Bob raises an excellent point here - and this is something that will affect any kind of cost analysis you run...
And that is HOW you run your EDI.... Bob brings up the concepts of hardware/servers/office equipment and so on... but these costs really can only factor into the cost if you have dedicated hardware and systems for your EDI.... If, however, you run a program on your already existing equipment (such as Trusted Link i-Series) that is used for other aspects of your business, the cost analysis gets more difficult.... At this point, the only "solid" cost you can actually have is the cost of your EDI application and/or licensing, your monthly VAN fees and the salary of your EDI person(s).... For example, I work for a major retailer and we use TL for i-Series on our AS400. It connects to many other applications also running on the 400.... So the cost at the hardware level is sort of difficult to figure out. Basically, you'd have to figure out what percentage of the 400 is being used only for the EDI processes. The only hard figures we'd have to use would be the cost of our application, our VAN fees and My salary. As for figuring a cost analysis or an ROI, we'd then have to depend upon the buying department to figure out what costs they have in creating a PO that is sent via EDI vs. a non-EDI order. And the same would need to be done at the warehouse level - what a non-EDI order costs to receive vs. an EDI order. You'd have to track the costs of any/all errors in orders processed each way - costs of data entry errors on the vendor side (we ordered 100 but they entered 1000 - or vice versa).... The costs of personnel to enter orders and man fax machines or open mail envelopes.... All of these would need to be tracked and factored into the equation.... Sure, there are the hardline approaches mentioned (i.e. you do EDI with us or no orders) and even those will need to be factored into the mix - on both sides (buyer vs. vendor)... If we do not buy from vendor XYZ because they do not do EDI, then we need to also consider what the loss of the sales of their product(s) in our overall revenue would be. Basically, this is not an easy question to answer or cost to figure... There are far too many variables to be considered... and any one person's cost figuring may not consider what this other person's needs are... Just My 2 bits on this.... Craig Dunham EDI Coordinator Big 5 Sporting Goods. --- In [email protected], "Bob Scheuermann" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Not to interject a bean-counting analysis to this, but aren't the > hardware/server costs and possibly software costs, office equipment etc. > amortized/depreciated? If so, wouldn't this would affect your overall > result? > > It's a very good question, I'm just wondering about this component of > the metric. > > Bob ... 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/
