Here are my 2 cents; this is just one man's opinion. I don't speak for the whole group.
You asked: "Have any new solutions to this problem emerged in the last 4 years? " "Has anyone persuaded their customers to use a web interface and accept double data entry?" Now, there are many EDI service providers competing to provide the best possible web interface or desktop solutions to help integrate the small businesses into their accounting packages such as QuickBooks, Peachtree and etc. This is a great ROI for small businesses who take advantage of these products. It is no longer "manual" for them. A lot of major retailers and hubs are persuading their small vendors to use such services. Also, EDIINT technology has grown rapidly especially with the use of AS2. "Did XML or any of the other new technologies ever live up to the hype?" XML is growing extremely rapidly in an area of EAI and web services which provide a solution to the larger enterprise business rather than a small business. Recently, a lot of major retailers and hub like companies have been creating a so called "integration bus" in their internal IT systems to integrate ERP/MRP systems. For example (I am not promoting products), you can use an EAI tool like (Gentran Integration Suite, WebMethods, etc) to integrate your ERP system with EDI and Point of Sale. The backbone for those tools is usually XML. I think that's were XML has grown extremely rapidly. It has not taken over EDI. -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Mark K Sent: Monday, April 18, 2005 6:27 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [EDI-L] Alternatives to FAX for small trading partners A few years ago I was an engineer for a company called Intertrade Systems which was developing an internet based VAN for the food and beverage industry (Intertrade is a different company now). At the time the holy grail of problems for the food and beverage industry was the fax order problem. According to one of our customers, the cost of manual order processing for small customers often exceeded the profit on the sale. I'm now an MBA student at Golden Gate University and I'm working on a marketing plan for a solution to this problem based on some ideas I had while working at Intertrade. I need to catch up with the industry changes since I left Intertrade 4 years ago and I would appreciate any info you could give me. Have any new solutions to this problem emerged in the last 4 years? Did XML or any of the other new technologies ever live up to the hype? Has anyone persuaded their customers to use a web interface and accept double data entry? Thanks, - Mark Kromer [EMAIL PROTECTED] Have any non-technical solutions like outsourcing order entry to India or elsewhere solved the problem? . Please use the following Message Identifiers as your subject prefix: <SALES>, <JOBS>, <LIST>, <TECH>, <MISC>, <EVENT>, <OFF-TOPIC> Access the list online at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EDI-L Yahoo! Groups Links . Please use the following Message Identifiers as your subject prefix: <SALES>, <JOBS>, <LIST>, <TECH>, <MISC>, <EVENT>, <OFF-TOPIC> Access the list online at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EDI-L Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EDI-L/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
