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The industry standard for purchasing transactions — electronic data interchange (EDI) — can be time consuming, costly, and labor-intensive for many companies in the supply chain. EDI links are most often custom connections among suppliers, distributors, and customers so that each company's system can read and process the data from other companies' systems.
The problem is almost every EDI connection is unique, so one distributor that carries 200 suppliers can conceivably have 200 EDI connections. There have been efforts to simplify this by standardizing purchasing transactions between companies — such as the RosettaNet initiative — but so far, no single solution has widely caught on.
A technology board within the National Electronics Distributors Association recently met with a company that provides such a solution to the automotive aftermarket. GCommerce is a software-as-a-service (SaaS) company that has developed a “SuperSpec” that translates the requirements of multiple trading partners into one specification, and creates standardized data definitions within the data fields. The SuperSpec allows a company to set up a connection once, and reuse that map for all trading partners. A process built on to the SuperSpec, Internet Data Exchange (IDE), automates standard purchase-order-to-payment transactions. Non-standard transactions such as drop-shipping can be handled through GCommerce's Virtual Inventory Cloud (VIC), built on Microsoft's Azure common cloud platform. Microsoft is a co-creator with GCommerce.
Most attempts to standardize purchasing transactions within the electronics industry have been driven by a single, large supplier or a “members-only” group that developed a technology for its own use. These solutions generally serve the needs of the developers (a small constituency) rather than wholesalers. GCommerce's approach is driven by the needs of wholesalers — president, CEO, and cofounder Steve Smith worked with Wal-Mart.
In the automotive aftermarket, he says, “We started with the largest people in the industry. We said we'd develop a solution for free — and once we had enough economic leverage to direct the market, we got buying groups and trade associations involved.” GCommerce's philosophy is to attract the widest possible base of users first and drive the solution back up through the supply chain (rather than top-down.) Having worked with Wal-Mart, Smith admits to being partial to the wholesale industry, so GCommerce's approach is more distribution- than supplier-oriented.
It's also aimed at being cost-effective: The SuperSpec and VIC greatly reduce the costs associated with setting up trading connections and managing transactions that fall outside the standard practices of a trading network. It's all about cost-effective data management, says Smith. Using the cloud for storing and managing data is already cheap and is more easily scalable than typical solutions. “Our belief is that to make something like this work, everybody has to pull in the same direction,” says Smith. “So we have to make the solution low-cost, and the only way to do this is make it a data-driven, rather than technology-driven, model.” GCommerce derives its revenues from flat-fee transaction charges and providing value-added services such as customization.
Market research firm Aberdeen Group says cloud-based inventory visibility, such as VIC offers, enables trading partners to indicate which parts of their inventory can be shared with other participants; provides real-time access of this shared inventory pool at the point of customer order; and provides the ability to split an order across multiple participants. “This style of cloud-based solution is something that is applicable to any reseller-oriented industry segment.”
By sheer coincidence, my colleague Laurie Sullivan wrote about SaaS and the cloud in her most recent blog: How to Keep an Aging Supply Chain Vibrant. What are your thoughts about the cloud as an alternative to EDI? We'll examine the possibilities in upcoming blogs at here on EBN.
Thanks Barbara, I can't believe I was not aware of GCommerce and the Super Spec concept!
Long-term, I think that some sort of SaaS company will figure out how to do this really well and just dominate. I think it's possible, look at what Salesforce has accomplished in the CRM space in a relatively short period of time.
But like I said… this is a long-term proposition. I think it will be many, many years until a standard emerges and experiences widespread adoption. However, maybe some industries will adopt something like this more quickly? Who knows, maybe this will work out great for in auto…
XML via the Internet for EDI was talked about several years ago as the future for EDI versus the current data formats via VANs (value added networks). The XML method has not taken off yet and it’s not because it is not a better solution, but for the most part, the current EDI methods in place are already battle tested and just work. There is no urgency to make a change yet. The difference with Salesforce.com and offering EDI as a SaaS model is that Saleforce.com can be accessed independently of any integration, meaning it can be used day one. EDI needs much more coordination, internally and externally. It’s not as easy to make the switch and their needs to be a compelling reason to do so.
I myself love salesforce.com and the functionality of it. I believe using the cloud to replace EDI is an excellent idea. I fully believe it would simplify the ordering process for many companies.
The only down side I can see is it is going to take a few larger companies to take the initiative and implement this program. Then inform the other companies that they do business with of their success with this process.
Hopefully as word is spread and more companies implement this system it will become a mainstay.
I agree that XML feeds for EDI is not a better solution at all. So there's a reason that never took off.
And you are correct about the main difference between Salesforce and a potential EDI SaaS model is that you can use Salesforce on day one while with an EDI solution, obviously it doesn't do you much good if it doesn't integrate with anything… but I will point out that Salesforce does seem to do a good job already when it comes to integrating with other systems, quickly: for example, if you sell online advertising, it is very simple to sync Salesforce with DART Sales Manager, which in turn integrates with the actual DART For Publishers ad serving platform… meaning it's very easy to use Salesforce to manage the ad sales process from concept to delivery.
So a potential EDI SaaS platform would need to offer that sort of potential ease of integration as well to be successful. That's no easy task, of course, but if you got some big organizations to support it… let's say Wal-Mart or something of that nature backed one such system (which is something I'm sure Steve Smith is trying to do)… I think large-scale adoption could perhaps become possible.
Anyhow, even if this doesn't end up being viable, I think it's an interesting idea!
I believe the ease on integration issue discussed is addressed by Gcommerce: as I understand it, they take all of the communication protocols available, along with industry standard specs, and build the SuperSpec around that. The SuperSpec then handles maybe 80% of the transactions–the most common transactions done within the electronics supply chain–and the VIC handles exception management. To set this system up for the industry, it would take the kind of cooperation the automotive industry provided, but all of the major retailers–AutoZone, PepBoys etc., industry associations and finally, the suppliers all agreed to provide the information needed to develop the SuperSpec. This was done free of charge–Gco0mmerce donated this part of the process to the industry–but makes money by charging a small transaction fee–a flat rate–and by customizing links as needed.
I don't know if that helps–I haven't used Salesforce.com–but I know the setup time is reduced to days from months, maybe faster
The article was very informative. Its good to learn about the processes used by distribution companies. Would love to know more.
I would wonder why there is an hesitation to upgrade to ipv6. Is it that it could add extra cost or is that it would add more work to upgrade?
SP,
I think, much like any major technological change, there is hesitation because it is something new to learn. More importantly, you must understand it in order to get it operational. Could you imagine if administrators everywhere were forced to migrate their networks to v6 right away. They would panic becasue today it works fine, tomorrow no one can access any resources. With time and more experience, the change will take place, but it will be more manageable.
Right, in fact major challenge is to guarantee full interworking v4/v6 and in parallel introduce step-by-step new services as mentioned. A few mobile providers in USA for example are experiencing that way.
Very interesting article, the possibility to integrate IPstack directly inside “real-world” microchip could improve a lot our business within electronic industry. Other way in progress thanks to strong mobile handsets' evolution is to interwork with them directly via v6. Services launched past summer from T-Mob are very useful.
In my opinion if a company comes out with a product that can camaflauge an existing IPV4 devices or networks as IPV6 compatible devices then the migration to IPv6 can happen at a much faster pace. The newly developed devices can be made directly compatible to IPV6. It is like reading Word97 documents in say Word2007.
It may not be an efficient approach but it can save all those old investments from becoimg obsolete all of a sudden.
Prabhakar, it is realistic and pragmatic approach. We can report for example, without any installation or upgrade inside our network or application servers, thanks to virtual free tunnel from a ISP provider we can access to v4 and v6 Internet sections.
We have resolved the limitations to IP range assigned and electronic sensors “pump” directly info on-line. It's fantastic !
Google, Yahoo, and Facebook will join Akamai, Limelight Networks and the Internet Society to test IPv6 on June 8. How silly of me not to take this question to the EBNOnline community. What influence will IPv6 have on online advertising? I received a bunch of typical answers from the companies participating, but I know there is more. Can anyone provide insight other than IPv6 will continue to allow Internet connected devices to connect online, so advertisers and ad networks can serve up ads.
Laurie
Laurie, several key features inside v6 stack could start new era on ads or in media communication in general. Let us mention multicast and peering, not fully available on v4 and “killer” in terms of possibility to reach everyone abroad, despite physical network connection (v4 is sensitive to packet frame's lenght, strictly related to physical medium). Junaid Islam, one of the most important entrepreneurs in SiliconValley, explained very well at
[https://it-gipfelblog.hpi-web.de/tag/ipv6] – bottom page
new media (or “webcasting”) era.
There's a lot to tell more, rgds, I&E
I've been told by the Internet Society and Google there will be an extra cost for those companies that don't upgrade to IPv6. Google makes the majority of its revenue and profit on online advertising, from traditional computers to IPTV and mobile. What influence will IPv6 have on online advertising?
I&E – thanks for directing me to the video. How would advertisers use this? Can you provide an example? Much appreciated. I can see how brands may use this, but do you have an application for advertisers? How would advertisers take advantage of this in search applications?
@Laurie: thanks for replying. Just to understand better: are you meaning ads as “form of communication intended to persuade an audience to take some action upon something”? right?
ads as in display advertising from Toyota, Texas Instruments or Apple that tries to persuade you to buy something. The box on the right side of an online article at Time.com, for example.
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2042710,00.html
Or search advertising, the little blue text links on the right side of search queries on Google.com or Bing.com.
We have heard about IPV6 for such a long time and now it seems IPV4 is still at large. The use of private network (i.e. go to internet via NAT) is widespread nowadays. Isn't it less secure with IPV6 when your computer is exposed directly to the internet?
Right t.alex, anyway final depletion has come
http://www.ipv4depletion.com/?p=557
There is an interesting thing: last big ranges available have been allocated to China Operators
Benefits for ads from v6 impact are a lot. Ads are quite static, for example right now box advertisment from the website Laurie reported, is promoting gasoline, but I am not a user interested in the topic and I don't have any possibility to watch something different inside the box. Ads quite usually are one-way.
As the article reported main purpose of v6 is to allow a real chain between real world an communication. Internet-v6 is becoming “Internet of things” in the sense of real events all in one integrated with IPstack.
Then, holding same example from Matteo's article, v6 could allow users to receive ads just in time based on weather condition and so. At the time of strong weather condition in US for example, does anynone receive ads on his mobile regarding accomodation promotions, hot drink promotions, emergency services? Or is anyone in condition to share within users community in real time and in peering manner ads suitable for him while a streaming is coming?
IPv6 brings mobileIP, peering and multicast (instead of broadcast, there's huge difference!) and these features (and others more) could improve a lot advertisers world. @ Laurie: sorry for general examples (but we believe they are quite clear), our understanding is to be fair and keep “netiquette”, for that we didn't mention our own platform/services in pilot.
Barbara,
You made the following point in your post,
“
So we have to make the solution low-cost, and the only way to do this is make it a data-driven, rather than technology-driven, model.”
I don't think cost competitiveness alone is the clincher for most organizations (to make the switch today). Most importantly you need comfort level for employees with the Software that is going to be set up.Otherwise,it won't see widespread adoption and lead to enormous heartburn for all concerned.
Regards
Ashish.
Thanks for all posts, questions and opinion. In the following I will trying to summarize some answers and opinions more, at least from my point of view.
v4/v6 interworking: several methods and implementations are available right now and feedback from users are quite positive. Gogo6 for example provides full solutions to test and feel that interworks
security: v6 brings automatically secure mechanism and it doesn't need EXTERNAL boxes to support vpn, encryption and other algorithm deployed within current v4 architecture
v4 under v6: NAT64 implementations (and its reverse) and overlays are providing exactly those features
deployment: as from your posts, I am with you; transition requires right knowledge and time plan but…it requires also to start in facing the event because of v4 address range will be away in some weeks
ads: yes, v6 as “internet of things” maybe will bring consistent impacts on ads then huge business for that market in case advertisers will be in condition to mix features such as multicasting, peering and sensoring to improve their platforms
seamless: it is a topic similar to ads (Internet “of things” all integrated directly to IPstack) potential market is “tremendous” in terms of features to deploy and revenues to achieve; green, home control, services to citizens and so on could play as main drivers
Comments are still welcome, rgds, Matteo
Hello Matteo: I have an ad agency exec who has this question:
“SO–will this finally collect and merge IP addresses from one screen to the other (IE: mobile device to computer)? If so, then this will dramatically revolutionize the attribution of mobile advertising–allowing us to tie together ads someone sees on their mobile device to actions they take on their computer. Please say yes.”
Best, Laurie
Thanks Laurie, we can give for sure “Internet of real things” will provide that merge and something more…;-)
All the best and thanks again for sharing your thoughts