Posted by Robin Smith on Wed, Sep 01, 2010 @ 01:31 PM
Blogger Jay Goldman recently published a really great blog article in which he describes a perfect confluence of things that makes the SAAS model and the way its sold over the internet a perfect fit for Canadians and Canadian businesses. We at VL knew that and that is why we have launched our Integration as a Service platform and our Hosted EDI offering.
Jay rolls out the usual well worn cliches about how we all say sorry (great for customer service he says), how we are all pretty sad at marketing (the new inbound marketing phenomenon of using the internet is particularly well suited to Canadians he says), and that we are not really very self promoting (no kidding but the internet is changing that). In the old days, as he says, you put some lipstick on the porcine beast and sold the glitz, the glamour and the sizzle and you probably got the deal. No more. Its the no more that makes selling software as a service a game changer.
How so ? Well he puts it very simply. Canadians are natural collaborators. If you know our history its no wonder - it is the direct result of 250 years of living along side aboriginal cultures in a pretty hostile environment. Ya its really hot again in our office. Think its a long shot, think again.
What I really like about the article though is how Jay puts it and I quote... "Bottom up selling is organic, all about building wholesome relationships by being helpful and empathetic. It’s about making a great steak, and setting out samples for people to try and get value from. New marketing is about building trust because you’ve done something genuinely good and helpful for your buyers, not because you’ve sold them flashy vapour-wear. Canadian web-marketers let their customers toot their horns and tell others how awesome they are via the social web. Bottom up selling is a collaborative model that means working closely with your end-users to design and build your software."
I like that because thats how we have always done things at VL. One of our customers Pat Chown, who is also a Bluelink customer puts it very well....Pat Chown, CEO of Foundation Distribution, says, “Many other EDI providers get you hooked by quoting a low initial price, and then hitting you with additional charges once you’re already dependant on them. Virtual was totally upfront about costs. The integration between their solution and our Blue Link EPR system has been seamless, and timely.” Thanks Pat !
So I if can have a moment of shameless self promotion. If you are a customer and like what we do tell others, if your not a customer try us out, you'll be surprised.
So what does all this have to do about Integration as a Service and Hosted EDI ? Not much but I thought it would be a great way to get the word out about our new offerings!
Posted by Robin Smith on Mon, Aug 23, 2010 @ 02:11 PM
I was on vacation last week and the old axiom that when you go away things happen, played itself out to a tee. Softshare was sold to Liaison Technologies of Atlanta. I have to confess that I had a pretty good idea it was happening before I left, but I couldn't say anything. Fishing out on Lake Couchiching turned out to be more exciting than I thought !
You can read the Liaison Technologies press release at the following URL.
These are exciting times! We at VL are really excited by the merger of the two companies. They both compliment each other, there is virtually no product overlap to speak of and the community will benefit from a larger entity marketing the ECS and Delta products. Its all good from what we see.
For VL's users of the Softshare products, our partners and resellers its business as usual. As far as VL's customers are concerned we will continue to offer you the same level of support and customer service we always have. No change on our side. Our cloud SAAS, hosted EDI solution based on our EDI Desktop product is being rolled out. This solution fills the gap for the web based EDI customer who finds their current web solution too slow and cumbersome and is looking for a more robust alternative, and the customer who is not yet ready to take the plunge and bring software in house . Our cloud solution is totally portable and can be installed onsite at a later date. We see this level of flexibility and portability as a huge advantage.
To quote Bob Dylan "Times they are a changin......."
Posted by Robin Smith on Thu, Aug 12, 2010 @ 02:06 PM
On one of the Linkedin EDI groups there is a debate raging over whether EDI is a business function or an IT function. This is an interesting question that impacts any company that does EDI.
In most companies, including many of our own clients, EDI is an IT function. IT controls the resources and therefore the agenda and timelines. IT controls the rollout of new partners, and IT provides the resources to do the mapping, communication setup and trading partner testing. Once its done the business people get involved. The down side here is that most IT departments are taxed for resources, haven't budgeted for bringing on new trading partners and don't have dedicated resources that do EDI all the time. The result, EDI gets implemented at a slow pace, often at the detriment of the business relationship with the trading partner.
In other companies, again including many of our clients, we see EDI as a business function with the business unit working on doing all the setups. In many cases things take forever to get setup or they don't get setup because the business operations people do not have the requisite technical experise. The result in many companies is the proliferation of web based EDI services; services that allow the business unit to do EDI without having to have the involvement of the IT group.
From our experience the best sites, those that respond quickly and in a timely manner to trading partner requests are those where there is a partnership between the IT group and business unit. The reality is that IT doesn't understand the business implications of EDI, and conversely the business unit does not have the technical skill to do the implementation and setup. So marrying the two together into a separate EDI group takes the best of both worlds and allows for a streamlined approach that addresses all issues business and technical. This works for many companies but not all.
A second approach that helps companies that are either too small to have dedicated EDI people, who may not have an IT department and use outside IT consultants on an as needed basis, is to hire a company that can act as their EDI group. Hiring the resources of an outside expert gives companies a leg up. Implementations can be done quickly and in a more cost effective manner using expert resources. Paying $20K a year for services versus hiring a dedicated resource at $80K a year makes good business sense in my mind. Its cheaper.
The reality is that the debate will continue to rage on as long as there is a marriage of business information transmitted in an electronic manner. A business must look at the strategic value of creating a dedicated EDI department that bridges IT and business operations versus outsourcing. One is cheaper than the other but the other has distinct benefits. The islands of technology and knowledge approach, we all know rarely works efficiently.
Posted by Robin Smith on Tue, Aug 03, 2010 @ 03:26 PM
Volusion and Shopatron Integration - New connections are now available for VL's "integration as a service" offerring. We have leveraged our existing hosted translation service for EDI and expanded it to include web service API calls and data translation of XML to different formats.
The latest web service integrations available are;
- Volusion Web Store to Fedex Ship Manager
- Volusion Web Store to UPS World Ship
- Volusion Web Store to UPS Quantum View
- Volusion Web Store to Tecsys Elite
- Volusion Web Store to Infor Visual Manufacturing
- Volusion Web Store to Bluelink ERP
- Shopatron Web Store to Fedex Ship Manager
- Shopatron Web Store to UPS World Ship
- Shopatron Web Store to UPS Quantum View
- Shopatron Web Store to Tecsys Elite
- Shopatron Web Store to Infor Visual Manufacturing
- Shopatron Web Store to Bluelink ERP
More to come over the month of August and into the fall. Have an integration you would like us to look at or need some help with ?Want it hosted ? Give us a call.
Posted by Robin Smith on Thu, Jul 29, 2010 @ 09:38 AM
Virtual Logistics Inc. was recently included in the Top 250 Players in the Cloud Ecosystem. This impressive listing of companies is compiled by Jeremy Geelan of the Cloud Computing Journal and includes a listing of the most active players in the Cloud Ecosystem.
We are thrilled that our "Integration as a Service" offerring has been recognised by this prestigous web journal.
VL's offering includes an EDI translation service, which was established in 2005. In 2009 the service was expanded to include web services API integration. Currently integrations exist for a number of web stores, shipping software packages, CRM packages, and other online services that publish an API. These APIs can be linked to inhouse ERP systems or inhouse software using our service. The service solution is customizable to a users needs and can be moved from our cloud platform to an on premise installation making them entirely portable should a customer's needs change over time.
Targeted at the business that want a reliable integration service without having to use custom programming, or buy on premise software, our turnaround is quick and our setup costs are very reasonable. The service is also a benefit to software developers who may be asked by a client for a one off specialized integration to their application.
In future blog articles I will be listing the integrations we have available and functional as the list is expanding all the time. We at VL are thrilled at being included in this listing.
Posted by Robin Smith on Mon, Jul 26, 2010 @ 12:39 PM
Over the past year we have seen the growth of internet retailing increase in North America by leaps and bounds. Buying habits are changing as people get more comfortable with internet shopping. The result is a fundamental shift in the way we buy, research and interact as consumers.
Back in May at the annual gathering in Toronto of the Canadian retail industry organized by the Retail Council of Canada, it was clear from the speeches that a fundamental shift was going on in the way people shopped and the internet was facilitating this change.
Because of this shift in shopping habits many distributors and manufacturers are looking seriously at setting up an online e-commerce presence beyond just the web site that promotes their company. Making the move from distributor and manufacturer to being an internet retailer is a fundamental shift for many businesses. Below are five common mistakes.
1. Having a vague or undefined idea of what you want to accomplish with your e-commerce web site. Is it a way to get rid of old and discontinued stock ? Is it to provide a parallel avenue to sell product that retailers won't pick up ? Is it all of the above ? Knowing what you want to accomplish is key when it comes to tying the web presence into your backend systems and selecting the right platform to go with.
2. Build the e-commerce site yourself. This seems to be an approach that is common with companies that have not spent the time to research the available platforms. They are often convinced of this approach by their ERP software vendor who provides a one stop shop. Today with the wide range of commercial e-commerce sites that are available there is really no need to build a site from the ground up. You need to be able to customize the site but not build the links to paypal, for credit card validation or to your Fedex or UPS Ship Manager. So the cost to build your own and the ongoing maintenance of the code of that platform will over the long term be more expensive than if you choose the right commercial platform and control the content. The majority of these commercially available platforms also typically have an API which then allows you to integrate the e-commerce site to your backend systems as well as your shipping systems. Having a well documented API is key to ensuring that your web store is not an island of technology.
3. Integrating to a piece of paper. The web store becomes an island of technology where orders are printed to paper or received by email and then manually entered into the accounting system. Tying the data flow in and out through an API is no different than an EDI data flow and ensures levels of efficiency that cannot be achieved by manual data entry. I often hear, well I don't get enough orders to justify the expense. The issue is customer service. The research shows that internet buyers are much less tolerant of slow data updates and will not return to a site if information is not refreshed in a timely manner. Integrating allows you to refresh and provide a higher level customer experience.
4. Only integrating one of the e-commerce site's data flows. If you think about the process that goes on when someone shops online there are many different touch points for data. The order is the most obvious one and the one that gets integrated. There are others. Once the order is confirmed it has to be shipped. Why not integrate the shipping data to the software provided by the courier company ? Customer nuturing. If you use a CRM package why not integrate the data to your CRM to build repeat visits or to promote sales and build loyalty ? Shipment information and status updates. Why not tie the "where the order is now" data back up to the e-commerce platform ? Every interaction with a customer or potential customer can be automated to enhance the customer experience.
5. Looking at the webstore data flow as a singular island. In an earlier blog article I asked why buy just an EDI system ? The same can be said for a web store. Why customize or build a single point integration for your web store when you may want to use the data for other things. Middleware software allows mutilple data flows to be consolidated into a single platform and the data can then be used in many different ways not just to bring orders into the order entry system. Look at all the areas where you use the data in a repetitive manner.
Virtual Logistics has integrated a variety of web stores to different backend systems. These include Volusion, Shopatron, Ebay, Amazon.
Posted by Robin Smith on Wed, Jul 21, 2010 @ 09:27 AM
When it comes to EDI integration here are five common mistakes we have seen over the years. I am sure there are others but these are ones we see regularly.
1. Assume the EDI implementation guide is always 100% accurate. Its amazing the number of people who believe that what is in the EDI implementation guide is gospel. The reality is that it is only in the very largest of companies, with a dedicated EDI group, that guides are kept 100% current. Its when we see the EDI and actually start testing with real data or are in production that the fun begins.
2. Assume that because you have tested with an outside third party that you are 100% setup and ready to go. Third party testing has become a huge industry because in the early days of EDI it was all about syntax. Today its all about data. A good EDI translator should have no issues generating syntactically correct EDI. Its poor data that will kill you each and every time. Unfortunately third party testers don't test with real data they test for syntax and thats a mistake.
3. Trying to develop your own translator. I could write volumes on this. We see this all the time. A company has an inhouse IT resource who looks at the implementation guide and says hey I can program an interface for this transaction or these transactions. The reality is that every implementation is differrent and by the time the inhouse IT resource has finished the company ends up with a far more costly solution made up of cobbled together code, more than likely undocumented and difficult to maintain when something changes. Heaven forbid that resource ever leaves the company or is let go. Its far cheaper to buy a good software platform than it is to build your own.
4. I am technical I can do it all myself ! This is one we see regularly. EDI and data integration is not rocket science I acknowledge that. But would you try and be your own gas furnace technician, or do your own eye surgery ? We would all answer no and find an expert. So why is EDI integration different? Does it not make sense to hire an integration expert, get it done right or at the very least get the system and the data flow laid down correctly ? In the long run its cheaper, less time consuming and you get a better system.
5. Finally the one I like the best. The battle between the purists and the pragmatists. This week, on one of the Linkedin EDI groups, there has been a raging debate over whether the translator should do any sort of data manipulation or whether all logic should be in the ERP system or whether it should outside of both. The reality is that there is no ERP system that is perfect and in most data import and export has been an after thought. There are exceptions of course. What can be done in the ERP system should be done there and what can not be done in the ERP should be done in the translator. To say categorically that it should be in one or the other is a mistake. Be flexible I think its a better approach.
Posted by Robin Smith on Mon, Jul 12, 2010 @ 03:30 PM
I like many millions of people around the world watched the world cup final yesterday. It was a fitting end. Spanish finesse against Dutch chippiness. It could have been so much more had the Dutch stayed true to their game, the game of Johan Cruyff and Wil Coerver. In the end Spain won by playing their game and not getting sucked into the vulgar play of the Dutch. Like Africa, the game reflected the solitudes of world soccer.
This morning a friend sent me a great little video made by South African kids of the highlights of the world cup. Its beautiful. Its pure Africa.....it is the Africa I remember as a kid and as an adult. The jubalani is a great juxta position to the bare feet of the kids playing on a dirt field. Enjoy it, it will put a smile on your face.
Posted by Robin Smith on Wed, Jul 07, 2010 @ 11:22 AM
This morning while driving into work I listened to an interesting discussion on CBC's The Current on whether we were in a double dip recession and what the pundits were predicting for the coming year.
The people speaking were two Bay Street (aka Wall St for the Americans) financial gurus as well as the Canadian Finance Minister who was fresh from the G8/G20 meetings. All three spewed forth a variety of numbers and statistics to make the case that yup we were experiencing the start of a double dip recession and that growth would be muted going forward for the next year. For the avergae Joe (like me) listening, it was clearly time to batten down the hatches, stop spending and man the battlements, we were in for it. As I sat at a red light listening to the discussion it amazed me how the pundits were trapped in their predicitons. They had no other way to look at things despite the interviewer's questions and counter arguements.
So what do I mean by trapped in their predictions ? We all interpret things and situations based on our experiences, built up over the years. Sometimes the interpretation is cultural in nature, sometimes its based on a direct experience and sometimes its based on the collective pressures of a group (group think).
Too often however people get trapped into looking only for supporting information that validates their approach or their idea. As a result they often ignore facts, outside influences and possible developments that could affect the ultimate outcome.
We see this all the time in our sales cycle, when we put in systems and when we provide support. The reality is that when people have an expectation in their mind they filter out incoming information that differs from their point of view and pick out only the information that supports their idea. People do this subconciously without even knowing they are doing it and the get into trouble because of it.
So what is the impact of getting trapped ? Lets put it in the context of what I heard this morning - we are at the start of a double dip recession.
- assuming job numbers are stagnant based on one month's numbers
- assuming economic stimulus will stop based on the statements of some G8 and G20 leaders
- assuming consumer spending in North America will slow down because it did last month
These three assumptions (there were others) were indicators that we were at the begining of a double dip recession.
I am sure we can all find examples of decisions that were made because of bad information, assumptions that were false and ignoring conflicting information. What I heard this morning made me think wow, here we have 3 people, people with credibility, making statements that ultimately affect us all, and at the end of the day they could be wrong in their interpretation ! More worrying was that they were making statements and predictions based on one month of numbers ! One of the gurus even mentioned this point. So although these people are individuals there clearly was a little bit of group think going on.
So what are some of the traps we see in our business ? Well I have highlighted them in a recent blog article titled the 10 things you should consider when buying an integrated EDI system. The link to that article is below.
http://blog.virtuallogistics.ca/bid/36031/EDI-Integration-10-Things-you-need-to-know-before-you-buy
Each one of these 10 points are traps we have seen people fall into. I can probably add more if I wanted to, but these are the most obvious ones. Why do people fall into these traps ? Well, very simply because they have already made up their minds on their approach and they filter out information that may change their prespective. Sometimes it is because the approach you are proposing is outside the realm of their experience and sometimes the pressure of group think makes them go in the direction of the group. Sometimes its because they just want the issue to go away and become lazy in their decisioning.
So how do you not fall into the trap ? I always tell people to stand back and take a hard look at the assumptions you are basing your decisions and predictions on. You may be surprised what you find and uncover !
Posted by Robin Smith on Mon, Jul 05, 2010 @ 03:10 PM
We all know how big Walmart is but do we really know the numbers behind Walmart's operations. I bet most of us don't. Guy Kawasaki has an interesting post on his blog under the Holy Kaw section. I follow him on Twitter and he comes up with some interesting stuff.
Did you know that.....
- 100 million customers shop at Walmart each week
- 2009 Sales $405 Billion
- If Walmart was a country it would have the 19th largest economy in the world. (Some would disagree here on how the number is calculated)
- 90% of all Americans live within 15 miles of a Walmart
- Walmart sells coffins
- Walmart CEO makes 924 times what his average employee makes
- 80 % of all Walmart Suppliers are in China
- 10 % of China's exports to the USA go to Walmart
- Walmart imports $30 billion of goods from China annually
Want to read alll the numbers ?
http://holykaw.alltop.com/interesting-walmart-facts
I can't atest to the accuracy of the numbers but I am sure they have been culled from Walmart's public information and Guy wouldn't post them if he wasn't sure he was protected from Walmart's lawyers.
There are more interesting facts at this web site....another take on Walmart obviously with an agenda....
http://wakeupwalmart.com/
There is a lot of Walmart bashing out there. Since I don't shop at Walmart I find the import/export statistics the most interesting. Is it any wonder North American manufacturing has been gutted ? The bigger issue however is that in North America we have completely forgotten what quality is. We wouldn't know quality if it hit us in the face, and that is a very sad by product of our quest for the lowest price and our drive to outsource our manufacturing. Walmart is not the only retailer to blame here.