Hi Ed,
I too remember those early days when EDI was marketed around the world as being the panacea to everything. My personal introduction to EDI was attending a Conference in Sydney Australia to hear all about "real" systems. I had just finished writing a tsr stock replenishment ordering system in assembly language for a pharmacutical company in a regional town. When I went back to work after going to the conference, we started work with some Wangs, some IBM mainframe and some PC equipment. It was fantastic working on these "big" machines. We had all the latest gear like 9600 baud modems cost a real lot of money. Can't remember now how much but it was a lot then. But let me give you a simple scenario of some ebXML chips being developed in Asia at the the moment. On particular chip is designed to go into (or attach onto) a mobile phone. When a business person goes and purchases petrol they place the phone (along with the chip) on a contact pad. The chip activates the contact pad to tell the receipt not to be printed but rather to be sent into the mobile phone. That happens and the user takes the mobile phone home without the paper receipt but with the electronic copy loaded in the phone. It then gets uploaded to the PC. No paper is lost, and the file is loaded into the accounting system. So simple. It's just one of the many simple technologies being developed in the Asia/Pacific region at the moment. If there are any Petrol companies who would like to trial the technology then please let me know. btw, as the phone is used in the payment office it poses no ignition threat. Bluetooth isn't used as the pad only wants to talk with mobile phones less than 10cm from the pad. There are exciting things happening with Reciepts and Invoices out there. The real challenge for developers is building an embedded accounting system that fits in a mobile phone or pda that can collect receipts/invoices on the go. I would suspect that the only real people that would have the skills to build devices like this in the future are the ones with the EDI backgrounds as now the same power that they had in their Wang, MIPs or Tandem box, is about the same as what you get in a PDA. It seems to me that a lot of really skilled people have been nodding off to sleep for a decade. That's ok, everybody needs a holiday now and again. :-) David Lyon Product Manager www.globaltradedesk.com On Friday 10 May 2002 23:09, Ed Broomfield wrote: > As I endeavour to keep abreast of this world's technological innovations in > the field of electronic commerce, I am constantly reminded of the vast > number of small business who still exchange paper invoices. > > When I joined the EDI bandwagon in the late eighties it seemed the paper > invoice was doomed and would not last more than a few years (of course, > there would always be some exceptions). Then, the biggest hurdle was > finding low-cost and reliable computers which could exchange documents > seamlessly and efficiently both with the outside world and with internal > accounting and logistics systems. > > Computers are now cheap, and reasonably reliable (sic), yet despite all > this, the man on the Clapham omnibus still feels safer with cellulose. > Maybe it's a generation thing. But I wonder whether it's in part due to the > fact that our industry is pathologically commited to generating steadily > greater levels of complexity , whereas manual trading has been around for > millenia and is more or less understood by one and all. Knowledge > engendours confidence and security - lack of knowledge can engendour > reluctance and fear (acronymophobia?). > > Are we not trying to run before we can walk with XML and small businesses? > What happened to hitting that critical mass with first-generation EDI? I > was taught by my masters not to impose EDI on a poor system as this would > only consolidate existing problems. This is surely still true for any new > technology. > > Reactions at your leisure, please! > > Ed Broomfield > > ---------------- > IT & Business Services > Specialists in e-business > Appt 3, Downs View, Holybourne, > Hampshire GU34 4HY, U.K. > Tel +44 (0)1420 543602 > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > > --- > You are currently subscribed to xmledi-group as: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to > %%email.unsub%% ---------------------------------------- Content-Type: text/html; charset="iso-8859-1"; name="Attachment: 1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Description: ---------------------------------------- --- You are currently subscribed to xmledi-group as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
