Midrange Stuff, OS/400 Edition

The rapid adoption of UCCnet's GlobalRegistry is spurring software vendors to get their UCCnet products out the door. During the first half of this year, the number of companies subscribing to UCCnet's data synchronization service increased six-fold compared with 2002, and that number is now believed to have surpassed 1,000 companies. Several new products have been announced recently that enable suppliers to hook their ERP systems into the online repository to synchronize their product data with retailers.

Studies show that up to $40 billion is wasted every year over product data deficiencies. The root of this problem is that many companies use different formats to describe their products, but often the product data has just been incorrectly entered. To address this problem, the Uniform Code Council formed a nonprofit subsidiary called the UCCnet whose job it is to oversee standardization and synchronization of product data in the supply chain. Retailers operating on razor-thin margins have the most to gain with UCCnet; Wal-Mart is requiring its suppliers to support UCCnet by January 1.

Fresh off its mid-summer acquisition of IPNet Solutions, Inovis launched its first end-to-end UCCnet solution at the Supply Chain Week conference and expo, held recently in Chicago. Inovis' new IPNet UCCnetLink product suite is a collection of components that enable suppliers to extract item data from their own ERP systems, to review the data for compliance with the UCCnet Global Registry, and then to publish the item data back to the Global Registry, via the AS2 EDI-INT standard.

Components of the UCCnetLink suite include BizAdapters, which hook into various ERP and database systems via ODBC and JDBC and load a company's product data into the BizCatalog component. BizSync is a Web-based console that lets users manage the process of synchronizing data in the BizCatalog and in the Global Registry itself. Once the ERP data is synchronized, the BizManager MapPack component converts the data into the proper UCCnet XML format. Finally, the BizManager engine sends that data to the Global Registry, via the AS2 standard, for secure Internet-based EDI transactions. BizManager runs on OS/400, Windows, and Unix servers.

Also presenting at the Supply Chain Week conference was TrailBlazer Systems. The Atlanta company officially announced its new ZMOD Exchange UCCnet solution at the show. ZMOD Exchange UCCnet is a completely OS/400-based application that pulls data from a company's product master files (if the company has any) and places it in a catalog system, for synchronization with the Global Registry data.

TrailBlazer says that its ZMOD Exchange UCCnet requires no customized programming and that it's easy to use, with a nice GUI for non-techies. The company offers pre-built connectors for popular ERP systems, like J.D. Edwards, SSA Global BPCS, and the MAPICS iSeries ERP system. For customers that have rolled their own connectors, TrailBlazer says it will make ZMOD Exchange UCCnet source code available.

Another company presenting at the Supply Chain Week conference, which drew 6,500 attendees, according to the show's promoter, Frontline International, was OS/400 EDI software provider EXTOL. The Pottsville, Pennsylvania, software company was there to promote its upcoming UCCnet offering, called UCCnet Integrator.

When EXTOL's UCCnet Integrator ships, it will handle four main tasks, the company says: acquisition of item data from ERP systems; aggregation and maintenance of trade items and collections; synchronization with the Global Registry; and internal synchronization of data and business processes. Whereas other UCCnet offerings may only support AS2 communications and mapping, EXTOL says its UCCnet Integrator offering allows customers to incorporate UCCnet processes as part of their existing business practices. EXTOL says the "early adoption" phase of UCCnet Integrator should begin by the end of the month (today).

Meanwhile, LANSA, which has several companies either using or installing its UCCnet Direct offering, is working to build a Linux version of its UCCnet Direct offering. Currently, UCCnet Direct runs on OS/400 and Windows systems. The company expects to have a Linux version by the end of the year.

In other UCCnet news, Manhattan Associates announced that users of its warehouse management system, most of whom are OS/400 shops, can now get UCCnet connectivity through a webMethods product. Earlier this year, Manhattan Associates partnered with webMethods to build integration into its warehouse management system. The webMethods Item Synchronization Solution is now available for Manhattan users.