All... I just finished an interesting press release on a "new" service that will create a single portal to multiple b-to-b exchanges. (I'd be happy to post a link, but the "Internet Week" web site doesn't show the article from the April 10, 2000 issue yet. Their latest articles still have March dates on them! If they ever get their site up to date, look for an article by Tim Wilson, titled "Up Next: An Exchange of Exchanges" in the E-Business Applications section.) Anyhow, I read this thinking that "at last" someone had come up with a solution to what I consider to be the one of biggest problems concerning exchanges, that being the sheer quantity of them. (Elsewhere in the issue there is an estimate that there will be as many as 7-10K of them by 2003.) Then I looked at the cost: $25,000 setup fee then ongoing: $500 per month PER EXCHANGE, PLUS $1 per transaction! All you folks that have been telling the list that the traditional EDI and VAN structure is outrageously expensive compared to the new XML based structures using the internet, please help me reconcile the above costs. Please! Maybe I'm missing something here, but those ongoing costs are much higher than I will ever pay with a traditional VAN, and I don't think that the setup fee is much of a bargain compared to a decent translator either... Or is it just that the internet is such a hot thing that companies will pony up $$$$ to participate in it when other costs have to be examined and reduced? Phil C The opinions expressed here are my own. ======================================================================= To signoff the EDI-L list, mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] To contact the list owner: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Archives at http://www.mail-archive.com/edi-l%40listserv.ucop.edu/
