To continue doing business with Wal-Mart, manufacturer Murray, Inc., needed to upgrade its e-commerce infrastructure. The pressure was welcome, says Tim Bolton, electronic data interchange manager at the Brentwood, Tenn., builder of snowblowers, lawn mowers and recreational gear.
Murray already used electronic data interchange (EDI) to electronically exchange business documents such as purchase orders, invoices and shipping notices with Wal-Mart. But Wal-Mart wants to do EDI a more modern way.
Over the past few years, Wal-Mart has used its clout to encourage its suppliers to shift to swapping EDI messages via the Internet rather than using private value-added networks (VAN) that incur per-message charges. Specifically, Wal-Mart now insists on using Internet EDI software that adheres to Applicability Statement 2 (AS2 ).
AS2 is a draft specification the IETF developed that describes how to create a connection and securely transport an EDI file over the Internet. “AS2 is a good direction for us to take,” Bolton says. “It took a customer like Wal-Mart, which is our primary customer, to require it.”
Murray is a typical manufacturer, forced to find a technology balance that satisfies its retailer customers who want to keep doing things the old way and those who want to adopt new e-commerce processes. AS2 was the first big hurdle it tackled recently. Next up is data synchronization, another Wal-Mart-mandated initiative.
The idea behind data synchronization is to make sure every application that contains or uses product data is working with the same information, so that inaccurate data doesn’t get shuffled between trading partners.
To eliminate costly shipping discrepancies, invoicing errors and trade-settlement maneuvers, the industry has been moving toward adopting standard formats for exchanging product information. The Uniform Code Council (UCC) and its European counterpart, EAN International, have identified more than 150 attributes that can be used for item descriptions, such as color, size, item packaging type, and the number of items that form a case and pallet.
The UCC’s nonprofit subsidiary, UCCnet , offers data pool services for validating and publishing supplierprovided product information. Wal-Mart is requiring its suppliers to use UCCnet to synchronize item data – and AS2 is the means of linking to the UCCnet hub.
In the past, Murray has tried other ways of using the Internet as a transport mechanism for e-business documents. For example, the company tried using Secure FTP with some of its customers, but there was never enough consistency or agreement on how to do Secure FTP between partners, Bolton says. With companies like Wal-Mart backing it, AS2 has the momentum it needs for standardization to set in. “AS2 really answered the dilemma of using the Internet for business-to-business communications,” Bolton says.
For Murray, however, adopting AS2 doesn’t mean instantly getting rid of VANs.
The bulk of Murray’s EDI transactions still are carried on a VAN from provider Sterling Commerce . What’s changed is the access method. Murray uses AS2 instead of traditional bisynchronous dial-up modems to communicate with the VAN, Bolton says.
“Eventually, as more and more business entities acquire AS2 technology, the need for having a VAN will lessen,” Bolton says. “But I don’t think it’s going to happen anytime soon. I think that for the next several years there will be a need for VAN.”
Analysts agree. EDI VANs have defied predictions of their imminent demise and, in fact, continue to grow. EDI standards and VAN-based document transport will be the mainstay of commercial business-to-business activity for the foreseeable future, according to Forrester Research. The firm predicts a 5% to 10% annual increase in the total number of EDI transactions during the next five years.
So how does a company balance the old and the new?
For Murray, the answer is a new, more flexible e-commerce platform. Murray has worked to upgrade its EDI platform to handle a broader range of communications protocols, not just EDI VAN traffic.
The company was using Sterling’s Gentran:Server software for its EDI processes. The software, which Murray runs on Unix, automates the exchange of EDI documents with its partners and customers. Now Murray is about to start migrating to the vendor’s Gentran Integration Suite (GIS) after lengthy analysis of the new platform and business-process development, Bolton says.
“Gentran:Server is a great product for EDI,” Bolton says. “But what it isn’t good at is being very flexible when it comes to integrating with other business applications. As a hub for translation and trading partner management, it’s good for that and pretty easy to use, since it’s designed explicitly for that kind of environment.”
GIS is a much more flexible integration platform, and combines any-to-any integration brokering services with broad file support and content-based routing capabilities. IBM, SeeBeyond, Tibco Software, webMethods and other vendors offer similar business-to-business gateway products that combine application integration features.
Murray will be able to use GIS to handle multiple customer-specific transport and translation requirements – such as Wal-Mart’s AS2 mandate – via the same platform. It offers more robust development tools that will let Murray maintain a common platform, and common method of developing business processes, Bolton says.
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GIS will eliminate a lot of the custom coding Bolton previously had to do to get Gentran:Server to work with other applications. For example, a Wal-Mart executive recently asked Murray to divert certain purchase orders that Wal-Mart wants to manually review before they hit Murray’s internal system. Making that routing change meant Bolton had to tamper with Murray’s legacy purchase-order processing program. “I had to go touch that critical program right there in the middle-if I mess it up and it breaks, no purchase orders come in,” Bolton says.
With GIS, Bolton will be able to specify a routing exception without tampering with the legacy processing application.
GIS also can help Murray execute its data synchronization plans.
For Murray, the idea of data synchronization is appealing – and not just because Wal-Mart demands it. Whether a company uses XML, EDI or proprietary formats to exchange data, it won’t make a difference. Data synchronization will help ensure the data is properly translated among formats in a more real-time manner, Bolton says.
“The importance of data synchronization cannot be overstressed. However, UCCnet, in particular, has not done a very good job achieving that vision based on a lot of confusion, poor information and changing standards,” Bolton says.
It’s less of a technology issue than a governance one. It’s a big task for UCCnet and other data pool providers, such as Transora and WorldWide Retail Exchange, to try to consolidate and agree on product information standards, Bolton acknowledges. Early adopters have to live with the wrangling, changing standards and sometimes contradictory messages – such as when UCCnet suddenly decided it would no longer accept the color code agency Murray had been using.
“We’ve been a little frustrated with the fact that what should be a clear standard has not been very clear,” Bolton says. “But it’s getting better.”
