My magical way has been to keep a copy of every IG I have ever written. At
one point as well I also carefully built a series of Word files where each
file contained a single table which presented a transaction definition or
segment definition. When I needed to create a new IG I could copy those
tables into the new IG - as a result the "EDI" portion of the guide took
little time to generate. Adding the business context takes more time and
much more thought.
Here are some examples of what *NOT* to do from some unnamed major players:
1. Leave segments or data elements out. One major US retailer now operates
in Canada, buying from Canadian suppliers. However the implementation guide
does not include any indication of how they handle the goods and services
tax. When you phone or email they provide details.
2. Leave out qualifying codes - just point the trading partner to the
standards. Why not tell us which ones you actually use? If your interface
for inbound invoices is looking for specific qualifying codes then you need
to tell your suppliers.
3. Misuse the qualifying codes. Another major US retailer sends a REF
segment in purchase orders with an "MR" qualifier ("merchandise type code"
for those that do not recognize it immediately). However the data is usually
the vendor number and occasionally actually is a merchandise type code. How
are the suppliers supposed to use the data correctly?
4. Have limitations on the EDI data that are imposed by your interface or
business application that are not documented. For example: invoice numbers
that can only be 6 characters long. Or must not include any characters other
than 0..9.
I am sure there are lots of other examples...
Bill Laidley
CT Resources
[email protected]
Voice: 604-628-7121
-----Original Message-----
From: Norton, Karen [mailto:[email protected]]
Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2009 11:21 AM
To: Bill Laidley; Michael Mattias/LS; EDI-L
Subject: RE: [EDI-L] Call for Analogies
I think you guys are saying the same thing as Art -- use a tool like EDISIM
or SpecBuilder and add comments. I've used EDISIM, I know how to build IGs.
Yes, of course I know what we want and expect and will require from our
trading partners, and I intend to tell them. I just thought Bill had some
other "magical" way of doing things straight from Word... We don't have a
source for standards other than the difficult-to-use GIS mapper, so I'm
trying to get that too. Bill, sorry for misinterpreting what you were
saying.
Karen.
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Bill
Laidley
Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2009 11:13 AM
To: 'Michael Mattias/LS'; 'EDI-L'
Subject: RE: [EDI-L] Call for Analogies
Thank you Michael,
I was trying to decide how to say what you just said.
Bill Laidley
CT Resources
[email protected]
Voice: 604-628-7121
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of
Michael Mattias/LS
Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2009 11:08 AM
To: EDI-L
Subject: Re: [EDI-L] Call for Analogies
> Interesting approach. Would you share an example? Not an entire IG, but
> enough to show what you mean. Do you require certain qualifiers or allow
> the TP to dictate? Do you just send an example transaction and then
> explain the business context in several paragraphs? I've been both the
> caller and the callee on those phone calls you mention, so if you have a
> way to avoid them, please give us a hint.
Whoa there, we may be getting two things mixed up here....
First, to create an IG, it's silly to think you can do it without some kind
of standards reference. Yes, tools like EDISIM *include* some easy-to-use
standards data you can suck in with one or two magic keystrokes. But if you
otherwise have a source of standards info, why not create your IGs with a
word-processing tool with which you are experienced? Seems silly to me to
learn a new word processing tool when what you are doing reduces to....
processing words.
Second, on your question above, " Do you require certain qualifiers or
allow the TP.....?"
If you are creating an IG to be used by all your (customers|vendors), you
decide these things BEFORE you process that first word.
An EDI IG is just one more manifestation of "communications skills."
If the recipient understands that IG both in business and technical
contexts, you done good; If he doesn't you didn't.
Michael C. Mattias
Tal Systems Inc.
Racine WI
[email protected] <mailto:mmattias%40talsystems.com>
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