Latest Round of AS2 Certifications Released by Drummond

Published: November 28, 2006

by Alex Woodie

Twenty-seven AS2 communication tools from 22 software vendors recently received the stamp of approval from Drummond Group Inc. (DGI), which completed its latest round of AS2 product interoperability testing in October. Several OS/400 AS2 tools are among the products that DGI certified for AS2 interoperability in its second and final test of the year, including tools from four software vendors DGI certified for the first time.

Applicability Statement 2 (AS2) has become the de facto B2B standard for sending and receiving EDI transactions over the World Wide Web since Wal-Mart mandated its supply chain partners adopt AS2 several years ago and other major retailers followed. However, because manufacturers, distributors, and retailers use a variety of EDI-AS2 translation products running on different computer platforms, there evolved a need for interoperability testing to ensure that EDI documents aren't corrupted or otherwise behave improperly as they traverse the different systems. Rik Drummond and his company, DGI, fill this need, and the majority of AS2 product vendors subscribe to his services (although some do so grudgingly, due to the fees involved).

All of the familiar vendors of native OS/400 EDI-AS2 translation tools are represented in DGI's latest test, including the "Big Three"--or Extol International's with its Secure Engine V5R2, Inovis' (formerly Peregrine and Harbinger) BizManager 3.1, and Sterling Commerce's Gentran Integration Suite and Sterling Integrator 4.2.

The list also includes some less well-known (but up-and-coming) OS/400 EDI-AS2 tools, such as Cleo Communications' VersaLex 3.2 (as tested in VLTrader 3.2) and nuBridges EDI-INT 3.2 and Commerce Suite 3.4, as well as EDI-AS2 products that run on other platforms but are finding use with OS/400 applications, such as Boomi Software's AS2 Transport 3.3.0.

A new crop of EDI-AS2 vendors that have never tested their software for interoperability emerged with DGI's third quarter test, its 11th AS2 test since DGI started the tests in 2000. The new vendors include Atos Origin, a German company that received AS2 certification from DGI for ACTIS AS2 Adapter 1.4; Cisco Systems, the network gear giant that received AS2 certification for its AON AS2 1.1 product; the GLN AS2 2.0 product from global logistics solutions provider Descartes Systems Group; and Microsoft's BizTalk Server 2006 R2 product. It doesn't appear that any of these products run on OS/400 or i5/OS; however, detailed product information was not readily available from all vendors.

The complete list of certified AS2 vendors and their products can be found at www.drummondgroup.com/html-v2/as2-companies.html. While AS2 products from DGI's previous certification lists will likely work with the current crop of certified products, Drummond says don't count on it--the products certified on each list have only been tested to ensure interoperability with the other products on the list.

In addition to the new EDI-AS2 product vendors, DGI added a new test for certification exchange messaging (CEM), a protocol for distributing digital certificates to trading partners over AS2, which vendors have been asking about, DGI says. Five vendors paid for the extra CEM test, including Axway with its Synchrony Gateway Interchange 5.4 product; Cleo with its Versalex product; the Descartes Group with its GLN product; GXS with its AS2 Engine 4.0; and Inovis with its BizManager product.

DGI conducts interoperability tests for other communication protocols, including AS1, AS3, ebXML, RosettaNet, the DEA's Controlled Substances Ordering System (CSOS), and Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment (CPFR). For more information on DGI, see its Web site at www.drummondgroup.com.

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