D&B Global Helps Companies Calculate the True Cost of EDI

Published: June 2, 2009

by Alex Woodie

Does it make sense for you to outsource your EDI environment? That's the question that D&B Global Services, a new company that was recently founded by former EXTOL employees, is trying to get companies to ask. The New Jersey company recently posted a checklist on its Web site that helps companies to think critically about their EDI environments.

D&B Global Services was founded earlier this year by Dennis Bonagura, the former president and COO at Pottsville, Pennsylvania-based EXTOL. He, along with longtime marketing man Steve Rosen, left Extol to found D&B two hours east in Franklin Lakes, New Jersey, where they are offering access to EXTOL's i OS-based EDI software as a managed service.

Two weeks ago the company posted on its Web site a survey that lists 14 questions designed to help companies assess the true cost of running their own EDI environment.

The questions asks respondents to calculate how much they're actually spending on license and maintenance fees, hidden VAN fees, penalties and chargebacks, and outside consultants that the company has come to rely on for day-to-day operations.

It asks the respondent to look at how flexible their company's EDI implementation is to change, whether it's capable of sending and receiving EDI data via the Internet (AS2 and FTP) instead of traditional VANs, and how quickly it can send out error messages to channel masters like Wal-Mart in the event of a problem.

In short, D&B's survey encourages people to consider whether a managed EDI service (such as the one that D&B offers) makes more financial sense than an in-house EDI implementation. It's a fair question to ask, and it could help people figure out a way to save a dime or two.

"Many organizations approach EDI and B2B each year at budgeting time as a necessary evil," Bonagura says in a press release. "They understand the importance to customer satisfaction and supply chain performance, and typically look for IT efficiencies. On the whole, it is viewed as a necessary evil, something like the electric bill, taking the position 'we have to pay for it, it's outrageous, but that's what it takes.'"

The survey can be read at www.dandbglobalservices.com/files/EDI_Resources_Survey4.pdf.

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