Frame relay + EDI = 'extranet'

Electrical manufacturers, distributors share e-commerce over MCI WorldCom managed net.

By David Rohde
Network World, 07/26/99

CONYERS, GA. - Here's a different kind of electronic commerce extranet - one that if you scratch beneath the surface, you'll find a whole lot of good old frame relay.

The Industry Data Exchange Association (IDEA), an electrical parts industry consortium, is in the process of linking hundreds of independent manufacturers and distributors into a single network run by MCI WorldCom.

The idea behind the network, called IDXchange, is to let distributors obtain specifications and pricing information, and eventually place orders, on a bewildering array of hundreds of thousands of electrical industry parts without having to deal with different electronic data interchange formats from each manufacturer.

IDEA and MCI WorldCom are labeling IDXchange an "extranet." But because it's really an inter-enterprise managed frame relay network, rather than an all-IP virtual private network (VPN), users will have to do more than find a browser-equipped PC and dial past a firewall. And they may have to dig into their pockets a little bit to take advantage of the service.

How IDXchange works

Each company that participates will become a customer of MCI's managed frame relay service.

MCI will configure and manage a Cisco Model 1605 router for each customer premises site and provide a frame relay connection of the user's choice, from 56K bit/sec to T-1. At 56K, the entire managed service costs $850 per month, including the local access line, plus an unspecified IDEA membership fee. The managed network fees rise to $2,900 per month for a full T-1 connection.

All frame relay circuits will terminate at MCI's network management center in Cary, N.C. In turn, the Cary center will maintain a T-1 frame relay link to a large database of EDI records called the Industry Data Warehouse, built under a separate contract by Triad Systems of Livermore, Calif.

By providing a permanent connection to the network via frame relay, the data warehouse can automatically push information, such as price changes and parts' inventory status, to individual users.

IDEA and MCI WorldCom officials say the expenditure is easily justified. In the past, distributors have generally relied on dial-up value-added networks (VAN) that charge by the kilocharacter - including MCI WorldCom's own EDI*Net, which typically charges 20 cents per kilocharacter. But for small distributors that cannot justify the higher fixed charge, MCI will still offer a dial-up option. However, those users cannot receive pushed information or engage in specialized member-to-member applications that some manufacturers are developing.

Sold on IDEA

IDEA and MCI officials are so confident of the electrical industry's interest in such a concept that they have signed a three-year contract to construct IDXchange while still selling the concept to the membership.

"It's a 'build it and they will come' network," says John O'Brien, a regional manager for MCI WorldCom who helped set up the project.

IDEA considered many traditional VANs to develop the network before settling on MCI.

"I don't believe that anybody else would have come off the usage-based model as much as MCI WorldCom," says Jeff Kernan, chief information officer at Lithonia Lighting, a large electrical parts manufacturer in Conyers, Ga.

Kernan, who is chairman of the electronic business and standards committee of the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), helped develop the specifications for the Industry Data Warehouse.

The product records are based on the ANSI X.12 EDI standard, but with modifications specific to the electrical industry.

"We've built a subset of descriptions on top of it," Kernan says. "A distribu- tor probably wants to talk to multiple manufacturers and doesn't want to learn multiple [database standards] for each manufacturer."

What's at stake

Industrywide, the inconsistency among EDI implementations results in a 20% rejection rate for orders and information requests, he says.

Kernan says the IDEA consortium -a partnership between NEMA and the National Association of Electrical Distributors - preferred to stick with frame relay rather than go with an IP VPN right now. IDEA wanted a purely closed network, rather than allow public access controlled by firewalls.

"MCI also brought us a VPN [proposal], but it would have been substantially more expensive to support," Kernan adds.