Midrange Stuff, OS/400 Edition

EDI software providers EXTOL and Sterling Commerce last week launched their solutions for UCCnet, the initiative to synchronize product data between retailers and manufacturers. EXTOL announced a new solution called EXTOL UCCnet Integrator, which connects its EDI users to UCCnet's own software package, called Data Synchronization Services, while Sterling Commerce has partnered with a third-party software developer, HAHT Commerce, to connect its users to the UCCnet GLOBALregistry.

Up to $40 billion is being wasted every year due to inconsistent formats and inaccurate product data (such as size, weight, quantity per case) in the computer systems of retailers and the consumer product goods and hardline goods manufacturers who sell to them, according to industry estimates. To address this problem, the Uniform Code Council formed the UCCnet, a nonprofit subsidiary that oversees standardization and synchronization of product data in the supply chain. In 2003, the number of retailers and suppliers subscribing to UCCnet and hooking into the GLOBALregistry product database has started to grow, and the software vendors are following.

EDI software suppliers such as EXTOL, Sterling Commerce, and Inovis (which bought the Harbinger EDI software from bankrupt Peregrine Systems last year) are moving quickly to support UCCnet. While EDI, which stands for electronic data interchange, is not a prerequisite for UCCnet, these EDI software vendors have large installed bases of EDI users that are considering UCCnet, and it's in their best interest to deliver UCCnet services to them. Companies aren't likely to replace their EDI systems en masse anytime soon, but the growth is obviously in Internet-based communications, including UCCnet, Internet EDI (INT-EDI), AS2, and other initiatives on the road to the holy grail of collaborative planning, forecasting, and replenishment.

Instead of developing its own UCCnet product, EXTOL developed something called the UCCnet Integrator, which is based on UCCnet's packaged software for GLOBALRegistry compliance, Data Synchronization Services Release 2.2, and on EXTOL's own integration broker software. The combination of UCCnet's Data Synchronization Services 2.2 and EXTOL UCCnet Integrator provides a full "round trip" UCCnet integration solution, Extol says, including such features as trade item capture from back-end applications; interactive trade item augmentation, maintenance, and management; UCCnet synchronization and workflow support; and secure communications with the UCCnet GLOBALregistry, based on the AS2 EDI-INT standard. EXTOL says its UCCnet Integrator is platform-independent.

Extol cautioned customers not to move too fast in adopting a UCCnet solution. "UCCnet is clearly an important compliance initiative, but it's also a moving target," says Anthony Baran, EXTOL chief executive. "We considered the option of releasing a UCCnet 2.1-compliant product, in order to gain visibility in the market. But with the introduction of Data Synchronization Services 2.2 in July, it became evident that this would not serve the best interests of our customers."

EXTOL's vice president of product management, Jim O'Leary, was equally forceful in advising against buying a shrink-wrapped UCCnet product. "We believe that competitors who have decided to release 2.1-based products are making UCCnet compliance more difficult for their customers," O'Leary says. "At EXTOL, our goal is to simplify integration for our customers by addressing known requirements--like Data Synchronization Services 2.2--but also by establishing an architecture that makes it possible to accommodate future changes in industry standards and business processes, without wrenching conversion efforts."

To those ends, EXTOL was accepted by the UCCnet in early August as a UCCnet Alliance Partner. The partnership with UCCnet certifies EXTOL to provide UCCnet implementation services and AS2 software.

Last week, Sterling Commerce, an SBC Communications subsidiary, announced it has formed a partnership with HAHT Commerce, a Raleigh, North Carolina, company that develops e-business software for the supply chain. As part of the agreement, Sterling will resell HAHT's Quick Connect for UCCnet product with Sterling's Gentran Integration Suite.

The duo of Quick Connect for UCCnet and the Gentran Integration Suite will provide an end-to-end solution for product data synchronization for UCCnet, the companies said. Gentran's job is to extract the information from the ERP applications' database, while the Quick Connect product will compile, validate, stage, transform, and distribute the content securely.

Echoes of EXTOL's warning that UCCnet was a moving target could be heard in the statement issued by Sam Starr, Sterling Commerce's president and chief executive. "Gentran Integration Suite, along with HAHT's Quick Connect, can be implemented quickly to meet immediate requirements such as UCCnet, yet is robust enough to provide a foundation for future integration and product information management initiatives," he says.

Sterling also announced a new UCCnet services offering last week. With Sterling Bridge Service, Sterling is offering to transform its customers' product data into the required XML document, and then transport the data, via EDI-INT and AS2, to the GLOBALregistry. Wakefern Food Corp., the distribution arm of ShopRite Supermarkets, is one of Sterling's first UCCnet customers.

EXTOL and Sterling aren't the only EDI providers taking a new tact. Earlier this summer, Inovis acquired IPNet Solutions, one of its closest partners and a provider of UCCnet and EDI-INT solutions. Now Inovis can offer its customers an end-to-end solution for transitioning traditional EDI to the new Internet-based methods.

As we reported last week, TrailBlazer Systems has been certified as a UCCnet Alliance Partner. The certification assures users of TrailBlazer's ZMOD Exchange software (all OS/400 based) that it has been proved to be interoperable with the UCCnet and other products that are certified to send or receive UCCnet product data information.

LANSA, another OS/400 software developer providing targeted UCCnet solutions, also made two related announcement last week. First, LANSA announced that Hunter Fan Company of Memphis, Tennessee, has purchased LANSA's UCCnet Direct to enable product data to be sent from its OS/400 system to the UCCnet GLOBALregistry. The company expects to go live this fall. LANSA also announced that it has been named an inaugural partner of UCC's new Solution Partner Program, which certifies that providers are compliant with the new EAN.UCC information standards.