Reprieve for V5R4

28 January 2010

IBM System i

I had an email from iNEWSWire yesterday with the exciting news that IBM has extended the withdrawal date of OS/400 V5R4 to January 07, 2011 .

Here is the full EMEA announcement letter.

TrustedLink iSeries (TLi or EDI400) is compatible with V5R4, since it was released and the current versions of TLi (v6.1.4, v6.2.0, v6.2.1 and v6.3.0) are all QA-ed on this OS/400 version.

If you are on TLi V5 or EDI400 V2 (Premenos), there are upgrade paths to migrate you to TLi V6, so your existing EDI system can be used on the V5R4 as well.

If you are running OS/400 lower than V5R4 you should talk with your IBM representative to arrange for an upgrade.

Learn more about TLi or visit the customer portal for more information.


Retailers: what is GSCoP and are you ready?

15 January 2010

GSCoP maybe yet another acronym that gets chucked around in retailing circles, but this is an acronym that is being taken seriously.  GSCoP stands for: Groceries Supply Code of Practice,  this new initiative demands Retailers to self regulate their trading relationships in accordance with the rules laid down within the Code.  Retailers have until February 2010 to meet the new GSCoP code from the Competition Commission.

John Kearns, Head of Strategic Alliance Development, Inovis,  has been investigating the code and has some thoughts on it:

“Many retailers face a real challenge to meet the new GSCOP code before the February 2010 deadline, due to the often complex nature of trading relationships and how information is exchanged.  Inovis has extensive experience working with retailers and their suppliers on overcoming compliance problems, and through the Actionable Intelligence solution, we can take the pain out of meeting GSCOP requirements whilst building better trading relationships.”

Want to know more – http://www.inovis.co.uk/gscop.html


Are you working smarter?

4 December 2009
IBM Smarter Planet

Image Source: http://www.deliverfreedom.com

IBM marked the one year anniversary of the launch of Smarter Planet.

In November 2008, IBM launched Smarter Planet as a corporate initiative, which declared that information technology can be used to make the world’s systems and industries more efficient and productive.

Is this a new idea? Well, no. Whatever happened to the idea of the paperless society, which has been talked about since the 80s? EDI was one of the solutions to this idea, to push the documents around electronically, but you wonder how many companies have followed through on a 100% implementation of EDI throughout their trading community.

In 1999 Microsoft researcher Bill Hill explained how electronic books can radically transform society by making books available anytime, anywhere. Well that took more than a few years to really take off, but we seem to be getting somewhere now. Although that being said
I think I’ll stick to books, as I spend enough time looking at screens.

So while we all try to work smarter, just remember it all takes time.


Keeping the faith

30 November 2009
JDE Customers

Image Source: http://sisterrose.files.wordpress.com

UK October 2009 – the UK JDE user group help a conference at Twickenham Stadium with around 300 delegates attending.

Oracle, who inherited JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and World from their aquisition if PeopleSoft in 2005, has “once again declared that customers’ investments in its i-centric JD Edwards ERP solutions will be safe for years to come.”

There are no clear figures on how many JDE customers there are in the UK, but Oracle will say “that that around 40% of its cross-platform EnterpriseOne users are running on the Power i and as JD Edwards World is i-only”

It was only a few weeks ago that I mentioned JDE in my blog Are you changing your ERP system and wondering how to continue doing EDI?

In my blog I mentioned that many TrustedLink iSeries (TLi) customers may not know that we can provide JDE Templates to help you to easily start doing EDI with this widely used ERP system. These EDI templates are provided for both JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and World.

oh and if you are wondering about the picture, Keeping the Faith is a 2000 film staring Ben Stiller and Edward Norton. It’s a nice romcom; an easy film to watch and enjoy.


It’s enough to make anyone have a lie down

25 November 2009

GS1 data crunch

Did you see the news item about Tesco accidentally “paying almost £1 million for six bikes which should have cost less than £1000.”

In this day and age mistakes like this should not be made, and I refer back to my blog earlier this month,  and the quote from the GS1 UK’s ‘Data Crunch’ report, which “estimates that UK grocery retailers and suppliers can realise savings of at least £1 billion over the next five years as data inconsistencies are ironed out across the industry and pass the benefits to consumers through better informed choices and improved shopper experience.”

Perhaps EDI is not enough and UK retailers should move towards Global Data Synchronisation in the same way that the US retailers have already done. GS1 are a great source of information for this.

“Data synchronisation is simply a process that enables the seamless flow of product information through the supply chain. It ensures that suppliers and retailers use the same product information at all times.” This includes pricing and could have prevented Tesco from the embrassing headline.

Want to know more from Inovis? Click here.