"Perceptant iHUB Import Export (IE) 2.0 brings Freight Forwarders, Third Party Logistics companines and Global Trade Management providers an on-demand, fully-mapped messaging solution for the global exchange of import and export documentation".
Perceptant, the on-demand supply chain management company, today announced the availability of iHUB Import Export 2.0, its latest suite of supply chain management solutions and services for freight forwarders, global trade management companies and third party logistic providers.
Designed for businesses involved in managing and maintaining import and export documentation for customers, iHUB IE 2.0 is a fully-managed, on-demand suite of mapped import and export messages and complimentary Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) transactions that are hosted, and maintained by Perceptant and made available to customers via Software as a Service (SaaS).
Integrated in to existing software applications, via simple web calls, iHUB IE 2.0 equips partners with a range of fully-mapped EDIFACT, X12, IATA and EANCOM messages that are externalised in any format via AS2, VAN, P2P or FTP.
"Freight forwarders, GTM and 3PL providers have for many years' maintained costly IT departments to support the messaging requirements of their customers. In addition, the sheer complexity of import and export documentation has also hampered their growth and profitability", says Matthew Slinn, CEO and founder of Perceptant. "By partnering with us, customers gain immediate access to a silo of pre-mapped messages that can be tailored if required to their specific needs. Furthermore, our solutions are offered as a fully-managed service, maintained and hosted by staff with decades of experience in Electronic Data Interchange EDI, XML, Supply Chain Management and Application Integration".
Customers opt to either contract directly or resell the solutions and can elect to have the applications rebranded with their corporate identity if required.
Europe's largest business-to-business industry exchange, encompassing thousands of companies and millions of business transactions is delivered in this way, which has not only proven to be of great benefit to the market but also of significant commercial benefit to the contributing members.
"For the first time, comprehensive and complimentary business applications are now available, on-demand, via cloud computing and companies involved in import and export are beginning to realise that build versus buy or buy and spend months implementing are arguments that no longer stack up" says Matthew Slinn, CEO and founder of Perceptant. "Within weeks, our partners have an integrated suite of complimentary applications that drive new routes to market, provide competitive differentiation and generate significant incremental revenue".
Thursday, 28 January 2010
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is Dead, Long Live EDI…
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) during the 1970’s and 1980’s professed to being the holy grail of business to business communication. However multiple standards, clunky translation software, expensive teams of technicians and the requirement for rooms full of super computers saw it never realise its full potential.
On the premise of receiving Purchase Orders at the click of a button, suppliers were often cajoled by large customers to adopt archaic software that sat on a standalone PC. The supplier would then periodically check the PC, print out the orders and manually rekey them in to their back office applications.
The “new-world” of electronic trading saw software and value added network (VAN) suppliers rejoice at their “sophisticated” solutions and ever growing profits. IT Directors professed the world of trading was now “e-lectronic” and Financial Directors regaled the resultant business benefits and cost savings.
All was well until one very well known and respected individual asked whether the emperor had actually any cloths. Why were there so many standards (and sub-standards), why so costly, why was it restricted to only one or two business documents, why was there such a lack of integration and why did it take so long to implement.
We should have all seen this coming but the same individual who asked the emperor what had happened to his cloths claimed to have the answer. A software product so ahead of its time that it made EDI look prehistoric, a middleware if you will that threw caution to the wind and embraced a new phenomenon called XML.
The new world of business to business (B2B) communication was now known as XML, which (so we were lead to believe) would become the universal standard for supply chain integration and had the power to overcome all the frailties associated with EDI.
Many jumped on to the bandwagon although a few some would say more sane companies decided to tread their own path, a path towards many messaging standards that worked in harmony. You see, not one messaging standard or technology will ever become the de facto method for B2B communication, period. From a technological standpoint, what is needed is akin to a universal spoken language convertor, something that in real time allows people from France, Spain, China, Japan, England and Germany to hold a flowing conversation with each other in their native tongues
Because of this, there are now a new and emerging range of companies that quietly over the last few years have developed the answer to our prayers and are able to demonstrate universal business translators. Translators that sit within a supply chain, taking XML, EDI, flat-files and many other electronic file formats and in real-time converting these in to a format that is understood by the computer systems of connected parties. SAP can now talk to Infor, SAGE can communicate with Epicor and CODA can interpret Microsoft Navision. Now whilst this may have been technically possible with predecessors, none of us would argue that costs, timescales, speed and overheads would have grounded the project before it even began.
It’s fascinating to see how the landscape has evolved over the last few years to bring us to this point. People have finally accepted that no one B2B language will rule the World, failed supply chain projects litter news desks and archaic technology has been banished to the broom cupboard.
A handful of software companies that dared to buck the “one size fits all” trend are now leading the universal business to business translation market. Their solutions are delivered on-demand via low, fixed cost pricing models, managed and hosted on behalf of customers and operate in real-time. The killer blow though is their ability to enable supply chains to collaborate, synchronise and integrate, immaterial of their Mother tongue. Viva la supply chain!
Perceptant is a recognised expert in Supply Chain Management & Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and has been linking supply chains for over two decades. For a limited period you can get a free review of your supply chain by visiting their online B2B Collaboration and Integration Forum.
On the premise of receiving Purchase Orders at the click of a button, suppliers were often cajoled by large customers to adopt archaic software that sat on a standalone PC. The supplier would then periodically check the PC, print out the orders and manually rekey them in to their back office applications.
The “new-world” of electronic trading saw software and value added network (VAN) suppliers rejoice at their “sophisticated” solutions and ever growing profits. IT Directors professed the world of trading was now “e-lectronic” and Financial Directors regaled the resultant business benefits and cost savings.
All was well until one very well known and respected individual asked whether the emperor had actually any cloths. Why were there so many standards (and sub-standards), why so costly, why was it restricted to only one or two business documents, why was there such a lack of integration and why did it take so long to implement.
We should have all seen this coming but the same individual who asked the emperor what had happened to his cloths claimed to have the answer. A software product so ahead of its time that it made EDI look prehistoric, a middleware if you will that threw caution to the wind and embraced a new phenomenon called XML.
The new world of business to business (B2B) communication was now known as XML, which (so we were lead to believe) would become the universal standard for supply chain integration and had the power to overcome all the frailties associated with EDI.
Many jumped on to the bandwagon although a few some would say more sane companies decided to tread their own path, a path towards many messaging standards that worked in harmony. You see, not one messaging standard or technology will ever become the de facto method for B2B communication, period. From a technological standpoint, what is needed is akin to a universal spoken language convertor, something that in real time allows people from France, Spain, China, Japan, England and Germany to hold a flowing conversation with each other in their native tongues
Because of this, there are now a new and emerging range of companies that quietly over the last few years have developed the answer to our prayers and are able to demonstrate universal business translators. Translators that sit within a supply chain, taking XML, EDI, flat-files and many other electronic file formats and in real-time converting these in to a format that is understood by the computer systems of connected parties. SAP can now talk to Infor, SAGE can communicate with Epicor and CODA can interpret Microsoft Navision. Now whilst this may have been technically possible with predecessors, none of us would argue that costs, timescales, speed and overheads would have grounded the project before it even began.
It’s fascinating to see how the landscape has evolved over the last few years to bring us to this point. People have finally accepted that no one B2B language will rule the World, failed supply chain projects litter news desks and archaic technology has been banished to the broom cupboard.
A handful of software companies that dared to buck the “one size fits all” trend are now leading the universal business to business translation market. Their solutions are delivered on-demand via low, fixed cost pricing models, managed and hosted on behalf of customers and operate in real-time. The killer blow though is their ability to enable supply chains to collaborate, synchronise and integrate, immaterial of their Mother tongue. Viva la supply chain!
Perceptant is a recognised expert in Supply Chain Management & Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and has been linking supply chains for over two decades. For a limited period you can get a free review of your supply chain by visiting their online B2B Collaboration and Integration Forum.
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