Hi! I think it make no sense to develop new software. Also you don't need to use any VAN's for AS2.
We developed a professional AS2 software in JAVA and offer this software as open source (GPL). Everyone can download it and use it completely for free. It allready used by a lot of companies for there communication with there partners. We also offer a free server in internet which you can use for test again any AS2 software. More info at http://www.mec-as2.org/. Leo -- Leo Mendelson mendelson-e-commerce EDI/EAI software for high requirements http://www.mendelson-e-c.com/ --- In [email protected], "w_cohen99" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Well, we are a grocery wholesaler and, as such, are customers of the > trading partners (vendors). > We have been operating for over 10 years using Easylink and have > always connected to our trading partners via the VAN. None of our > trading partners have ever said to us we must go to AS2 (like > Walmart did). > We are looking to cut down on monthly/yearly costs and if AS2 might > allow us to do that then I need to do further investigation. It > might turn out that AS2 is not going to save us any money, whether > short or long term. > > I am currently attempting to poll our top 5 trading partners (EDI > volume) to see if they are EDI-capable and are willing to > communicate directly with us via AS2. > I will be writing up an ROI analysis on this and if it is determined > that our top 5 trading partners can do AS2 and they combined cut out > 80% of our VAN traffic then this would be an achievable investment > for us. > > I've only checked with one other company who happens to also be a > VAN about their AS2 software. Inovis has a package called > BizConnect which costs $5000 for the first 5 tp's, plus an > additional $4,800 for licensing, plus 20% of that for maintenance > ($900). So, up-front costs are seemingly high and would obviously > make our ROI of a longer duration. > > I was thinking, and perhaps incorrectly so, that if we could find > and buy some encryption software we could then do the AS2 > communications ourselves and not need the AS2-based solutions that > the VANs (and others) seem to want to push. This would effectively > get rid of the 80% EDI transactions going through our VAN now. We > would most likely never eliminate the VAN completely but in the long > run the costs should be lower over time. > > I realize the responsibilities would lie on our company as we would > then be acting like a VAN as far as audiing and errors, etc. > However, I'm still thinking that even if our top 5 vendors/trading > partners can do AS2 then only 20% EDI volume would go through the > VAN and make this a cost-effective alternative for us. It may take > several months to realize those savings but the decision is not up > to me - I only write up my findings. > > Any thoughts on this as well as specific software I might research? > > Thanks again! > Walter > > > --- In [email protected], "Carl Galgano" <cgalgano2@> wrote: > > > > A lot of this depends on if you are trading with customers or > vendors. If > > you are the customer, then obviously you have quite a bit of > leverage. > > Sometimes change can be painful. > > > > AS2 is a good solution, but not the "free on the internet" > solution you may > > be looking for. AS2 for 75 partners will get expensive for the > software as > > well as the implementation. Obviously the type of data (ie > banking or > > HIPAA) might mandate you go with some sort of secure communication > protocol. > > > > We have a customer who also was using easylink via a dial up BSC > connection. > > They had about 60 proprietary EDI partners (internal app) and 15 > real EDI > > partners. We ended up building them an FTP server that only > served to > > communicate with partners and ditched the easylink VAN all > together. If was > > a much cheaper solution that supporting AS2, and frankly, this > customer did > > not need the security of AS2. > > > > It has been a very cost effective solution, and we maintain it for > the > > customer at a fraction of these VAN charges they were spending. > > > > cjg > > > > > > Carl J. Galgano > > EDI Consulting Services, Inc. > > 770-422-2995 > > www.ediconsulting.com > > > > 600 Kennesaw Avenue > > Suite 400 > > Marietta, GA 30060 > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: [email protected] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On > Behalf Of > > w_cohen99 > > Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2007 10:00 PM > > To: [email protected] > > Subject: [EDI-L] Reducing/eliminating our EDI VAN > > > > We are a mid-size company and use EDI through Easylink (VAN). We > have 75 > > trading partners of which some of them are EDI brokers and some of > them > > themselves use other VANs and we pay about $1k per month for our > low-volume > > communications costs (~3600kc). We [still] use a dial-up modem > while > > connecting to Easylink. > > > > We want to get into the 21st century and get away from using the > modem so we > > are looking at other options (internet/web-based, ftp, http, AS1, > AS2, etc). > > > > Ideally we'd like to try and eliminate the VAN communication costs > from the > > picture. What we've done so far is look at other VANs that allow > us to get > > off the modem and go through an internet protocol (via web > browser) for > > communicating. > > > > My question is how do I go about researching other alternatives > such as > > using AS2? DO I need to poll all of my trading partners to see if > they can > > handle AS2? If some can handle AS2 and some can't then what are my > options? > > How can we [slowly] get off of teh EDI VAN? > > > > Thaks for any assistance. > > Walter > > > ... Please use the following Message Identifiers as your subject prefix: <SALES>, <JOBS>, <LIST>, <TECH>, <MISC>, <EVENT>, <OFF-TOPIC> Job postings are welcome, but for job postings or requests for work: <JOBS> IS REQUIRED in the subject line as a prefix. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EDI-L/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EDI-L/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> 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/
