RE: SMG Questions -- BPCS-L

Thanks.



Mark Richards
W: 616.392.7855 ext. 3317
C:  616.460.3186

-----Original Message-----
From: aczarnota@xxxxxxxxx [mailto:aczarnota@xxxxxxxxx] 
Sent: Tuesday, August 26, 2003 1:01 PM
To: SSA's BPCS ERP System
Subject: Re: SMG Questions


re SMGs

>1.          I have downloaded information from IBM (BPCS redbook) and OGS.
Are
>there any other sources out there?  From OGS I have the user documentation
>(introduction, installation, configuration and programmers reference
>manuals).  A lot of reading!  I am looking for a high level understanding
>(architecture, platforms, etc.), any suggestions on where to find this?

I don't think there's a higher level available than the introduction you've
downloaded.

>2.          What did you implement and what was the effort/duration/cost
>(software, consulting/your time) to get one SMG working?  Ball park
numbers.

We implemented the order entry gateway (for Order Entry) & the inventory
transaction gateway (for Receiving).  Our lead guy, from a standing start
(ie no
BPCS or SMG knowledge), spent about 8 - 10 weeks to deliver the two RPG
programs
that create the SMGs.  They've since been easily extended (in 2 days each)
to
cover Post-Ship Billing, and Inventory adjustments.

>3.          What platforms are utilized (it appears software is loaded on
the
>400 only?)

AS/400 only - the BPCS native programs for O/E & Rcvg were not ideal for us,
so
we wrote front-ends on the 400, and drove BPCS using SMGs

>4.          What skills are needed (I saw references to C)

I guess C is the approved way, but you can manage without.  To spare us
having
to learn too many new things at once, we elected to use the CHECKEMI program
(provided with the SMG package for debugging purposes), which reads an SMG
from
a file and executes it.  So, we wrote our SMGs to a source file, invoked
CHECKEMI to run them, and had CHECKEMI output its log to another source file
to
test for successful completion.  Not the best way, clearly, but it works
well
enough that we're into our 3rd year with that setup.  It certainly isn't a
bottleneck at this time.

Other skills?  Perhaps a knowledge of markup languages (eg HTML, XML).
Although
the SMG structure doesn't resemble them all that much, I suspect it's
because
SSA designed their SMGs before XML became the answer to everything.
However,
the principles appear somewhat similar, including tags for data items, and
nested data structures.


All in all, we adopted SMGs because that seemed the safest way to interface
to
BPCS and still retain the benefit of version upgrades with minimal pain.  We
haven't upgraded since, so can't speak to the validity of that supposition.
On
the other hand, we've found that an SMG gateway doesn't always address
everything we'd expect for a particular transaction type, even when the
documentation claims that appropriate data item tags are available.  When we
had
issues, calls to SSA did not reliably lead to solutions.  In hindsight, I'd
say
SMGs are a good idea in principle; however SMGs are a rare enough beast,
even
within SSA, that you will be essentially self-reliant.

HTH
- Adam






I am doing a proof of concept on the effort/feasibility of integrating BPCS
(6.01.02, MM) with another ERP system.  These two systems are the result of
an acquisition and system consolidation will not occur for a few years.



Background:

Importing to BPCS:

1.           Re-supply order creation/update in BPCS
2.           Transactions (inventory adjustment, re-supply order shipment
and
receipt)



Exporting from BPCS:

1.           Re-supply orders created/changed in BPCS
2.           Re-supply order shipments





We are using EDI/ECM and I already confirmed ECM will create a re-supply
order (although it can not update them).  We are not using SMGs.  I have
confirmed through the OGS website SMGs exists for these actions.





My questions are:

1.           I have downloaded information from IBM (BPCS redbook) and OGS.
Are
there any other sources out there?  From OGS I have the user documentation
(introduction, installation, configuration and programmers reference
manuals).  A lot of reading!  I am looking for a high level understanding
(architecture, platforms, etc.), any suggestions on where to find this?
2.           What did you implement and what was the effort/duration/cost
(software, consulting/your time) to get one SMG working?  Ball park numbers.
3.           What platforms are utilized (it appears software is loaded on
the
400 only?)
4.           What skills are needed (I saw references to C)



Thank you.



Mark







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