RE: EDI translator

Dennis:

It is impossible for me to be certain whether you might mitigate cost by 
changing EDI vendors unless I did a study. That said, I would be surprised 
if the answer turned out to be "yes" ... More likely the opposite ... 

My expectation is that anything you save on annual maintenance fees or 
upgrades will be overbalanced by conversion costs and loss of productivity 
due to lower function in the follow-on solution.

If I may share a little story here ... We've been an Inovis business 
partner since the Premenos days (1989) ... I have for years fielded 
questions about the quality of another vendor's translator (let's call 
them "Vendor B") by saying "I've never seen the product, but they have 
lots of customers, they've been around a long time, I'm sure they're 
fine." 

Well, we finally landed an account that uses the "B" translator, and we 
were astonished to discover how much difference there is between the 
products: Trusted Link is so vastly superior that it challenges my 
expectation that market forces would tend to bring these two competitors 
close together in terms of value. And, Vendor "B" isn't that much cheaper! 
We are certain that Vendor B's product is more expensive to own due to 
reduced productivity.

You might think that what I just said leads to the thesis that you might 
buy a more functional translator that will save you money on productivity 
and perhaps staffing.

Well, in general, "EDI made easy" pitches make me grit my teeth. I agree 
that do-it-all EDI solutions can work in small, simple implementations. A 
company of any size, however, will require the services of people with 
advanced skills and aptitude. Still, that doesn't necessarily mean you 
need a big staff.

We have several clients outsourcing EDI to a single associate at IMC. Some 
of them have pretty large implementations.  One of the reasons this 
service model works is that the EDI development cycle tends to be 
characterized by long stretches of boredom punctuated by  the requirement 
to solve several difficult problems in a very short timeframe. It's hard 
to keep an in-house staffer at expert level under these conditions, and it 
can be hard to keep them busy all the time.

What I am suggesting is that you could easily shoot yourself in the foot . 
I would be very cautious about changing platforms to reduce cost or staff 
... I believe you will be disappointed.

I can help with these issues, as could other EDI integration solution 
providers that haunt this discussion group. I am sure you will hear from 
all of us before this thread tapers off.

I am willing to toss this around with you ... Perhaps you could brief me 
on your thoughts and concerns ...

Call or message any time.

Regards,



John G. Dyer, CDP
Vice President
Information Management Consultants, Inc.
jdyer@xxxxxxxxxx
http://www.imcedi.com
812.421.0045 ext. 203