Musing on a snowy Friday morning?
Some legacy EDI providers have indeed reached the end of their useful life
due to architecture etc. Others have not. Some providers have done exactly
what you suggested they have leveraged their products and jumped into the
new markets.
These providers have the newer, faster better stuff that has yet to be
proven but has a better hype value. Plus they have existing support, they
understand B2B integration better than the new players, they understand
things like integration across company boundaries, collaboration, audit
trails, security and reliability. And they can actually support B2B
integration using EDI and newer technologies.
I read an article recently about a company using one of these newer products
you mentioned. The plan included forcing suppliers to also implement
something to connect it to. Which would be offered at $15,000 a pop. The
EDI hub and spoke supplier coercion model revisited. Only about 3 time more
expensive and just as stupid.
Just because a company is using newer technologies doesn't make them better.
When you see one of these companies pitching their solution as "better"
because the old stuff required expensive VANs, run away. They don't know
what they are talking about. Nice technology, no clue how to use it.
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: 2/18/00 10:04 AM
Subject: Lemmings Conspiracy
The cliff is fast approaching, it is time to change direction or
parish,
but alas their stockholders will not let them...
I sincerely feel sorry for the pressures that many of the EDI
translator/VAN
companies must be feeling right now. Companies like webMethods, Vitria,
Netfish and many other new real-time B2B, XML based systems have been
able
to enter the market without the baggage of legacy EDI architecture and a
history of poor support.
These new breeds of real-time B2B systems are yet to be accountable for
profits, so they can afford to actually "care and ask their customers
and
potential customers" what they need in a B2B system and make a credible
attempt to address these issues. The legacy EDI translator/VAN
companies
have long ago been required to be accountable to their stockholders for
profits so must focus all of their time and efforts on squeezing dollars
out
of their remaining customer's pockets. An unfortunate position to be
in.
This effort will simply encourage their customers to expedite their
migration to the real-time, XML based B2B systems that can still paint a
rosy picture of the future with some credibility.
What is most sad to me is the legacy EDI translator/VAN companies were
in
the best position to jump into this market and address the evolving
needs of
their existing client base, but for a variety of reasons they will not
be
able to lead and make this quantum leap into the new millennium.
0============================0
| Kevin Benedict
| "The Process is the Product"
0============================0
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