THE NEXT 20,000 EDI HUBS

If you are a regular reader of our blog, then you are comfortable with terms like EDI, EC, Logistics, Supply Chain and Technology. Let’s dig a little bit deeper and discuss HUBS and SPOKES.

A HUB is just one type of EDI customer. Hubs are characterized by high volume, lots of partners, high availability and high accuracy. The concept of the “Hub” is simple. These are the companies who reach out to their trading partners and request those partners to trade electronically. Let’s characterize the three types of EDI customers:

(1) Hubs

(2) Spokes (low turnover of trading partners but higher technical requirements)

(3) Ecommerce Service Providers (ECSB) (a “hybrid” with high turnover rate, deal with all implementation guides, and amount to a “Hub of Spokes”).

What is wrong with the current approach to EDI implementation? We need a new concept. Everybody wants to be a “Hub” not a “Spoke”, because that is where the money is made. That is also why new EDI implementations have stagnated. Our answer is to turn “Spokes” into “Hubs”. Currently, the “Hub” realizes benefits; the “Spoke” does not. Why can’t a Spoke become a Hub and trade electronically with lower-tier suppliers and with their own customers? Only because traditionally they have thought it was too complicated.

A generation ago, we had about 1,000 Hubs. This number has not grown! But the number of Spokes has grown astronomically. It is time for bigger Spokes to take advantage of newer technologies and become Hubs

For answers to this question, plan to attend this presentation:

Future of EDI – The Next 20,000 Hubs

Todd Gould, CEO, Loren Data

The EDI relationship has frequently been characterized as a Hub & Spoke model, and we have seen major companies (often referred to as 800lb gorillas) dictating EDI to their vendors and suppliers. The future growth of EDI depends on the additional midmarket enterprises entering the market as the new Hubs. Learning from what worked and did not work in the past, along with leveraging the substantial EDI ecosystem will be instrumental in the success of the next growth phase in this market. Together we will explore the Technology Adoption Life-Cycle in a new perspective of how it applies to EDI, what it is to be a Hub, the challenges of being a Spoke, and a roadmap to the exciting explosive growth phase just ahead.

Where and when?

New England Electronic Commerce Users’ Group

Annual 2 Day Conference & Educational Session

Wednesday & Thursday May 11-12, 2016

A Key Speaker

EDI and The Next 20,000 Hubs

Todd Gould

CEO, Loren Data Group

The New England Electronic Commerce Users’ Group (NEECOM), formerly the New England EDI Users’ Group (NEEDI), is a nonprofit organization established in 1990. Members are large and small organizations in a variety of industries. which include manufacturers, distributors, retailers, hospitals, insurance companies, motor carriers, universities, banks and government agencies. The common thread is an interest in EC/EDI and related technologies.

Meeting Registration

All registrations & memberships must be performed online using the website

http://www.neecom.org

All questions about registration should be addressed to Ira Keltz (617) 724-1832

Space Is Limited! Please Respond Before May 9, 2016.

So why do we have a donkey for the featured image ? Because I like donkeys.

Actually a Donkey is like a SPOKE. Give it “good grass” and it is happy. Never realizes if it became a HUB it could be sitting across the street in a 5-Star hotel enjoying a first class lunch !

Advertisement

Thank you for sticking with me and Loren Data through the biggest crises our industry has ever seen.

See a great message from Todd Gould at Loren Data

Since I entered in the EDI industry in 1996, I have not seen a more promising time to be in this market. The GXS era was an unfortunate disruption to the natural growth of a networked market; however, under the new management of OpenText opportunity is back.

Now that we avoided the apocalypse, it is time for us, the leaders of the industry, to deliver the next generation of B2B automation.

In the coming months Loren Data will begin rolling out the next evolution of the EDI VAN, one that is more user and developer friendly, more extensible and a better fit for the third decade of Internet possibilities. Stay tuned for many announcements…you will be amazed.

Name(required)

Email(required)

Website

Comment(required)

Submit

Δ

It is all about Todd Gould. The HERO in our David & Goliath stories

The following is reprinted from Alan Wilensky’s blog.

Got a good guy or gal at the top? Good, in this market, you will come to depend on leaders with a sense of duty and service to their industry

Feb 28, 2014 05:33 pm | awilensky

I editorialize and give a bit of context to the past few years, and how it has been a great, great privilege to work with Loren Data’s President.

 

Name(required)

Email(required)

Website

Comment(required)

Submit

Δ

There Will Be No Disruption

OpenText has agreed to continue exchanging data with Loren Data and has rescinded the disconnection.

The ability to set up new partnerships will resume immediately and data will continue to flow uninterrupted.

Industry and Customer First – Always

Regards,

Todd Gould
President & CEO

← Light at the End of the Tunnel?

Name(required)

Email(required)

Website

Comment(required)

Submit

Δ

Important Stuff On Resolution Between Loren Data and GXS (OpenText)

What Is OpenText Doing with the ECGrid-GXS Interconnect?

Light at the End of the Tunnel?

Posted on January 31, 2014 by Todd Gould

The situation is evolving rapidly. Almost immediately after my last post, OpenText began sending out notices to its customers announcing that they are ready to roll out a “network level solution with Loren Data” and that “the migration schedule will depend on coordination with Loren Data.”

We are cautiously optimistic.

ECGrid Network Operations has confirmed that OpenText did successfully complete a test on the 29th of January through our OpenText-ICC interconnect — without our knowledge that this was a test. However, so far no one from OpenText has contacted us, or has answered our inquiries, to let us know about these plans or coordinate a migration schedule.

In the meantime, sit tight and let’s all be hopeful that OpenText is ushering in a new era of EDI VAN cooperation and advancement. This could be a huge win for everyone.

Todd Gould
President & CEO
Loren Data Corp.

← What Is OpenText Doing with the ECGrid-GXS Interconnect?

Recommmended Next Actions for Open Text

As OpenText acquires GXS there are some opportunities available to the now combined company to pursue its mission. We reported a couple weeks ago about the acquisition (here).

The company would appear to be positioned to bring the EDI/VAN industry well into the 21st Century in the same way its other acquisitions have proven to be assets. GXS fits naturally into OpenText’s EIM (Enterprise Information Management) theme. It would be a shame to miss an opportunity to prevent an impending “EDI train wreck” that could destroy existing relationships with the EDI industry and the company’s stated desire to “be trusted in our relationships”.

GXS is acting on its plan to terminate all connectivity with Loren Data’s ECGrid on March 4, 2014. An action that will affect more than 2,000 GXS customers and their 10,000 trading partnerships. GXS made good on refusing any new partnerships with companies on ECGrid after 1/1/2014.

Read more: http://www.ec-bp.com/index.php/advisors/ec-bps-bloggers/10346-recommended-next-actions-for-opentext#ixzz2rPYF7yzP

Name(required)

Email(required)

Website

Comment(required)

Submit

Δ

Givers/Takers – Winners/Losers

Ever hear about how people are described as givers or takers? Givers give without strings. Esteem for givers rises over time. Takers expect more than they give. Eventually, times catches up to the takers. The same applies to businesses. The world of EDI is plagued with a taker.

In the book, Give and Take: A revolutionary Approach to Success by Adam Grant, Grant points out that while the Good Guy finishes last has its truth, it also turns out that the Good Guy also finishes first. Takers might show short term wins, but end up middle of the road in the end.

Steve Scala, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development, for GXS recently sent a letter to an unknown number of customers, addressing a communication from SPS Commerce regarding the termination of the GXS-Loren Data interconnect. SPS aparently believes that the problem is real, and is contacting trading partners to create a real solution. In his letter, Scala attempts to assure GXS customers that they will be taken care of, and to disregard SPS.

Read more: http://ec-bp.com/index.php/advisors/ec-bps-bloggers/10306-givers-takers-winners-losers#ixzz2qMiZlN00

Name(required)

Email(required)

Website

Comment(required)

Submit

Δ

Improved AS2

Like VANs, AS2 gets complex if there are more than a couple of nodes involved. It is an excellent protocol with strong encryption and digital signatures, positive sender identification and proof of receipt. It is the implementation that can be weak, not the application.

AS2 (Applicability Statement 2) is a specification for Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) between businesses using the Internet’s Web page protocol, the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). The AS2 standard provides Secure Multi-Purpose Internet Mail Extensions (S/MIME) and uses HTTP or its more secure version, HTTPS, to transmit data over the Internet. Security, authentication, message integrity, and privacy are assured by the use of encryption and digital signatures.

Another important feature, nonrepudiation, makes it impossible for the intended recipient of a message to deny having received it. A Web server, an EDI transfer engine, and digital certificates are all that are required for data exchange using AS2.

All this sounds very well developed, but AS2 has no “directory” function. What would e-mail be like if it had no directory function? E-Mail has its DNS & MX records which automatically make the rounds of other e-mail systems.

Much of the management of AS2 is still manual. That means it is time to automate! URLs and Public Certificates change. Most every AS2 package allows you to generate and sign your own certificate. The process will generate both a private and public key for a length of time selected by you. The private key will automatically be securely stored where the AS2 software can access it, and the public certificate will be placed in a location where you can send copies to your trading partners.

Read more: http://www.ec-bp.com/index.php/articles/industry-updates/10271-improved-as2#ixzz2ogNpHQmd

Name(required)

Email(required)

Website

Comment(required)

Submit

Δ

Stabilizing The Supply Chain

A comment to us from a large supply chain “hub”: “The GXS mess shows how fragile everything is in the supply chain. Stakeholders (suppliers, manufacturers, distributors) do not control their own destiny if they are using an EDI Provider”.

There is an imbalance of power: end users should have control over the supply chain. Is it time for them to move to their own inside system which they control? What can stakeholders do? They don’t want to support everything (re-invent the Internet or something counter-productive like that). Yes, they have an alternative to run everything over an AS2 setup. They just don’t want outsourcers making the rules.

One view of the current state of affairs is that interconnects are too “black box,” and that VANs “grudgingly cooperate” instead of proactively advancing the science.

Some of the possible steps to correct this mess include:

Read more: http://www.ec-bp.com/index.php/articles/industry-updates/10260-stabilizing-the-supply-chain#ixzz2o0mvadWF

Name(required)

Email(required)

Website

Comment(required)

Submit

Δ

All about Electronic Commerce Service Providers

Ecommerce Service Providers (ECSP) are a “hybrid” with high turnover rate, deal with all implementation guides, and amount to a “Hub of Spokes”). An ECSP is what we previously called VAS (value added services) such as SPS Commerce. Can be referred to as a “VAN2” if it moves EDI messages over the Internet.
Let’s characterize the three types of EDI customers: Hubs; Spokes; Ecommerce Service Providers (ECSP). A “Super Hub” accommodates all three types of customers.

Let’s take a typical ECSP and describe their service offerings by reviewing their respective WebPages:

Read more: http://www.ec-bp.com/index.php/articles/industry-updates/10234-ecsp-s-the-3rd-type-of-edi-customer#ixzz2mywzaJ00

Name(required)

Email(required)

Website

Comment(required)

Submit

Δ