edi consulting newsletter

EDI Specialists, Inc. Becomes Newest Member of the American Staffing Association

Tue, 16 Aug 2011 00:00:00 EDT

EDI Specialists, Inc., in Raynham, MA, has joined the American Staffing Association, a trade organization that represents the U.S. staffing industry. Millions of Americans go to work for U.S. staffing companies every day, working across all occupational areas, and over 15% of temporary and contract employees working in technical or informational technology jobs. As a technology-focused staffing and implementation services firm, EDI Specialists, Inc., specializes in the areas of electronic data interchange (EDI) consulting, enterprise application integration (EAI) consulting, Microsoft Technologies (SharePoint, .NET, Cloud Computer, Workflow, WCF, and BizTalk Consulting) as well as Information Technology (IT) solutions.

Microsoft PDC Rebranded Microsoft BUILD

Shashi Raina, Practice Manager, Microsoft Technologies — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 00:00:00 EDT

Beginning with the 2011 conference, Microsoft has decided to rebrand the Professional Developer Conference (PDC) as Microsoft BUILD. The name change of this popular conference from Microsoft PDC to Microsoft BUILD does not appear to convey a different meaning. If fact, I am not entirely sure what message is trying to be conveyed with the name change. Microsoft did not broadcast the name change as publically as one might imagine. In fact, for some odd reason, the rebranding of Microsoft PDC as Microsoft BUILD has not garnered much attention at all from the numerous Microsoft blogs and sites out there. In addition, the Microsoft BUILD registration page was so hidden that even search engines were not displaying the official registration page for standard terms such as "PDC Microsoft conference".

Secure Data Exchange through the DMZ

Sam Morris, Product Marketing Mngr, Attachmate Corporation — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 00:00:00 EDT

Organizations routinely need to exchange documents and other types of files with trading partners, business partners and customers. These days it is common practice to use the Internet as the external network over which those file transfers occur. Any time that the Internet comes into play for the movement of business data, however, data security becomes a critical consideration.

Fundamentals of Cryptography for Message Security

Melinda Powers, Vice President of Marketing, bTrade, LLC — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 00:00:00 EDT

The growing list of regulations for protecting data in virtually every size organization and industry means enterprises are being pressed hard to find effective, affordable, easy-to-implement and use data encryption technologies. Effective secure messaging technologies keep sensitive information private, prevent anyone from tampering with the contents of messages and authenticate the identity of both the message's sender and recipient.

This whitepaper will cover:
- Cryptographic Security Services
- Using Cryptography to Provide Privacy
- Digital Signatures
- Management of Public Keys
- Secure Messaging Using AS2
DOWNLOAD WHITEPAPER

The Rise and "Fear" of Latin American e-Invoicing

John Fox, Marketing Director, Crossgate, Inc. — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 00:00:00 EDT

With most of the world's businesses focusing in on the U.S., Europe and China, many companies are unfamiliar with the huge advances that have been made with e-Invoicing in Latin American countries. These advances are large enough that some believe that this emerging market is the current global leader in e-Invoicing. But, with the positive accolades that Latin American governments are receiving from their e-Invoicing advancements, there is a downside. Companies must bear the burden of rapidly implementing compliant e-Invoicing systems or else suffer fines or even jail time.

EDI Point Of Sale (POS) 852 Data: A Primer

David Matsil, President of Sales & Marketing, Enhanced Retail Solutions — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 00:00:00 EDT

There are many different ways for suppliers to obtain POS data from their retail partners, such as emailed reports or web portals. Walmart's Retail Link offers by far the most detailed view. Unfortunately other retailers' portals make it difficult to impossible to get granular views (e.g.: SKU and door level). Happily there is another choice: An EDI document called an 852.

Accelerated Transactions, Increased Security a Bullseye for Dart Transit Company, Trading Partners

Jill Barlow — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 00:00:00 EDT

As one of North America's largest truckload carriers, Dart Transit Company understands the importance of moving items between points quickly and safely. That's why, to better complete transactions with its widespread trading partner network, the multi-generational, family-owned business required the right integration tools for more efficient communication.
READ CASE STUDY

EDI Academy

Michael Kotoyan — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 00:00:00 EDT

The following is an extract from the EDI Fundamentals & Best Practices training course offered by The EDI Academy (http://ediacademy.com/). This small extract is just one element of the whole course and should not be considered as an EDI tutorial. This article attempts to do three things: 1) Explain which EDI transactions may be transmitted in real-time mode 2) Explain how the 824 can be used as an alternative to proprietary exceptions reporting 3) Wrapping EDI in SOAP XML

Wayne's World

Wayne Marshall, VP, Professional Services — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 00:00:00 EDT

You know, living in the woods makes one very attuned to nature and the changing seasons. Autumn is coming on fast here. Apples are ready to pick this weekend. Working in the IT & EDI Staffing and Services industry is quite similar in a way. At EDI Specialists, we are all very much aware of economic conditions, especially where the jobs market is at any given point. Though it feels like our economy is headed back toward another autumn, or worse, our company has managed to find itself in what can only be described as a different economy from the rest of the country.

"NEECOM NEEWS"

Ira Keltz, NEECOM President — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 00:00:00 EDT

As we are midway through the summer months, we briefly look back at our very successful New England Electronic Commerce Users' Group (NEECOM) Two-Day Spring Conference that was held at the Doubletree Hotel in Westborough MA on May 4th and 5th. We had well over 100 EDI/EC professionals attend the event representing over 50 different companies from across the US and Canada. We also had an exceptional turnout for our second day dual track Educational sessions with over 40 people taking advantage of the outstanding instructors in a half day EDI-101 course, led by Gregg Lanni and an Advanced EDI course led by Clifton Gonsalves and Tommy Tompkins. The feedback from the attendees was overwhelmingly positive for the Day one sessions that included topics such as Steve Hatajlo's "Greening of the Business Process", Barry Sponslor's "Design Time Automation for B2B Ecommerce", Eric Linxwiler's "How the ASN can benefit both the Retailer and Supplier", Josh Hardy's "Sterling Commerce and IBM Merger Update", and Tommy Tompkin's "Fed Ex EDI Compliance'.