A lot of great suggestions have been previously offered, for sure. And there are even more options and suggestions out there.
I'm in line with Leah's thinking - really work it out in your head and in your business needs. Since you already use EDI, you're steps ahead in the game. You've got "some" kind of system in place to trade the documents you do trade. To maybe assist the list a bit more, you may want to also talk about what documents you currently trade with your partners. I'm guessing you're a supplier in the retail/grocery world. As a side note, to what has been said about hiring a consultant to help you - find somebody with experience in grocery. While for the most part, a document is a document is a document (at the basic core) it's data, elements, segments and such to get your information to them (and back, of course). Find somebody that knows your business and what you do. Now, you said that you are currently going through a VAN - which "VAN" are you using.? One thought - use a third party EDI provider - such as DI Central, SPS Commerce, or whomever - that uses a web-based EDI system. That way, your investment is smaller (up front) and it's mostly easy. Instead of focusing on XML to flat file (or reverse), talk with your trading partners about how they would ideally send you the data. It could be that some of them (many?) are already doing some document manipulation on their end to change an X12 file to an XML file. Inovis is a great product - I worked with it for years - and it's a solid and easily used system. It will require somebody with specific knowledge to help install, use and maintain the system - just as any product will. Craig Dunham Bear Necessities Computing EDI Sherpa Author/blogger <http://www.retailedi.com/> RetailEDI.com <http://editalk.com/> EDITalk.com <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EDI-L/message/32402;_ylc=X3oDMTJyZ21vMWM1BF9T Azk3MzU5NzE1BGdycElkAzIxMDc2NzYEZ3Jwc3BJZAMxNzA1MDA1NTgyBG1zZ0lkAzMyNDAyBHNl YwNkbXNnBHNsawN2bXNnBHN0aW1lAzEzNTI5Nzg0OTE-> EDI translation for a small firm already going through a van Wed Nov 14, 2012 6:57 pm (PST) . Posted by: <mailto:[email protected]?subject=Re%3A%20EDI%20translation%20for%20a% 20small%20firm%20already%20going%20through%20a%20van> "gisnewbie" gisnewbie Hi We are a small firm doing EDI with our partners. We currently go through a VAN that charges us an arm and a leg for each map since the data needs to come to us as xml while our partners are only able to send flat files. Is there any tool out there that we can use just for the translation so we can skip on the 100,000 dollars we might end up having to pay the van for translating out messages for us.... I have looked at Inovis, biztalk and edifecs ....are these viable poducts that would serve our purpose within the budget. Thanks Appreciate all advice. [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ ... 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: [email protected] [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/
