In message <1373384025.16174.yahoomail...@web120201.mail.ne1.yahoo.com>, Leah Halpin <leahhal...@yahoo.com> writes > On a objective basis, I would call the ANSI X12 standard much more >specific than UN/EDIFACT. I would not by any means consider X12 >segments to be nebulous.
I would agree with Leah. X12 transactions are closer to industry standard EDIFACT subsets than they are to the very large and general UNSMs. If I had two partners wanting to trade only with each other, without any need to conform to the requirements of established EDI users, I would tell them to use XML. There is so much more general support and expertise available for it than for the specialised EDI standards. Agreeing on the data they want to exchange is more important than the hierarchical structure used to convey it. However, this would be an unusual case. Trading partners normally belong to communities anchored in a mass of existing technology which, since it works pretty well, there is no great incentive to change. X12, EDIFACT (and even the obsolete Tradacoms in the UK) continue to attract new users. However I have noticed that for EDIFACT the use of recent directories is minimal. Even the latest 2012 version of the EANCOM standards is still based on D01 - twelve years old! Unless mandated by force majeure due to a government agency or a major hub there is little incentive to switch to newer version of the standards. We had a young man come to us for EDI training a year or two ago. He had worked in EDI recruitment, and noticed that there were few new young EDI specialists. He reckoned that the conventional EDI technology would persist for many decades, but that the pool of those knowledgeable about it would decrease steadily, until in a couple of decades expertise with EDI would become a scarce resource and would attract a considerable premium. He was long-sighted enough to be prepared to invest in this. I think his vision of the future is probably correct. It doesn't concern me; I am past my Sell-By date already. Regards Chris -- Chris Johnson mobile:+44 (0)7785 302122 Fax: +44 (0)870 0519 818 EDI website http://www.edimatrix.co.uk EDIMatrix Ltd work: 0844 414 6386 or +44 20 8778 1402 Registered in UK no. 2777624 Reg.Office: 34 Sydenham Rd, London SE26 5QF ------------------------------------ ... 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: edi-l-dig...@yahoogroups.com edi-l-fullfeatu...@yahoogroups.com <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: edi-l-unsubscr...@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
