one of the easier things you can do to meet your company's budget constraints.

Convert EDI 315 to Excel CSV File

In a continuing effort to make your EDI job easier, Jobisez LLC created another conversion tool.  As mentioned in our first EDI Online Tools posting, we will be adding new tools as time goes on.  In this case we have added a tool that converts an EDI 315 to an Excel CSV file.

Similar to the EDI 852 conversion tool, all you will need is a valid EDI 315 transaction.  Go to the EDI 315 Conversion page, "choose" the file, then click "Create CSV."  In a few moments, the textbox will contain the EDI 315 in raw form.  At this point, you can click "save as" and open the EDI 315 in Excel. When Excel (or your favorite spreadsheet application, you can massage the data in the tool you are already familiar with.)

Let us know what you think and how you think we should proceed.  Your input is valuable to us!

Improvements to the EDI 852 to Excel Tool

Jobisez understands the necessity of understanding the EDI 852 Product Activity (POS) document.  We have defined the importance of this document in two of our blogs, What is the EDI 852 and Identifying Sales-Trends.

With this information, we created an Online Tool last year to create a CSV spreadsheet from an EDI 852 transaction.  This tool has been very popular and used quite often.

After careful analysis of the 852s being processed, we needed to add several more LIN qualifiers to the tool so it can be helpful to more companies.

With its new release today, the tool now looks for the following qualifiers in the LIN segment...
1.  UP - U.P.C. Consumer Package Code (1-5-5-1)
2.  UB - U.P.C. / EAN Case Code (2-5-5)
3.  ND - National Drug Code 
4.  UI - U.P.C. Consumer Package Code (1-5-5)
5.  UD - U.P.C. / EAN Consumer Package Code (2-5-5)
6.  IB - International Standard Book Number (ISBN)
7.  EN - European Article Number (EAN) (2-5-5-1)
8.  EO - GTIN-8
9.  UK - GTIN: U.P.C. / EAN Shipping Container Code (1-2-5-5-1)
10. VN - Vendor's (Seller's) Item Number
11. MG - Manufacturer's Part Number
12. VP - Vendor's (Seller's) Part Number
13. VC - Vendor's (Seller's) Catalog Number
14. VA - Vendor's Style Number
15. IN - Buyer's Item Number
16. PN - Company Part Number
17. BP -  Buyer's Part Number
18. PI - Purchaser's Item Code
19. CB - Buyer's Catalog Number
20. IT - Buyer's Style Number

Please feel free to post a comment on what other features you would like to see this tool do.  For instance, would you like the CTP values on the spreadsheet, or perhaps you would also like to see the Color and Size information too.

Faster is Better (Part 2)

As mentioned in our first "Faster is Better" posting, Jobisez LLC increased its bandwidth on August 25 to make your navigation through the jobisez.com site even quicker.

Using Analytic Tools, you can see that the Jobisez site is faster than 78% of the sites and pages load in 1.6 seconds.  You may ask yourself, "why or how does this affect me?"

Jobisez is primarily a research site for EDI intelligence.  We understand that your time is essential, and you do not need to wait for pages to load when you need to find an answer quickly.

To make your experience even better, we added a search box to each page, so you can search on any EDI related term you are looking for.

Let us know how we are doing or how we may be more helpful to you!

What is the EDI 852 Product Activity Document

Drilling down and understanding the EDI 852 POS document

After posting the Tracking Sales Trends tool blog entry, we thought it would be a good idea to give a better understanding of the POS EDI document.  For the most part, retailers (pretty much) send POS in a standard format, this blog shows a typical POS document.

Wikipedia gives a pretty weak definition of the ANSI X12.852 document.  Its description is too general and does not do a good job showing how voluminous the 852 is, and how it helps manufacturers determine sales trends and outages.

Although the retailers send a typical format, they differ in what types of data quantities they supply.  Most will send Quantity Sold (QS) and Quantity Available for Shipment (QA).  Some will also send Quantity Out-of-Stock (QO), and still other retailers will send Quantity Requested (QX).

This is where the issues arise, each retailer sends different quantities.  That is why we suggested a cloud-based POS Analytics Tool.

Our next blog post will describe the EDI 830 Planning and Forecasting document.  And finally, we will wrap it up with how both the 852 and 830 EDI documents work together.

On another note, the EDI 852 data can be very large if you receive UPC/Store level information.  These transactions can cost a lot of money if you receive the data through an EDI VAN.  Here’s an opportunity to lower your EDI VAN costs.

Identify Sales Trends, Stock-outs, Missed Selling Opportunities and Historical Performance

Achieve retailing efficiency via supply chain collaboration, planning and forecast evaluation.

 

Retailers provide suppliers with a host of performance and forecast data. The challenge is how to intelligently mine this data to optimize the flow of goods through the supply chain. Analytics hosted business intelligence solutions help suppliers identify key performance indicators and facilitate effective collaboration with retailers.

 

Cloud-based, managed services collaboration solutions using a combination of sophisticated data warehouse design concepts and presentation tools to analyze forecasting, sell-through (and other supply chain data), forecasts and plans via either direct ERP extract or EDI transaction fees.

• Hosted Model – No need to acquire and maintain expensive data warehouse hardware and software.
• Microsoft Excel Driven – Utilize all of the benefits of Excel to work with the data.
• Ad-Hoc Reporting – Query, drill down, analyze voluminous data in real-time.
• Common Data View – Suppliers and retailers identify and act on opportunities to increase sales and optimize inventory levels.
• Multiple Data Feeds – Extracted data from ERP applications and EDI transactions.

Before making a decision on whether or not to invest time and money into an Analytics Tool, there is a POS Demo that can be tailored made for your needs.

Online EDI Tools by Jobisez

One of the Services that Jobisez offers are EDI Tools.  These tools primarily massage EDI data and create a format that is more user-friendly.  The Tools start off in our Labs, and when they pass testing, they become Graduates.

This is a newer service that is being offered.  We currently only have a couple of them, so if you have any suggestions, drop us a line, and let us know what tools you think would be helpful to you.

Let us know what you think and how you think we should proceed.  Your input is valuable to us!