We have implemented the Oracle EC Gateway for Inbound 850 Purchase Orders, Outbound 810 Invoices, Outbound 856 Advanced Ship Notices, and Inbound 856 Advanced Ship Notices. We supply both the EDI translator developers and the Oracle EC Gateway integrators on projects. There have also been times when we supply the Oracle OM functional and technical consultants depending upon our clients’ needs and requirements.

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We are an American based technology company with offices in the San Francisco Bay Area. We can provide any and all services related to EDI development including supporting 24×7 EDI operations for those clients who have worldwide offices. Using EDI best practices and sound leadership, we work with clients to architect and build the right solution using the software that our clients have purchased and support.

For clients who have very strict and fast deadlines, we help augment staffing needs especially with EDI, SAP, Oracle SOA, or TIBCO, to help get your project jumpstarted right now and not having to wait until you find qualified EDI personnel.

Many companies are rushing to Cloud Computing as the solution to their Supply Chain needs and requirements. But is this the right answer just because it’s the latest buzzword? The so called Cloud is supposed to save a company money. For example, let’s say data operating expenses cost you $500,000 per month on average between EDI VAN charges and storage fees. Moving into the cloud should significantly reduce that $500,000 monthly charge. If it doesn’t reduce that charge, why move your data into Cloud Computing?

Also, the advantages of going to the Cloud should also be so that your entire organization and your partners have access to seeing the same type of data on a need to know basis across the entire enterprise without having to log in and download enterprise software. In other words, point a browser, log on, and see data. This is the main reason for Cloud computing. However, in the Supply Chain or EDI space, it’s much more complicated than that. Here’s a real world scenario to understand my point: a large bread company wholesaler provides bread products to thousands of retail stores in the United States. They have vendors who bake and supply them with bread products wholesale. They send purchase orders to all of these vendors and receive advance ship notices, invoices, purchase order acknowledgments, shipment orders, and delivery notices from these vendors in various different EDI X12 versions.

Not all of the vendors are consolidated and using the same EDI version. In fact, they may have more than 5 versions of the same purchase order sent to different vendors. At any given point in time, the bread company that placed the original order from vendor A, should be able to log onto a cloud application and see exactly the status of that order and see when it’s going to be shipped online instead of waiting only for EDI documents to get processed.

For Supply Chain Cloud to work effectively, one must solve the problem of multiple versions, multiple documents, and a fragmented supply chain with very little visibility across the supply chain.

Think about this: the company had to rewrite all of their EDI data maps that were in production. They had to support all existing versions of all data maps which at my count working with them totaled around 30 different EDI transaction types and versions. Each version makes it a unique map and adds to the EDI Integration timeline.

At this point, they wanted to bail but they purchase the Sterling Integrator product, which is not cheap, and has had it sitting on the shelf in their office for 5 years. They spent the money on the software and had no idea what to do with it, had no idea how to make a plan to integrate it, and no idea how much it would cost. By the time they spoke to Spinks Technologies in the summer of 2011, the only thing that concerned them was how much it would cost and could we do this type of massive integration in 3-6 months.

Laugh now, cry later. Of course, the first thought that they had was to run to India and find some workers for $10 per hour to implement this quickly and throw 5 developers at the project to get ‘er done. That is always the thought but EDI Implementations are bigger than this. You cannot simply throw it over the water and magically have this stuff done and integrated in 120 days. I really encourage CIO’s reading this to STOP this practice immediately.

Supply Chain logistics are complex matters to not be taken lightly and yes throwing the integration overseas with an expectation to have it come back done properly and cheaply is taking it lightly. This is not Microsoft Windows and a product built for user consumption. These are back end systems that are tightly coupled. So, back to the question: how does one save money and reduce EDI Integration costs?

I recommend two things: take a step back and have an actual real EDI assessment done of your entire trading partner community and consider going for an EDI Cloud computing solution where your EDI integration is done in the Supply Chain Cloud. This allows you to save considerable monies on integration. Contact us for details.

Hands down, I have not met anyone even if they claim to be, that knows more about EDI than we do. In fact, I have even written architectural novels on EDI Implementations. I have met people who have just gotten into EDI recently and people who claim that people overseas know more. Each time, when put to the test, they never, ever know more than our internal knowledge on EDI subject matter. We are simply put, the best EDI subject matter experts on the planet.

But how does this benefit you? It benefits corporate customers because you get best in class EDI experts to implement EDI for you. It benefits people new to EDI in that we are now setting up training classes on EDI and XML technologies to pass on what we know so that people become experts in their own right.

This portal can also be used for anyone who wants to learn about EDI, how it’s done, how to efficiently get EDI done, and utilize best practices in doing so. We have just signed on our training partner in San Francisco and are establishing dates for our monthly training series in the Bay Area. In the meantime, you will be able to use our new community portal for information sharing and finding hardcore solutions to problems that you can’t find anywhere else on the Internet.

Spinks Technologies San Francisco EDI Training Facility

Spinks Technologies, a true real world EDI Implementation leader, is starting a hands on EDI training course in San Francisco and in the Silicon Valley in 2011. This EDI class will be for anyone who wants to learn how to do EDI, make themselves marketable, and understand EDI development techniques of data integration.

The EDI class will cover EDI data map development, EDI business process development, XML data integration, and EDI communication over AS2, FTP, Secure FTP, and traditional Value Added Network services. The initial classes will be two day courses with additional hands on EDI courses offered on a application subscription basis that will allow the student to also be able to develop EDI data maps each week on our server. This is a revolution in training and the student will have weekly assignments that will build their EDI mapping experience and allow them to create maps each week.

This type of training is revolutionary because it will do one thing and one thing well: build real world job skills that you can put on your resume and increase your knowledge which increases your ability to get employed in this niche. Watch for details coming soon. If you need direct information, call Gerard Spinks directly at 678-993-7743.

A true EDI architecture and solution revolves around business processes and connecting data to ERP systems, WMS systems, or TMS systems. It is not as easy as throwing the mapping effort down offshore and expect the maps to work flawlessly the next day when everyone gets in to their desks in the morning in the United States. The most efficient way to manage EDI Implementations if you don’t want to do it inhouse is to use an onshore model that we offer. Yes, believe it or not, all of your EDI integration work can be done onshore in the USA. You get to your desk the same time we get to our desk in America. What does this mean to you? We hold daily meetings with all team members here and know exactly what needs to be done from the Project Plan and Implementation plan.

If you’re going to Outsource your EDI Integration and Implementation, you MUST do it with a clearly defined and budgeted project plan and gap analysis. If someone quotes you a timeframe of 90 days without analyzing your needs, you will be cheated, trust me. Nobody in the EDI world can perform a true and successful EDI Implementation without knowing your supply chain, your trading partners, the versions of the maps that need to be developed, and all file layouts of all systems. If someone quotes you some AWESOME price and they know nothing about these things listed, you will be in a world of hurt trying to work out the kinks and get the project completed.

We provide real world managed EDI services to you because we operate in the real world and have done EDI implementations exclusively since 1990. We are not the high cost leaders and we believe that EDI can be done pragmatically and onshore hiring American workers. Contact us today for a confidential analysis of your needs.