IBM Sterling B2B Integrator

Similar to the elimination of upgrades and support for the Gentran family of products, the IBM Sterling B2B Integrator will also sunset some versions of this flagship product line.  Specifically, the IBM Sterling B2B Integrator version 6.1 will no longer see updates, enhancements and a committed support team.  Many companies are faced with a decision to either hang on to the product and risk the prospect of requiring software fixes, or look at options for upgrading to the newer versions.

To that end,  our Sterling Integrator Consulting Group has made the bold decision to offer both IBM Gentran EDI support in addition to providing a path to migrate all production EDI data to the new platform, Sterling Integrator, when you are ready.  The DIS Consulting resources  can buy some time for your company and allow the health of your EDI production data to flow.  You can reach out at DIS EDI Help

Sometimes the biggest factor is that companies do not have this in their budget and it becomes a financial decision, not just a technology determination.  This provides the customer with some time so that they can remain on the IBM B2B Sterling Integrator solution while reviewing options for the future.  As well, it then affords them the opportunity to accurately budget for the migration and implementation of the new platform.

 

Answers to likely questions

  1. Will IBM Sterling File Gateway 6.1 also be sunsetted?   YES.  Both products will no longer be supported come April 30, 2026.
  2. Will DIS support any IBM “unsupported” product?  YES.  Our Sterling Integrator Consulting Group can support any production data scenario to get you back and up and running so that your trading partner community is smiling.  Keep in mind DIS does not fix or maintain the actual software application so we would not be able to go into source code to change anything.
  3. Is there a cost to upgrade?  There is no cost to migrate as long as you are on a Support and Maintenance plan from IBM.  If you want to look at other options, besides the IBM Sterling B2B Integrator, you can get in touch with us at  Data Integration Specialists
  4. Do maps need to be changed?  NO but it will be wise to test (yourself or DIS will be glad to) before going live in production.
  5. We have a resource that knows EDI.  Can this person handle upgrades like this?  YES.  However, many of our customers have relied on DIS as our IBM EDI Consulting Group is filled with resources that have no less than 15+ years of experience with upgrades like this.  Many have worked at IBM and, because they do this on a regular basis, their best practices allow them to get the job done more timely and with less cost.  Learn more at Sterling Integrator Consulting Group
  6. This is not in my budget and the IBM Sterling B2B Integrator works fine.  Why should I upgrade?  You can wait and enlist our services to maintain your existing Gentran or B2B Integrator.  But, at some point, it will be wise as the latest versions provide security that you are on a supported solution as it likely is one of the most important software solutions in your company.  In addition, you will experience new enhancements, updates and shortcuts that will make your job easier.                                                                                                                           
    About Data Integration Specialists, LLC
    DIS incorporates 25+ years of integration expertise with all EDI and ERP applications.  If you’ve lost a resource and are looking to fill the gap either remote or onsite, DIS provides consultants that reduce costs, increase efficiency and offer an ROI that is unmatched in any industry.  Call 612-840-6753 or EMAIL

Blue Cherry Consulting

Blue Cherry Consulting

Blue Cherry Consulting rates too high?  You want one Blue Cherry resource allocated to your business?  The Data Integration Specialists Group will assign one, committed resource and the rates will be 20%-30% less than your $225/hr rate.  This Blue Cherry Consulting Group also recognizes that providing a consistent Blue Cherry ERP veteran to your system is advantageous as opposed to being at the mercy of entry level CGS employees who are not familiar with your business processes.  Because of the high rate and the fact that you are being told that there is only one option for Blue Cherry consultants, you are at the mercy of CGS. The DIS Blue Cherry Consulting Group offers a fair cost structure and will allocate one consistent expert with no less than 15+ years of experience with Blue Cherry implementations into apparel business environments.

Apparel Industry background

DIS offers leaders in the apparel industry that have backgrounds in business process improvement, business operations, EDI/WMS, Order to Cash management workflow, project management, warehouse operations, change management, inventory management, Blue Cherry production support, and more.  Our resources also have years of experience in apparel companies directly writing technical specs, report writing, creating test scripts, technical analysis, API development, designing, testing implementations of BlueCherry developments, ensuring compliance to existing and development of required data/reporting standards. As well, our textile experienced PMs spearhead projects to keep them on time and on budget and our BAs ensure that data points are consistent with internal and external business requirements.

Blue Cherry Core Module expertise

Data Integration Specialists has many techno functional Blue Cherry consultants who are experienced in all core modules for all CGS products. Often we are asked to determine which central logistics functions should be used together with core modules and then to define those processes. Data Integration Specialists Functional consultants assist in the setup and configuration of any CGS module. Often, there are requirements for simple configuration changes to data points or structures within Blue Cherry that are needed to complete an internal or external project.

Process Flow Documentation Process flow diagrams are created for all critical Blue Cherry ERP business processes. The process flow diagrams have step-by-step instructions that indicate the Blue Cherry program user and field-level steps.  This is helpful supplemental material to allow users to self-train and create SOP documents. Data Imports
SQL queries are written to extract data from existing business systems (or Excel) and they are converted to the Blue Cherry import formats.  The SQL queries can be executed as needed to extract the latest information from the existing systems. This allows for quicker refreshing of the TEST database for CRP’s and will shorten the  time to load data at go live.

Regarding getting across the finish line to Production Go Live!  Sometimes EDI testing is slowing it down!
Data Integration Specialists, LLC has 24 + years of extensive knowledge of EDI  and can assist in testing to ensure EDI transactions flowing through the Blue Cherry TEST system align with the EDI transactions flowing through the current production system. Data Integration Specialists, LLC also has experience creating/modifying ERP EDI maps.

Blue Cherry EDI Consulting responsibilities

  • Full Blue Cherry EDI integration map sets finalized and available
  • EDI Consulting Blue Cherry Integration Mapping/re-mapping and integration on ERP implementations / upgrades, i.e., and mapping conversion projects  -Map/Unit and end to end Testing
  • Production Support and EDI Admin
  • Total EDI Upgrade Project Management
  • EDI analysis / EDI mapping services / testing / implementation
  • Community management and rapid on-boarding
  • Gap analysis, API development and optimization
  • EDI upgrade planning / installation / configuration
  • VAN scripting, connectivity, communications
  • AS2 / EDIINT implementation
  • Remote EDI Managed Services
  • Pre / post process development
  • System health checks
  • Project audits

Remote Blue Cherry EDI Administration

Data Integration Specialists can assist you with  your EDI Support  and can help you with trading partner setups, EDI mapping services, connectivity to VANs, automated scheduling, error handling, and acknowledgement reconciliation.

Our Remote EDI Administration allows for complete Blue Cherry EDI Support and a service that provides for  outsourcing of all your EDI management, mapping and testing activities.  From monitoring the entire system, debugging maps, fixing errors, EDI mapping services,  business process building to being the direct contact with all your eBusiness trading partners, our 20+ years of EDI experience will help you maintain the health and growth of your trading partner relationships.

Industries/Domains

Automotive, Computers/Electronics, Defense, Government, Healthcare, Insurance, Manufacturing, Petroleum/Chemicals, Transportation/Logistics, and Supply-Chain (financial, consignment, replenishment, distribution, etc.)

Standards

ANSI X12, VICS, UCS, EDIFACT, TRADACOMS, and ROSETTANET.

How Do I Start?

Let’s allow for YOU to dictate when you migrate, not someone else.  There are many powerful, functional and scalable Ecommerce EDI solutions that allow for quick onset of EDI trading partner communities, ease of use with mapping processes and an unattended, automated solution that keeps your errors to a minimum and your overhead costs lows.

To take advantage of the Data Integration Specialists Blue Cherry Consulting resources:

Call 612-840-6753  email EDIhelp@dis-llc.com  ERPhelp@dis-llc.com

OVERVIEW OF SAP EDI MAPPING

What is SAP EDI mapping? 

SAP EDI mapping is the integration of inbound and outbound EDI messages to the SAP ERP application.  SAP EDI mapping includes seamless production processes that eliminate all manual data entry.  With the help of SAP EDI mapping, you can translate EDI messages into different ASCII formats like SAP or flat-file, XML and much more. In layman’s language, the SAP EDI mapping process is basically the process of how to integrate EDI information into and out of the SAP ERP applications for the benefit of healthy and prosperous EDI trading partner relationships.First of all, the outbound processing converts the SAP format to EDI format so that you can send it to other partners. Then the inbound processing converts the formatted file in EDI format into the SAP format.There are basically three steps: One, you will have to prepare the documents, then transfer the documents into EDI format and finally transmit the EDI documents to your partner.Steps involved in mapping factory

  • Collection of all existing maps
  • Consult the ERP SAP subject matter expert in order to define and capture ERP definition files for EDI mapping service.
  • Construct new map matrices which will define EDI requirements and then match them with the new layout of EDI.
  • Go through unit test for all maps
  • Connecting trading partner workflow to map flows
  • Go through the basic setup of maps
  • Get in touch with all the trading partners to communicate testing plans
  • Test, place in production
  • Finally, follow up support of all maps and EDI data flows.

What are the advantages of SAP EDI mapping?

Integration and automation are critical to eliminating manual processes.  When you eliminate manual processes, errors and exceptions go away.  One of the main processes involved in the SAP EDI mapping is the creation of a file which is then used to convert one form of data into another form. This map can be generated with the help of special applications which are specially designed to get the process done. With the help of SAP EDI mapping, any business can capitalize on all the investments that have been put in constructing the EDI infrastructure. Along with this, the EDI mapping also makes sure that the EDI data is automatically sent to different systems like SAP or other ERP applications. In addition to this, the EDI mapping can also be used to build XML like formats which can be used by business partners, while keeping the investment on the infrastructure.

The first and the most original form of EDI mapping involved the use of tailored, home grown in-house software that built a link between EDI and in-house ERP or accounting system. But this highly expensive and complicated process became the major reason for the development of EDI mapping software which proved to be economical and easy.

How to choose the best EDI mapping service?

If you want the best EDI mapping service then all you have to do is to just search for EDI mapping service on a search engine and you will get a long list of websites offering this service. You should never forget to check the reviews and rating of these websites in order to choose the best. And before making your final decision, you should make a pool of some of the best EDI mapping service providers and then pick the best one out of them based on your need and requirement.

Gentran upgrade path after IBM announces no more Gentran support

GENTRAN UPGRADE PATH

Because IBM has announced a sunset of their Gentran EDI product, it begs the question as to what path options are available for a Gentran upgrade?  The answer is: there many options as you look to Gentran  upgrade paths which include some top tier and powerful EDI platforms.  Enterprises, manufacturers  and other growing organizations work with a wide variety of business partners around the world to meet the needs of their customers and there have been thousands of upgrades already.  Once the process of the Gentran upgrade is finished, B2B processes and the high volume of B2B transactions will be optimized for efficiency and scale.

Many EDI solutions by provide secure, reliable integration of all B2B processes and integrations through a single gateway. As a result, organizations become better organized, more efficient, and their scalable B2B relationships are improved.

These enterprise EDI solutions connect your ECommerce to your other B2B integrations – simplifying supply chain operations, securing communication networks, automating Ecommerce tasks and improving scalability.  The Gentran upgrade processes place organizations into a best of breed application that ensures Ecommerce processes run efficient and your EDI trading partner relationships are healthy and growing.

Enterprise level EDI software applications:

Sterling Integrator, OpenText BizManager, TIE Kinetix SmartBridge, ECS Delta / Liasion, WebMethods and more.

Some Enterprise level EDI features:

  • Business Process Management –  All enterprise products approach to integration centers around business process management. A business process is a goal-driven, ordered flow of activities that accomplishes a business objective.
  • Core Transaction Engine – The Engine orchestrates all processes including your message exchange, routing, translation, and other important business processes.
  • Business Process Visibility – During the execution of a business process, at every step, these platforms maintainsthe status of the process and the current version of the business data associated with the process step.
  • Process Automation – Do your employees have to re-enter data from one system or process into another?  All EDI platforms will help you streamline and automate routine tasks, thereby eliminating redundant manual data entry and the inevitable costly errors it introduces to your business processes.  The platform architecture is intended to run identified processes in a scheduled, automated fashion.  Workflows can be set up to run in unattended mode and in the background which lessens manual tasks, decreases errors and reduces time that your EDI Admin has to monitor production data flow.
  • Intelligent On boarding– Uses partner self-provisioning to simplify trading partner on boarding process. With built-in templates to standardize the on boarding process, and the ability to create customized and reusable business processes,  the platforms can help you connect with partners and automate business processes with them more quickly, regardless of partner size, importance or type.  These solutions will also significantly reduce the burden on your staff by automating much of the on boarding process.
  • Web Extensions – you can create and customize pages that users can access over the Internet to interact with data. The browser-based technology works hand-in-hand with other components.
  • Flexible support for B2B data formats and protocols– All platforms support multi-gigabyte file handling, policy-based file transfer, web services (SOAP), HTTP, HTTPS, S/FTP/S client and server, AS1, AS2, AS3, SMTP, RosettaNet, Zengin TCP/IP, WebDAV, and IBM Sterling Connect:Direct.
  • Any-to-any data mapping/translation– Includes a multi-purpose data transformation engine and graphical data mapping tool to support all common EDI standards, XML standards, and Internet standards for B2B data transactions.
  • Document automation processing– Creates end-to-end process automation through document conversion, routing, delivery, exception handling, and business rule validation.
  • Over 300 adapters– Most applications include adapters for enterprise solutions, such as all IBM solutions, Oracle, SAP, PeopleSoft, GXS, Siebel, JD Edwards, Manugistics; adapters for EAI messaging, such as Oracle AQ, TIBCO Rendezvous, BEA Tuxedo, and IBM WebSphere MQ; other adapters for CORBA, JDBC, and instant messaging platforms.
  • First-class security – Leverages encryption, advanced authentication, digital certificates, role-based data access, and security for data transport.
  • End-to-end visibility– Provides business process tracking to identify and solve issues in real-time before they become severe problems.
  • Reporting dashboard – Monitors important KPIs and provides various overviews of business documents.
  • Mobile tools– Provides tracking and management of business processes, monitoring of system performance, and allows administrators to start and stop key functions.

There are many powerful, flexible platforms designed to accommodate enterprises with complex B2B processes and communication systems. Large and/or growing businesses that need more control and better visibility of their supply and demand chains will find that an enterprise level EDI solution is the answer to their problems.

Once your business reaches the point where your B2B applications are too fragmented, some processes are too manual oriented and scaling your operations seems impossible, or if you have Gentran and need to upgrade, Data Integration Specialists provides a smooth migration process.  The company can help customers who start with a smaller platform and desire an enterprise platform that simplifies supply chain operations, secures communication networks, automates Ecommerce tasks and improves business scalability.

Call or email us today for a no cost review and proposal.

edihelp@dis-llc.com  612-840-6753

4 Benefits to EDI Managed Services

You have ideas, concepts, plans and goals to support and run your business. But, what about managing your vast-spread business? Do you still use papers to collect, keep and distribute data and documents? Then, you need to update your business and its mode of operations. There are two major factors that are reliable to run a business effectively, first is execution and another is management. You have everything such as latest technology, skillful management professional and more productive executive employees. But, one thing that has emerged as a boon for businesses is EDI managed Services which is, simply, EDI Consultants for your EDI Software. We at, Data Integration Specialists provide you efficient and effective EDI Managed Services with a Senior Level EDI resource managing your EDI processes either remotely or onsite. (more…)

The Benefits and Features of Electronic Data Interchange Solution

Electronic data interchange is the electronic movement of data between or within an organization in a computer retrievable data format that allows the transfer of data from one location to another without rekeying. It is based on agreed message standards, and it can be done without the need for any human intervention. Different EDI systems have different tools, but there are some very common features in all the Electronic Data Interchange solution. Nowadays, most of the businesses are using EDI solutions because of the long list of benefits offered by this impeccable data interchange solution. So, let’s go through the details and features of EDI and EDI solutions.

Benefits of EDI

  • Speed- One of the most highlighted benefits of EDI is the increased speed of transactions. If a business is using paper documents, then it may take it days to transport from one location to another. In addition to this, manual data interchange is a very time-consuming process as it involves processes like keying and filing. Through EDI, all such hassles are wiped out, and you are able to boost the speed of transactions. EDI boost your transaction speed by 61%.
  • Accuracy – Errors are a part of human nature. That is why the manual data interchange process is vulnerable to errors. But, with EDI, you can attain maximum accuracy, and that’s why it is preferred over traditional data interchange solution. EDI solution wipes out keying and rekeying errors, illegible handwriting, and incorrect document handling.
  • Business efficiency- With minimized human errors, firms are able to harness the advantages of an increased level of efficiency. Instead of focusing on mental and tedious tasks, employees can invest more time in jobs with a higher value. It has been seen that EDI can improve a business customer’s relationship because of the quicker delivery of goods and services.
  •  Cost-effective- Another significant advantage of EDI is cost-effectiveness. By using EDI, organizations’ have witnessed a 35% decrease in expenses related to printing, storing, processing, papers, reproduction and documents retrieval.

Common features of EDI solution

  • Support for EDI standard

You should know that the influx of EDI standards is not new as it has been happening for almost 50 years. In addition to this, EDI document formats have appeared to meet the requirements of specific industries like RosettaNet in High Tech and PEPPOL in European Public Sector. An ideal EDI solution should be able to provide support for all the EDI standards.

  • Support for EDI document types

The initial objective of EDI was limited to invoices and EDI payments only; it quickly addressed the business documents that underpin other key business processes. There are different types of EDI documents like purchase orders, invoices, acknowledgement, shipping notices, financial statements, products and sales catalogues. A good EDI solution offers all the EDI documents.

You should know that there are hundreds of EDI document types available. That is why it has become a necessity to have an Electronic Data Interchange solution services which provide maximum EDI documents.

  • Support for communication protocols

The list of communication protocols supporting EDI transactions is very long. Some of the most common communication protocols are FTP, OFTP, HTTP, etc. If you don’t want any such hassle, then you should choose EDI solution that supports most of the communication protocols. It helps you to connect with all the trading partners easily.

EDI is one of the quickest and seamless ways of data integration for it minimizes not only manual workload but also reduces error. At the same time, it has also proved to be a cost effective solution for a firm. You should never miss analyzing an EDI solution against the features mentioned in this blog post.

However, if you want to reap the advantages of EDI solution, you should always go for an EDI managed service provider. Here at Data Integration Specialist, we offer remote EDI expert to either complement your existing EDI solution or to act as a remote EDI coordinator.

Latest Data Integration Trends to Watch Out For

With digitalization becoming the norm of business; Data Integration has become its integral part. However, rapidly changing technology is also changing the look of Data Integration Specialists, LLC. We spotted Data Integration Specialists first in 1991, and it has been improving ever since. Starting our journey in 2001, Data Integration Specialists have emerged as one of the most reliable and best-in-class Data Integration Software Services and Solutions at the most affordable and competitive rates.

 Here, we try to provide you with some insights into the latest data integration trends that you need to be updated with to remain competitive and successful in the digital world.  

  • Enterprise Integration Platform as a Service (EiPaaS) 

Today, no industry can afford not to invest in digital transformation. Organizations not adapting to the digital technology  soon find themselves going extinct. The plethora of new SaaS applications by themselves are not sufficient to tackle all the integration challenges. Issues like different applications, heterogeneous data formats, quality issues with data, etc. are just a few of the challenges. An Enterprise Application Integration Solutions bridge the gap. They do away the need for a specialized IT team in integrations and make the entire task more manageable. Understandably, it is fast replacing the traditional integration solutions.

  • More reliance on support services instead of DIY 

It is fast being realized that IT professionals connecting data endpoints are no longer enough to cope up with the increasing scale and rapidity of data. The need for responsive and highly skilled support is rising, even among vendors. Hence leading IT leaders are gunning for models with advanced architecture as well as with managed services to address several potential issues like the complexity of integration, compliance, security, etc. Hiring managed service providers as the Data Integration Specialists leaves them free to focus on their core competencies.  

  • Migration to cloud-based solutions 

Business enterprises have been using cloud-based applications in tandem with on-premise systems. But it made the free flow of information across services and applications, trifle challenging due to different architectures. To overcome this, most are resorting to Cloud-based Data Integration Software Services. They are not only more cost-effective but are more productive, flexible, and offer you much better and faster connectivity while efficiently running several business-critical applications. Cloud Storage is the trend that will only gain momentum and strength.   

  • Machine Learning joins data integration. 

Today, data integration has been made more robust and powerful with the inculcation of machine learning and artificial intelligence. The traditional ETL processes offered only a fixed set of views. But advanced automated data modeling and smart data assistant; recommended solutions, necessary data, and the course of action. Thus, you find an increase in the adoption of the No-ETL approach, which works successfully for both structured and unstructured data.

  • Greater synergy  

Today most organizations are going for a more synergistic approach in data integration solutions such that the infrastructure and the application objectives get aligned. Ideal tools must tightly link data quality tools for seamless integration and compliance with critical information management and government initiatives. Organizations better embrace solutions like application integration technology.

  • Focus on Mobile and real-time integration 

Today application integration has moved beyond just data flow to yield more result-oriented and value-added experience and services. This has paved the way for smooth data flow and data synchronization in real-time across a plethora of platforms like mobiles, PCs, laptops, and other handheld devices.

 Final Words  

 Presently, companies might be running with multiple disruptive technologies, but the future is fast changing to a simpler, less time-consuming, and fewer resource needs. Smart implementation of the latest integration solutions will make your company more efficient and robust.

 If you are seeking such a partner or would like to know more, do reach out to us at Data Integration Specialists, LLC 612-840-6753. We can help your business scale to new heights of success!

The Best EDI Software Providers in the Industry

EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) is a computer to computer or system to system, automated exchange of data and information in the form of standard electronic business documents over a secure connection. The technology helps trading partners and enterprises get more work done in a shorter period. It eliminates manual or human errors, speeds up logistic timelines, and automates the processes by enabling business to business (B2B) communications.

Data Integration Specialists (DIS) has been providing expert-level integration resources since the year 2001. Irrespective of which industry or which specialization an enterprise belongs to, we provide support and administration services to all firms and organizations. We offer the best EDI software integration services for a price much less than what other mammoth companies charge. As a mid-size integration group with senior-level integration experts, we aim to ensure healthy growth of EDI trading partnerships of enterprises and firms.

Our EDI personnel has a minimum of 10 years experience while many of them have more than 20 years of experience in single-handedly handling the projects for enterprises of various sizes and volumes in all types of industries. And, we are partners with all significant EDI software providers which enables us to get decent discounts from our partners. We forward the same to our clients, and the result is that we can provide the best quality of services at a lower price.

An enterprise could require EDI software providers for various reasons. They may want to make changes to their work structure and environment; they may wish to upgrade their systems to stay in business, their existing systems may not be providing them with satisfactory reasons, their current system could do with some improvement, their EDI provider might have moved away or just about anything.

DIS will respond and step in immediately to take control of the situation and provide the business enterprises with the solutions they require for their systems. Apart from EDI integration services, we also offer other expertise integrations such as,

Web Services:

Our senior-level consultants have expertise in integrating web-based applications using XML, UDDI, WSDL, and SOAP open standards over an internet protocol backbone.

Many of our clients need to communicate with each other, and other clients but have no detailed knowledge about things that work in IT systems. We set up web services for different sources to talk to each other via business logic, processes, and data. Our platform helps integrate multiple and diverse applications.

Oracle Retail Practice

We specialize in (Retek) Retail Solutions portfolio by Oracle Retail. In addition to providing expertise in retail and Oracle retail projects, we also use our knowledge of Subject Matter Expert (SME) are required on projects for third-party systems integrators. We can customize operations to suit each of the varied clients’ requirements in specific retail segments.

Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)

  • DIS provides services to link systems and applications across the enterprise to enable communication between them.
  • It helps in simplifying the work and reducing workload for employees by automating the repetitive processes.
  • We provide support systems to make sure that the existing systems can work along with the new integrations.
  • Our vast experience has made us one of the best EDI software providers in the market. EDI has seen to have sped up the processes by around 60%, allowing employees to concentrate on other aspects of their work.

Data is sent and received on time, and the cost of expenditure also decreases for enterprises. We provide continuous support to our clients. Data Integration Specialists (DIS) are in simple terms, EDI consultant for EDI software companies.

EAI Tools for Better Management

Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) is an integration framework with a collection of services and technologies which form a middleware framework to enable the integration of applications and systems in a business enterprise. Without an EAI strategy, the systems cannot communicate with each other. That means data cannot be shared or transferred between the various systems and applications in an enterprise.

This lack of communication can lead to inefficiencies, duplication of data, storing redundant information, and the inability to automate even the simplest of tasks. Employees will have to perform the functions which will result in increased workload and stress where they cannot focus on the core aspects of their job.

Data Integration Specialists (DIS), founded in 2001, has offered the best e-commerce integration, implementation, and support services for EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) software provider application. We are a group of senior-level integration experts that will ensure the growth and health of EDI trading partnerships. Our Enterprise Application Integration experts will simplify and automate the business processes to a great extent.

That said, we keep in mind that making complex changes at once could create issues. We notice that the legacy systems cannot support the changes and need other support systems that can help in sustaining the processes. We link together different database solutions, operating systems, computer languages, or different time and date formats. At times the vendors who created the operations no longer support them. We use and link support systems in such instances as well.

Our EAI methodologies are as follows:

  • Modifying ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) to fit new objectives. This helps in automating some of the processes.
  • Object-oriented programming (OOP). Our programmers define the data type of the data structure along with the types of operations or functions that can be applied to the data structure.
  • Cross-platform program communication using message brokers with Common Object Request Broker Architecture and COM+, which is widely distributed throughout the enterprise.
  • Content and data distribution on a large scale and across the enterprise using common databases and data standards. It is implemented using XML (Extensible Markup Language).
  • Using other approaches such as message queueing and middleware.

DIS has been providing expert-level integration services in all industries. From retail to healthcare, manufacturing to utilities or government agencies, we respond immediately with EDI resources for every software application.

We also have partnerships with major EDI software suppliers. So when any enterprise that is planning to or migrating from EDI platform to another, we can provide them with attractive discounts that we get from our partners. Our experienced experts manage the entire project from end to end implementation, installation, mapping, testing, and provide continuous support for all EDI data.

Enterprise Application Integration tools enable many types of business software such as ERP systems, CRM (Customer Relationship Management) applications, supply chain management applications, human resource systems, business intelligence applications, and other such systems and applications to communicate with each other.

At the same time, EAI is not only about sharing data and information between systems and applications. It deals with both data sharing and business processes. Automating processes, reducing workload for employees, ensuring vendor independence by using other support systems to run the existing systems, and creating a standard front-end interface that gives access to all applications. This makes things easier for users and employees as they do not have to learn to operate different software packages.

Whether enterprises wish to have a complementing system of the existing EDI resources or map a new project, either remotely or onsite or become a permanent resource provider, we will respond with immediate expert solutions to support them.

Everything You Need to Know about EDI Mapping

What is EDI mapping?

EDI mapping is a basic process that allows data transfer into a much simpler format which is easily used in new environments. With the help of EDI mapping, you can translate EDI messages into different ASCII formats like flat-file, XML and much more. In layman’s language, the EDI mapping process is basically a description of how to convert information between two unique, company specific data format and a standardized, industry-wide EDI format.

First of all, the outbound processing converts the in-house file format to EDI format so that you can send it to other partners. Then the inbound processing converts the formatted file in EDI format into in-house file format.

There are basically three steps: One, you will have to prepare the documents, then transfer the documents into EDI format and finally transmit the EDI documents to your partner.

Steps involved in mapping factory

  • Collection of all existing maps
  • Consult the ERP subject matter expert in order to define and capture ERP definition files for EDI mapping service.
  • Construct new map matrices which will define EDI requirements and then match them with the new layout of EDI.
  • Go through unit test for all maps
  • Connecting trading partner workflow to map flows
  • Go through the basic setup of maps
  • Get in touch with all the trading partners to communicate testing plans
  • Test, place in production
  • Finally, follow up support of all maps and EDI data flows.

What are the advantages of mapping EDI?

Integration and automation are critical to eliminating manual processes.  When you eliminate manual processes, errors and exceptions go away.  One of the main processes involved in the EDI mapping is the creation of a file which is then used to convert one form of data into another form. This map can be generated with the help of special applications which are specially designed to get the process done. With the help of EDI mapping, any business can capitalize on all the investments that have been put in constructing the EDI infrastructure. Along with this, the EDI mapping also makes sure that the EDI data is automatically sent to different systems like an accounting solution or ERP. In addition to this, the EDI mapping can also be used to build XML like formats which can be used by business partners, while keeping the investment on the infrastructure.

The first and the most original form of EDI mapping involved the use of tailored in-house software that built a link between EDI and in-house ERP or accounting system. But this highly expensive and complicated process became the major reason for the development of EDI mapping software which proved to be economical and easy.

How to choose the best EDI mapping service?

If you want the best EDI mapping service then all you have to do is to just search for EDI mapping service on a search engine and you will get a long list of websites offering this service. You should never forget to check the reviews and rating of these websites in order to choose the best. And before making your final decision, you should make a pool of some of the best EDI mapping service providers and then pick the best one out of them based on your need and requirement.