Re: XML and AS/400 -- MIDRANGE-L

Carl:

At least the situation you describe still makes sense. It's when a standards
user decides to use fields within the standard incorrectly that things can
get really ugly. I've heard stories of a phone# (or some flag) being placed
in a drivers license (or some other) field simply because they had to get
the data to the other end one way or another and didn't bother to find the
appropriate field for the data -- they just grabbed the first field that
they knew *they* didn't use.

Peter Dow
Dow Software Services, Inc.
909 425-0194 voice
909 425-0196 fax


----- Original Message -----
From: Carl Galgano <cgalgano@ediconsulting.com>
To: <MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2000 10:27 PM
Subject: Re: XML and AS/400


> William:
> I have been involved in EDI for 15 years and am a Harbinger business
> partner.  In 1997 EDIFACT was the data interchange standard that was going
> to be the "savoir standard" of the world......., it never happened.  I am
> waiting on the sidelines for XML, if Harbinger is pushing its customers to
> XML by the end of 2000, they will have an up hill push.  Customers drive
the
> standards used for EDI, I'm not talking about my customers, I'm talking
> about my customer's customers.  As a vendor, tell Sears you will be using
> XML by 2001, they will laugh at you, and I can site a zillion more like
> that.  In the auto industry, proprietary standards were (and still are
used)
> in many cases, the government (even with it's big EDI standards push),
still
> prefers many proprietary standards in the shipping industry (ie CAMIRE).
> What benefit is there if you have 100 trading partners using EDI to switch
> to a new "standard".  What is the business case to switch?  Is one
standard
> better than another?  Will there be a better XML next year?  XML may be
the
> greatest thing since sliced bread, but I don't see many in any major EDI
> hub/spoke networks dumping X.12 for XML.  Actually I'd like to see that,
> there we could redo all the EDI systems we have installed over the last 10
> years.
>
> Someone mentioned that the X.12 standards are not very standard... well
that
> is not so.  (There is a joke in the EDI community that the best thing
about
> standards is that there are so many to choose from).  Different companies
> IMPLEMENT EDI standards differently because their applications systems and
> business are different.  Take for example a simple PO.  One customer may
> send you a single PO ordering 5 widgets, and the detail level of the
> document tell you to ship 1 widget to 5 different locations.  Another
> customer may send you 5 different POs to accomplish the same thing.
Forget
> the EDI, what is different here, the application.  If you received 1 PO
from
> vendor 1 and 5 POs from vendor 2 without using EDI, would you say they
their
> paper POs are flawed???  Companies implement EDI differently because they
do
> business differently.  The EDI standards merely try to reflect the various
> ways companies CAN do business electronically with all their flexibility.
> It is NOT the standards fault, it is just easier to blame EDI and the
> standards than it is to blame your customer or poor design of your
> application systems.
> Just my opinions of course!
> 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
>
> >Harbinger (formerly Premenos) is one of the leading AS/400 EDI solutions
> >provider.  They are fully committed to XML to the extent that they are
> >reworking their entire product line to be XML-compliant and asking their
> >customers to move in this direction before the end of the year 2000.  Say
> >what you will about their "forcing" their customers down a path they
might
> >not what to go.  But Harbinger is basically betting their business on
XML.
> >By the way, I am not affiliated in any way with Harbinger.
> >
> >Like I say, I'm no expert and I hope my facts are accurate.  JMHO
> >
> >William K. Reger
> >Senior Project Manager
> >Levitz Furniture Corporation
> >Phone:  (561) 994-5114
> >E-mail:  breger@levitz.com <mailto:breger@levitz.com>
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Schenck, Don [mailto:Don.Schenck@WL.com]
> > Sent: Thursday, February 03, 2000 7:17 AM
> > To: 'MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com'
> > Subject: RE: XML and AS/400
> >
> > Ignore XML.
> >
> > At your own risk.
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Stone, Brad V (TC) [mailto:bvstone@taylorcorp.com]
> > Sent: February 02, 2000 1:55 PM
> > To: 'MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com'
> > Subject: RE: XML and AS/400
> >
> >
> > Scott,
> >
> > You hit it dead on.  My thoughts exactly.  Throw in a
> >buzzword or two, and
> > it has to be something great.
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