HarrisData Customers Get Outsourced EDI Option from Digital Movers

May 20, 2008 Alex Woodie

HarrisData, a provider of ERP software for the i OS (formerly i5/OS), has entered into a partnership with EDI services provider Digital Movers that will bring HarrisData customers more options for their EDI needs, ranging from VAN services all the way to full outsourcing of EDI processing.

Based in Brookfield, Wisconsin, HarrisData has been developing a suite of RPG-based ERP applications, called the HarrisData Enterprise Suite, for more than 30 years. While other ERP companies have padded their revenues with the sale of services, HarrisData has kept its eye on the software ball, believing there’s still a place for innovation in software development. The mantra of keeping things simple resonates well with its i-based Power Systems (formerly System i) customer base, which numbers around 2,500.

While HarrisData eschews the services approach, its partners provide an array of services that complement the core ERP system. As the newest partner, Digital Movers is offering HarrisData customers several EDI-related services, including access to Digital Mover’s value added network (VAN) for transmitting EDI traffic, and end-to-end EDI outsourcing, where Digital Movers handles all aspects of an EDI system, leaving customers no investments to make in software, hardware, or personnel.

Digital Movers president Ken Konikowski expects EDI outsourcing to resonate with the customers. “HarrisData’s customer set of mid-sized companies running applications on the IBM midrange iSeries platform is a perfect fit for our hosted EDI applications,” he says. “These types of companies typically have a desire to concentrate their IT resources on core competencies and are challenged with maintaining labor-straining external, electronic trading community communications.”