Re: EDI vs E-Commerce Question - Pardon my ignorance...

Thanks Carl !

Good information !

What I am AFRAID of is that some of our suppliers are going to push us to use
their web sites to enter P.O.'s that are currently being automatically faxed out
of the P.O. application to them. I know that's a manual step on their end, but 
WE
have an accurate audit trail out of here and in our database :-)

Thanks again for the info !

Chuck

Carl Galgano wrote:

> Chuck:
> I'm not sure I know exactly what I you are asking, but I will take a stab at
> this.  With EDI the whole idea is application to application interface.
> Your partner enters a PO on their system, it is edited on their database,
> then sent to your company.  Hopefully that data is directly edited and
> updated against your order entry system and then you have the same PO.
> Advantage here is it only gets entered once.  The mechanism as to how the
> file gets can you can vary (ie diskette, direct comm to your computer or
> network, 3rd party VAN or even the Internet can be distribution medium).
> The point is you don't have to touch it.
> With ecommerce (by the way, I think this term is grossly overused and over
> exaggerated), the idea is you put a store front on the web to sell what ever
> it is you sell.  Maybe you have a catalog that allows your customers to
> select from.  Perhaps you have some sort of form based EDI where a partner
> can get on the web and key an order.  Is this of any advantage?  Perhaps it
> may be for customers or vendors who are are too small to unwilling to do
> EDI.  You give them an opportunity to send you orders electronically.
> Again, the schemes vary.  The web form can be totally dumb with no
> interaction to your application, basically just collects data and sends it
> to you.  The file could come to you as an email message, be transferred to
> an FTP server, or even be  turned into an EDI message and sent to your EDI
> application.
> Other variations of web access might be a Java front end that could run in
> the browser and be a true client server application that "talks" to your
> AS400 as the server.  This way the data is edited against your internal
> database.  Of course this requires rewriting the application's front end.
> Is there a quick and dirty way to allow your customers access to the
> application (order entry) via the web?  You could serve a Java TN5250
> emulator (see mochasoft) from your web page and connect a green screen to
> the AS400 and allow your customers access (of course you will need all the
> security etc.), or use a product that does TN5250 to HTML on the fly like
> IBMs WSG (Work Station Gateway) or other products (I know BosaNova has one
> also).
> Anyway...... I hope I have somewhat answered your question... let me know if
> you have any other questions.
> CJG
> Carl Galgano
> EDI Consulting Services, Inc.
> 540 Powder Springs Street
> Suite C19
> Marietta, GA  30064
> 770-422-2995
> mailto: cgalgano@ediconsulting.com
> http://www.ediconsulting.com
> EDI, Communications and AS400 Technical Consulting
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Chuck Lewis <CLEWIS@IQUEST.NET>
> To: MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com <MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com>
> Date: Thursday, August 05, 1999 4:04 PM
> Subject: EDI vs E-Commerce Question - Pardon my ignorance...
>
> >Hi Folks !
> >
> >I'm at a small company and while we aren't quite ready for E-Commerce
> >JUST yet (just came off a Unix box and onto the AS/400 this past
> >January...) we are trying to learn all we can. We are a wholesale
> >distributor.
> >
> >One BIG question I have is if a supplier decides to allow PO entry over
> >the internet how this works. Currently everything I've seen is you fire
> >up your browser and hit a site and get screens to input info.
> >
> >This is A MAJOR manual process with all KINDS of possibilities for
> >errors, etc. No linkage back to companies native database, etc.
> >
> >With EDI ordering on the other hand, you would enter a PO through your
> >NORMAL process/package and if EDI capable, the order would go out that
> >way. Your data base is updated and they get the info they need...
> >
> >OK, so I MUST be missing something here with E-Commerce, PLEASE
> >enlighten me !! :-)
> >
> >TIA,
> >
> >Chuck
> >
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