ECS/EDI Processor for iSeries
EDI maximises the efficiency of exchanging business transactions,
within your trading community and across enterprise boundaries. It enables the
application-to-application exchange of information removing the need for human
intervention.
EDI can change the way your company does business without any major
re-development to the architecture of your existing business application
software. To stay ahead in today's market, companies are choosing EDI because it
offers speedy transactions, accurate information exchange and cost savings. EDI
can help your company to manage your supply chain more effectively and supports
initiatives like Just In Time (JIT) manufacturing and Efficient Consumer
Response (ECR).
The ECS/EDI Processor is an extension to ECS/integrated email
especially written for the IBM iSeries (AS/400) it provides seamless integration
for your AS/400 Business Application to exchange EDI transactions with the
outside world. The ECS/EDI Processor generates and validates EDI
messages sourced from AS/400 applications. Inbound EDI
messages are mapped to DB/400 files ready for posting to the AS/400 business
application. The ECS/EDI Processor is event driven with proactive error
notification for fully automated operation.
Implemented properly, EDI can save companies a lot of time and money in both
personnel and material costs. Because incoming orders, invoices, etc. no longer
have to be entered into a company's computer system manually, the labour cost of
the data entry personnel is saved. Furthermore, there is no possibility of
typing errors. For outgoing documents, all of the paper and paper handling costs
associated with printing and mailing the documents are saved. There are costs
associated with transmitting EDI documents, but these are small compared with
the paper, paper handling and mailing costs.
The ECS/EDI Processor can be integrated with any AS/400 Business Application.
Integration is performed by developing mapping programs to map the data from the
Business Application (shown in the following diagram in Yellow). The point
of application integration with the ECS/EDI Processor is the same for either
Inbound or Outbound transactions, with two DB/400 physical files. To aid a smooth and rapid implementation,
a working Sample application is supplied complete with mapping programs and documented source code demonstrating how Conversion and
Selection programs are built, these can be used as templates and adapted
to suit your EDI and Business Application requirements .
Management of Trading Partner relationships and communications is performed
using ECS/integrated email (ECS/ie). EDI Interchange files can be exchanged via
email, FTP'd, published on a Web Server or transmitted via a supported Value
Added Network (VAN), such as IBM Expedite.
An EDI Trading Partner Event must be
defined before Inbound or Outbound transactions can be processed. The
Trading Partner Event defines the definition of the transaction, for mapping,
validation and communications. An administrator is assigned to each Trading
Partner Event, who is automatically notified by email or paged if an error
occurs.
The ECS/EDI Processor is supplied with a predefined EDI Standards database
containing the UN/EDIFACT & Tradacoms Message, Segment, Element & Code List tables used
for Message Validation and data conversion.
Outbound Processing
The ECS/EDI Processor requires the
Transaction and Control records to have been created by an external user
developed Generation program. The Generation program is closely linked to the
Business Application and should be designed/developed according to the Business
Application & EDI Message Agreement requirements. The ECS/EDI Processor is
responsible for compiling the EDI formatted Messages, validation, consolidation,
packing and handover to communications application for transmission.
The ECS/EDI Processor will perform the
following processing, in three stages, to translate the AS/400 Business
Application data to a formatted and validated EDI Interchange:
Stage (1) - Message Generation
-
Reads
through control file selecting Outbound mapped EDI Transactions
-
Retrieves
related Transaction records
-
Perform
Element data cross reference
-
Insert
required release characters into element data
-
Perform
individual character translation for Syntax Set
-
Compose
Segment records using Transaction Detail & message definition
-
Compress
Segment Records to remove redundant delimiters
-
Generate
Individual Message(s)
Stage
(2) Message Validation
-
Segment
Tag Identifier
-
Populated
Elements
-
Coded
Elements against related code list table
-
Element
Minimum & Maximum lengths
-
Validate
individual characters against Permitted Character set
Stage
(3) Interchange Pack
-
Insert
Message Envelopes
-
Consolidate
Messages into Interchange
-
Insert
Interchange Envelope
-
Generate
Interchange in Output folder, ready for transmission
-
Update
EDI Control file (IEXC)
The configuration of the EDI Trading Partner
Event is performed centrally, within ECS/integrated
email. The
following is an example of the configuration of an Outbound EDI Trading Partner
Event:
Inbound Processing
Inbound Interchanges are placed into an Input folder by the communications
application, Inbound EDI Trading Partner Events are configured to scan an Input
folder, which is automatically performed on each cycle of the ECS/EDI Processor.
The Inbound EDI Interchange is selected, matched to a Trading Partner Event,
Unpacked into individual messages, validated and finally converted to the AS/400
database ready for mapping to the Business Application.
The ECS/EDI Processor will perform the
processing of Inbound EDI Interchanges, in three stages, to achieve the target
of converting Inbound EDI Interchanges to AS/400 database format in preparation
for mapping to the AS/400 Business Application:
Stage
(1) Interchange Unpack
-
Read
interchange header, locate related Trading Partner
-
Extract
Messages into individual files
-
Read
message header, locate related Trading Partner Event
Stage
(2) Message Validation
-
Segment
Tag Identifier
-
Populated
Elements
-
Coded
Elements against related code list table
-
Element
Minimum & Maximum lengths
-
Validate
individual characters against Permitted Character set
Stage
(3) Message Conversion
-
Reads
through control file selecting Outbound mapped EDI Transactions
-
De-Compose
Segment records using Transaction Detail & message definition
-
Remove
release characters from element data
-
Perform
Element data cross reference
-
Write
Transaction records containing data and element references (IEYT)
-
Write
EDI Control Record (IEXC)
All errors encountered during Inbound and Outbound processing is proactively
reported by email to the Event Administrator. Data control and Error Maintenance
is performed using EDI Transaction
Control.
Supported EDI Standards
Supported EDI Communications
-
email
-
FTP
-
MQSeries
-
POP3
/ SMTP
-
IBM
IE TCP/IP (Expedite)
-
Cleo
Lexicom
-
FTP
with optional SSL/TLS for security (FTP/S)
-
HTTP
with optional SSL/TLS (HTTPS)
-
AS2
eBusinessReadyTM, certified by Drummond Group
-
IBM
Information Exchange
-
Global
eXchange Services
-
Sterling
Information Broker
-
UCCnet
-
and
many more
ECS/EDI Processor is fully
integrated with the Cleo Lexicom robust communications tool, supporting the
widely used IP based protocols FTP, HTTP, HTTPS and AS2 as well as all major EDI
Value Added Networks (VANs)
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