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

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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