Hi Everyone,

Recently, we have had numerous prospects ask about AS2 with regards to EDI communication with their trading partner(s).  This prompted me to go looking back through our Blog Archives – I was able to find this informative post by Nazma in Help Desk:

http://www.ebridgeconnections.com/blog/what-is-as2-edi/

Do you have questions, or comments regarding AS2 Communication – feel free to leave a comment below.

Best regards,

Dave Malda.

Dave Malda Uncategorized

Good Morning Everyone,

This morning, as I browse back through our Blog and some posts from 2010, 2011 – I noticed a great article series written by our Mike Catalfamo on eCommerce Integration and the best practice process for integrating Sales Orders, Customer info, Inventory Quantities, and Shipping details (tracking #’s etc) to your accounting package.  Here are the 4 parts of this series again:

1. An Introduction to eCommerce and Accounting Package Integration
2. Creating eCommerce Sales Orders
3. Managing eCommerce Inventory
4. Updating Sales Orders and Thoughts on Shipping Info (Tracking #’s etc)

Enjoy the read – Mike and I would both love to hear your feedback on the proposed best practice approaches.

Best,
Dave Malda.

Dave Malda eCommerce AspDotNetStorefront integration, Magento integration, Microsoft Dynamics AX, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Microsoft Dynamics SL, SAP Business One, Volusion integration

How does EDI work? What is the process? Why do people use it? What are the advantages/disadvantages?

Recently, someone posted these questions on Quora and thought I would post my response here as well.

EDI (electronic data interchange) is a standard data structure that allows companies with differing hardware and software systems to exchange information in a common  format.  EDI is used to communicate a variety of information and is typically used in a supply chain.  It is widely adopted in retail, healthcare, automotive and even by the U.S. Department of Defense.

In my experience, no one does EDI because they want to, they do EDI because a partner in a business relationship mandates it, however it does help save time and money when it comes to communicating business information documents.  Major retailers such as Wal-Mart, Target and Home Depot most commonly use EDI to communicate the following information: Orders to their suppliers (850), Invoices from their suppliers (810), Shipment notices from their suppliers (856). There are also a number of other documents that are used but these three are almost always required in a retail relationship.

There are many different EDI solutions in the marketplace so the process and tools you set up and use can differ but the high level processing steps are the same. Read more…

Mike Catalfamo General EDI

If your EDI trading partner has asked you to transmit ASN documents, it is likely that the UCC/EAN-128 barcode label is also required. The label, usually attached to each carton or the entire pallet, allows the shipping receiver to quickly determine the contents of the carton/pallet in conjunction with the ASN paperwork.  This is done by scanning the SSCC-18 bar code at the bottom of the label.

While it seems reasonable to the trading partner that these labels are used since they speed up shipment verification at the receiving dock, they can be a pain for the supplier to generate, particularly since they contain bar codes that need to match the corresponding ASN document.

The labels are typically 4″x6″ in portrait mode and usually need to be printed on thermal paper.  Let’s look at specifications for two different trading partners, Lowe’s and The Sports Authority.

As you can see, both labels contain the same basic information, the exact layout will vary by trading partner. Additionally, some trading partners are more strict than others about tolerances regarding font size, spacing, paper type, barcode density and so on. Read more…

Mike Catalfamo General EDI, Technology Corner

Salesforce pioneered the Software-as-a-Service industry and is the leading CRM solution, which is why I am excited to announce exciting news regarding the eBridge integration connector for Salesforce.

We have enhanced the integration connection to allow greater flexibility, including:

• Access to any objects related to an “Opportunity”, including those that are one or more steps removed. For example, for Opportunity –> Account –> Case, the Case object is not linked directly to the Opportunity but we will be able to ‘tow’ it along when we pull the Opportunity.
• Access custom objects related to the Opportunity.  Salesforce is almost always customized to accommodate specific business processes or workflows and that means adding objects that are not native to the default Salesforce environment.  Now eBridge can access custom objects so we can accommodate your specific business usage of Salesforce!
• Access an unlimited number of user-created fields (maximum was previously 20) on the Opportunity and any of the objects that come down with the Opportunity.  This means we can support an unlimited number of custom fields on the Contacts object, for example, since Contacts is linked to the Opportunity.  Of course all of this true for custom objects as well.

Here is a diagram highlighting the Opportunity object in green and all the related standard objects we can access, in orange.  Don’t forget, if you create a custom object that is linked to any of these, we can access that as well!  Click the image to enlarge.

We are always looking for your feedback on how you would like to integrate Salesforce with your back-office systems so please leave your comments below or on The Core, the eBridge community forum.

Mike Catalfamo CRM Integration accounting integration, CRM Integration, Integration, salesforce.com

Software-based consulting services are tricky. Being involved in the industry for 10+ years, I have made a few observations about the perception most people have regarding the value of time spent by software consulting professionals.

It is well known that lawyers and psychiatrists bill their time by the minute, which no one seems to dispute.  For whatever reason though, many other consultants are not afforded the same understanding.  Perhaps it gets muddy when the company you are working with is selling a product and professional services, in which case the line is blurred in terms of what exactly you are paying for.  Maybe it is because the value of software itself is diminished; after all, I’m sure you have all met someone that has illegitimate (illegal) copy of some popular software package.

Either way, consulting services are about paying for the time of someone with the experience and expertise to help you solve a problem that should have a positive net result for you or your business.  I have delivered literally hundreds of projects and I would have to say that the most important thing is managing expectations.

Like any relationship, a business initiative requires co-operation and effort from both Read more…

Mike Catalfamo Technology Corner, eBRIDGE Blog

People find EDI intimidating enough on its own and an SDQ (Store Destination Quantity) order adds another twist.  In a previous article, “SDQ Made Easy!“, Andrea Hunter provides a good introduction.  I would like to go into a little more detail in this post.

An SDQ order is an efficient way to order a product that needs to ship to multiple locations.  Since VANs (value-added-networks) charge per kilo-character, I suspect there was some financial basis for this structure since it drastically cuts down on the amount of EDI code needed to communicate the order details.

With non-SDQ orders, the ship-to location would be specified as part of the order header which means everything gets shipped to that location.

Let’s have look at some EDI code from an SDQ order. Read more…

Mike Catalfamo Uncategorized

Recently, we looked at some questions you should be asking to help you narrow your choices when seeking a software solutions provider. Now I want to turn the tables and provide some insight as to what is happening on the other side.

Ultimately, the salesperson is trying to determine the following:

1. Fit: Can I offer a solution that solves the major problem(s) expressed by the prospective customer?
2. Budget: Does the prospective customer have an actual budget allocated to pay for the solution?
3. Probability to Close (PTC): How soon can I close the deal?

You are likely to hear some form of the following questions that attempts to get to the root of the three questions above.

• Is there an actual project (or is this a discovery/information gathering exercise)? (PTC)
• What is driving the need for a solution? (Fit) – For EDI, this may be  a new business relationship with Home Depot and for eCommerce it can be volumes that makes manual data entry impractical. Read more…

Mike Catalfamo Technology Corner, eBRIDGE Blog

A few articles ago, I wrote about effective communication in business and examined the value of asking the right questions. Today I would like to provide a list of some questions that should help you narrow the field of providers when procuring a software project.

I have been in the software services industry for over 10 years and have worked on hundreds of projects, from clarifying the scope of work, through implementation and project wrap-up. I have also been on the receiving end of deliverables and have just about seen it all in terms of what could go wrong during the delivery.

In a future post, I will look at some specific reasons projects go over time and budget, but today I would like to share some key questions you should be asking to help get your project off on the right foot.

Keep in mind that these assume you will have some type of ongoing business relationship with that company, including technical support, upgrades, future product purchases and additional professional services.

Two Guys in a Basement?

Depending on what exactly you are trying to achieve, a freelance consultant may be a great fit for your project, but if you are implementing a project that affects mission-critical data, be wary of a fly-by-night solutions. You may or Read more…

Mike Catalfamo Technology Corner, eBRIDGE Blog

In my previous article, we started looking at how important effective communication is, specifically in business. We saw how taking the time to ask the right questions can save everyone time and make you look like the professional you are.

Asking the right questions is useless though if you don’t listen to the responses. Stop for a moment and think about the difference between hearing and listening. Is there a difference? Absolutely! Hearing is passive, something which you have you have no control over. You hear a siren or you hear name shouted from across a room. You can ‘tune-out’ ambient noise but you can’t turn your ears off to prevent you from hearing.

Have you ever had a conversation with someone and they were not paying attention to what you were saying, perhaps formulating a response or comment before you finished speaking? What about that person who is constantly checking their phone (or worse, answering it), or is otherwise distracted? Read more…

Mike Catalfamo eBRIDGE Blog