Re: EDI for AS/400

[Tim McCarthy <twmac@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

My company is partly owned by Harbinger so I'm biased in that regard. We
provide the more advanced communications components that interface to TLE
EDI/400 for people who want to do point-to-point, async, hosting, FTP and
SMTP/MIME etc. 

Despite the association, I'm not a VAN FAN. Sure they can simplify things a
bit but the cost is very high. If you do any significant volumes you can be
racking up charges of well over $5000 a month. The more EDI you do, the
higher the cost. Setting yourself up as a host for point to point
connections is actually relatively cheap and easy and, despite what the
VANs will say, gives you more control and timelier access to your data.

If you want to go the VAN route, consider FTP. Networks like GEIS are
currently offering price breaks to FTP users over BISYNC which is doubly
good since FTP is far faster and reliable than the Bisync method. (You use
a frame relay or ISDN connection directly to GE so no Internet security
risks if that concerns you). Advantis and Harbinger also offer FTP access
but I don't think they offer it at any reduction. Sterling lets you send
your EDI data using SMTP.

Tim 
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