EDIRobot
EDIRobot is for suppliers to the major retailers that need an automatic
and seamless flow of data between their
legacy system, MRP system or accounting system, and their EDI
customers.
EDIRobot does the following:
1. Turns an inbound EDI file (X12) from your customers into either:
-
a CSV file or
-
an XML file
The inbound EDI file can come from any of your EDI trading partners and
can contain one or more documents
like purchase orders, acknowledgments, remittance advice,
etc.
The CSV file will go to your legacy system, which in turn will pick it up
and update its database. For example, if
the CSV file contains a purchase order, your legacy system
will create sales orders from it.
The XML file will directly update your MRP or accounting system. Of
course these systems must have a COM
object with the necessary interface to process the XML file
with updating instructions created by EDIRobot.
This updating is done automatically by the COM object
interface. One of these systems is JobBOSS, for
instance.
2. Generates an outbound EDI file (X12) from a CSV file coming from your
legacy system.
The outbound X12 file can be for any of your EDI trading partners
(customers) and can contain one or more
documents like invoices, advance shipping notices (ASN), etc.
Because the X12 file can differ from customer to customer, EDIRobot has to
know what each customer’s EDI
requirements are. For this it has what we call “trading
partner modules” or TP for short, which are like tiny
programs or maps that EDIRobot calls as needed. There is a
TP module for Home Depot, for instance, another
one for Wal-Mart, etc. These TP modules are used to
interpret the X12 file coming in and to know how to
structure an outgoing EDI (X12) file.
Note, however, that the record layout of a CSV file (both inbound and
outbound) is independent of the trading
partner. The record layout of a purchase order CSV file is
different from the record layout of an invoice CSV file
but all the purchase order CSV files have the same record
layout, same for the invoice CSV’s, the ASN CSV’s,
etc. This is important because it means that the legacy
system doesn’t have to worry about individual customer
X12 mapping requirements which, by the way, can change at any
time; when there is a new customer, the
layout of the CSV file remains the same.
EDIRobot can move data between your computer and your
customer FTP site but it cannot move data between
a VAN (Value Added Network) and your computer. Therefore, if
all your customers can use FTP, you don’t need
a VAN.
If your customer prefers to use a VAN for EDI, you need a separate
communication program to move the data
between the VAN and your computer. This also means that you
need to have an EDI mailbox at a VAN, which
doesn’t have to be the same as your customer’s. This
separate communication program would move the data
between your computer and your EDI mailbox at your VAN and
then your VAN will look after moving the data
between your mailbox and your customer’s mailbox.
EDIRobot is a modular system consisting of a core, or basic module, and
one or more TP modules. It grows with
your business because you add TP modules as you need them.
For example: you need to go on EDI with Sears,
you get EDIRobot with the Sears module. Later on, when you
start selling to Target and Home Depot, you add
the Target and the Home Depot TP modules. |