“Why API?”, is shorthand for, “Who benefits from the 115+ functions in the ECGridOS EDI network management API“?

But first, would we be here at all without the burgeoning community of skilled developers who are now deploying ECGridOS as an integral part of their B2B solutions? I think not! Therefore, I acknowledge our most committed partners, and point most excitedly to their use cases. It’s all you, guys and gals, it’s all you.

Taking Bold Action: A mission critical comms sector in dire need of imaginative engineering – One man’s Solitary Quest:

Operating Systems offer communications services that underpin many applications. SMTP, HTTP, what have you, we expect the ability to access rich communications services as a native function on most platforms, IDE’s, and OS’es. EDI Communications have traditionally been left to the mercies of external service providers, and have not evolved to the point of ubiquity.

The limitations of today’s raw EDI communications services, from any point of view, is a sore subject. New entrants to the B2B market, those with the freshest ideas, and those in the vanguard of the On-Demand Enterprise 2.0 model, are the future of the ‘commerce cloud’ –  these operators are simply unfathomable sources of inspired ideas within their respective verticals, e.g.,  inventory integration, ERP, Logistics, Retail, and hundreds of other specialized market slices that are ripe for EDI aided solutions. These vertical and micro-vertical ventures deserve much better than the limited services offered from traditional EDI communications systems – they deserve native communications accesible from a custom code-base. The very best communications should be integrated with a system’s GUI, or otherwise be embedded at a fundamental level in the back end, resulting in completely transparent communications for the end-user. (Users should not be expected to know the details of EDI communications setup and transaction monitoring - and the fact that many end-users do indeed have to be involved with such arcana, is a blight upon the industry’s house).

Of course, until the advent of ECGridOS, the foregoing was not the case at all within the EDI Communications sector.  Veteran organizations who also suffer at the hands of the ’EDI status quo’ deserve to gain the ability to offer richer services, rather than being stymied by a communications palette that is limited to uploads and downloads, administrative interfaces via a provider’s web page or even more foul, a configuration regime where changes are updated via phone calls and emails to a Network Operations support queue. OMG Yikes (or, Yoicks)!

Such early 20th century communications methodologies are…..unseemly when cast into the role of supporting  and servicing today’s futuristic ‘B2B Commerce Clouds’. There simply must be a better way forward, because it is, after all, almost 2012 !!

Happy New Year

So, yes, EDI Communications has historically offered us a rather boring tableaux of options, and peering into the industry soul,  I see that not much has evolved of late. Therefore, at what point do we, as colleagues, demand the next evolution of B2B communications architecture? Who indeed will deliver such innovation?

The above state of affairs was foreseen years ago by Todd Gould, Loren Data Corp’s President and CTO. Quite independently, while I was working as a B2B Product Analyst, I felt that a change was absolutely necessary for EDI Communications to keep pace with a growing, on-demand world of web based applications.  My analyst’s marching orders were to address the cultural and architectural issues fermenting within the B2B sector. And now, in cooperation with Todd since 2009, we are working to promote the applied philosophy of EDI Communications delivered as a family of platform solutions.

ECGridOS (and the upcoming Superhub AS2 modular architecture) bolsters the ECGrid host network with a 115+function Web Services API – a callable, Domain Specific Library of remote functions, running on ECGrid Server racks in Loren Data Corp’s SAS70 Data Centers. ECGridOS and Superhub are far more than replacements for standard communications methodologies; the API can be invoked, mixed, and matched with FTP, AS2 (externally and within the API), or any channel supported by ECGrid, including SMTP and X400 mail systems.

ECGridOS is to EDI Communications what mobile application ecosystems are to the various app markets (including the communications plumbing) – creating opportunities for new classes of applications that are driven by the fertile imaginings of developers, as well as enhanced interoperability among collegial competitors of goodwill. We do see a richer, diverse, and more competitive market, arising from a well engineered communications platform architecture. Such open interoperability and carrier-class network management provides B2B end-users with more choices, competitive pricing, and a market encompassing true technological innovation. We believe that we have sown in fertile soil, and are prepared for an era of renewed innovation. Participation in new industry (communications) standards  will begin the reinvention of EDI Communications to its true nature – an applied science.

The vision: dozens of competitors building on a a set of defined platform APIs, resulting in an explosion of EDI applications, mashups, and ever more diverse end-users, while also automating what have become all too common –  horribly manual, repetitive, and vexing processes for end-users and network operators alike.

Our initial answer now is Loren Data Corp’s comprehensive communications architecture: (ECGrid / ECGridOS / Superhub), a masterwork under Todd’s engineering guidance. And, hopefully, my endeavors in addressing the philosophical barriers inherent in inter-platform EDI communications. We shall see. We are off to a good start.

How does one busta move in this business(translation, get in)?

The creation of ECGrid®, Loren Data Corp’s advanced host network, was driven by the early Service Providers (like SPS Commerce) who were seeking a next step in the evolution of communications technology. While VANs offered mailboxes, ECGrid offered node level attachement, where the industry at large offered support oriented to the end-user, ECGrid provided a “Responsible Party to Responsible Party” model of support. Where most EDI networks subsumed X12.56 mailbags, Todd engineered ECGrid to promote mailbags into first class, accessible objects. All of these refinements, and many, many more, were engineered into the ECGrid interconnection and message brokering fabric.

Loren Data Corp’s direct, first name basis support model, and its commitment to not service end-users, are bedrock underlying the founder’s long-term vision; Loren Data does not trample client relations by refraining from offering software, integration, or mapping services. Focusing solely on enhanced communications for professional service providers and a new crop of B2B Cloud operators, Todd and his team of five expert, principal operators, are reaping tangible results: ECGrid downtime has totaled less than 11 hours (scheduled and unscheduled) over the course of the last decade. (Furthermore, no outage has ever resulted in a 100% loss of connection availability or intersystem connection capacity, due to ECGrid’s disturbed design. Pretty smart, Todd.

Advanced B2B Ventures and OEM’s requiring an integrated, streamlined communications back-end designed from the ground up for on-demand B2B services, should investigate the ECGridOS API;  Currently, ECGridOS is the only  EDI intersystem commerce communications network granting complete operational authority to its clients. Savvy developers should peruse the online API docs at http://ecgridos.net API docs.

The implications of offering an EDI Communications platform API in the present-era B2B market is disruptive; especially for those giving the least bit of thought to the issues of EDI transaction management. With the industry in the midst of consolidation, upheaval, and some destructive actions driven by the fearful insecurities of its largest incumbent…. well, then, retaining full authority over your EDI Communications has never been more important. Therefore, I invite you to please, join us along with your colleagues who presently enjoy the security, independence, and substantial technical and support benefits of being ECGrid Clients.

I will end 2011 by rapidly publishing the following topical articles, before year’s end. Happy holiday, and a fine and profitable, spiritual new year.

Articles for year’s end:

The State of the B2B Communications Industry, from this analyst’s perspective

The “VAN Exodus” Dichotomy – what does it mean? Does it even exist? What could possibly replace a system that serves a population of 500,000+ VAN trading partners?

The essential truths of Communications infrastructure providers, and standards that we hold them to.

It was simply a matter of time until one of the foremost ECGridOS developers, NetEDI of the UK, scored another award for their superior integration offerings. We at Loren Data Corp are extremely gratified that Marc Nelson, Steve Martin, Mark See, and John Kearns, have persevered and built a powerful new business entry in what could only have been called until recently, a moribund EDI market.

With NetEDI gaining recognition from Sage UK for their superior innovation in integrating Sage’s offering with the world of EDI, well, I can only say, “hats off to the NetEDI team, what took you so long?”

Learn more about the fantastic, functional, cost-effective, and innovative product offerings of NetEDI. Read more about their recognition by Sage right here.

If you are operating a new or well established B2B venture that is dependent on EDI communications, just ask the guys at NetEDI – ECGridOS is the network infrastructure that you can build a business on.

The ECGridOS API now gains AS2 functionality, and is now in stable beta, with release to developer access before the end of the 2011.  This is an important milestone for the EDI communications community. Here are a few thoughts about why As2 communications was added to the ECGridOS API (a multi-network, mailbag-managed routing system):

As2 is….something else. At first glance, AS2 looks great, with direct connections between the trading partners, secure certificates, HTTPS transport. In other words,  AS2 looks like the answer to what some perceive as our present-day VAN ills (that’s another article). Until one experiences the pleasures of maintaining and operating a large AS2 system servicing dozens, hundreds, or thousands of trading parters, one can’t imagine the complexities ensuing from AS2. Most of the pains are inflicted upon the administrators, especially inexperienced As2 hub operators that are new to the game of communications infrastructure and the direct support of arms length trading parters. All good fun. Not.

Sometimes, a new hub initiative travels down the As2 primrose path, and then finds that they have gone too far, it’s too late to gracefully back out the trading partners onto the (marginally) more rational, routed VAN services. That’s the story we often hear: As2 was thought to be a messiah, yet after adding the thirty-seventh trading parter, things started falling apart, operationally speaking. Big support headaches, big licensing, software support fees, an expanding gang of dedicated machinery,  and never ending End User (trading partner) support calls! I can hear my grandmother saying, “oy vey” (“oh pain”, but much is lost in translation).

AS2, as run by large hubs, is famous for massive and unwieldy “forced march” certificate change overs. Changes to trading partner As2 IDs, the URIs on both ends, firewall port configuration nightmares, etc. Shall I go on?  The lesson here is that internally run and maintained As2 may be an acceptable communications channel for some, a burden for many, (trading partners) yet in any case, is never a picnic for the largest trading hubs.

For the few enamored of large, self-administered As2 systems, that’s great, I will not take issue, however, ECGridOS As2 will improve any organization’s operational efficiency.

I am rather evangelizing 97% of the largest retailers, manufacturers, and logistics operators that have had their sanity stolen by in-house As2. Our brave EDI Service Providers, the communications experts we specialize in serving, also complain about AS2 management headaches they experience in the course of supporting several hundreds to thousands of As2 spoke users.

ECGridOS As2 Web Services allows developers to command a powerful, multi-tenant communications cluster with centralized directory services and certificate management. The AS2 instances you create are accesible by any method supported by the ECGrid host network – FTP, SFTP, As2, Web Services parcel up/down, X400 SMTP.

Salvation is now at hand with ECGridOS AS2. Developers may now create, command, and embed the functionality of the EDI industry’s most sophisticated and trusted communications cluster, unifying both VAN routed communications via standard interconnects, and AS2 communications. Such functionality cannot be purchased or licensed at any price. Yes, there are hosted As2 systems, and they seem as difficult to administer as licensed As2 software packages. For example certificate management in most managed As2 systems seems as fraught as licensed software. Thankfully, ECGridOS As2 is an EDI  Service Providers or in-house developer’s dream.

AS2 instances runs on ECGrid’s infrastructure, residing in a best in class (Sungard) SAS70 data center. No hardware is required, and all of flexibility of ECGridOS (110 Function API) is retained. You will have total control over account creation,  mailboxes, reporting, sessions, security, certificates, tracking, and more. The power in bringing As2 communications to the proven ECGridOS Web services API, remedies the inherent deficiencies of in-house, licensed As2 systems.

If you don’t yet understand my enthusiasm, please go see our API Docs here. This is big.

Making  As2 communications a managed protocol within the ECGridOS EDI network management API is the one of the most newsworthy items I have seen in 2011 – it makes perfect sense, too, as ECGrid, ECGridOS, and now ECGridOS AS2 have all innovations of and by Todd Gould, President of Loren Data Corp, and possibly the EDI industry’s most prolific and far seeing communications engineer.

If you are interested in development using ECGridOS, including the As2 extensions, or would like a quote on standard communications on ECGrid at great wholesale rates, drop us a line or call. Remember, developer API accounts are free until you enroll  production users. We also have flexible account models for every type of Service Provider, Enterprise Software OEMs (build EDI into your applications, instead of sending your customers packing for an external solution).

As usual, rather than write my own material, I have spent the last two years encouraging the President of Loren Data Corp, Todd Gould, to put pen to paper, fingers to keyboard, and get busy. Todd is not only our industry’s leading communications architect, a thought leader, and a crusader for trading partner rights (as an advocate for a rational, industry-wide routing policy), he also desires to see our industry grow from both ends of the spectrum, i.e., the largest EDI based businesses as well as the smallest.

In Todd’s Grand Vision, access to the global supply chains should be available to any business of goodwill. The ability to acquire services to either transact directly with trading partners, or to build new and specialized Enterprise 2.0 Services in completely new hosting models…should never be mediated by gatekeepers or high-handed legacy “conglomerate owners” of the sector.

As we can see in his recent November update, Todd is not alone; there is a growing cadre of important enterprise software OEMs and new era ecommerce companies that have joined Loren Data Corp, not merely as client and customers, but as quiet yet firm activists in the quest for open and collegial EDI communications access without gatekeeping.

Not merely satisfied with complaining about the status quo, Todd, in addition to running a 23,000 user EDI network, has started the work to revolutionize the way we use and manage As2 connections – note that I did not say revolutionize As2….I said “the way we use and manage As2 connections” – there is a Big Difference. As2 has never had a problem as a comms protocol, its problems have always been in its management.

The amazing phenomenon that is ECGrid and its developer platform, ECGridOS, is truly starting to look impressive in capabilities as a communications platform for new era EDI based businesses. Actually,  the power of ECGrid has been impressing a cadre of EDI service providers since 2001 –  but until the advent of  the ECGridOS API, the power was relegated to the few, specialized, pioneering B2B SAAS Companies that started SME shift a decade ago.

Now, we shall see the expanded ECGridOS API, the new ECGridAs2 SuperHub, and amazing API extensions Todd will shortly release from beta – we WILL see that the  EDI Communication Industry ‘s future will assuredly NOT reside solely in the hands of one or two consolidated incumbents –  rather, EDI’s fate will rest in the capable hands of innovators, developers, and entrepreneurs of the new  movement called, “Enterprise and Supply Chain 2.0″ !!

See all of Todd’s blog posts at http://www.ld.com/presidents-blog/

Oakland Software is ready to Rock with EDInow!, an Eclipse-based Mapper and ESB Run-time Translator with fully integrated EDI Network management. And you can steer the Product’s final feature set by contacting Francis Upton, Oakland’s CTO, and getting into the beta program. Don’t be fooled by the beta status of EDInow – the beta program is just to refine the ECGridOS network management features in the otherwise mature Oakland Data Transformer EDI Tool Suite.

An email went out a few weeks ago announcing our new developer partner, Francis Upton, CTO and Founder of Oakland Software. Francis is a monster software engineer at the Top of his game, and he has been delivering his product ODT (Oakland Data Transformer) for quite some time to the Big Pharma market – a very demanding EDI market for the mapping and transformation experts in that field. Now, he is concentrating on delivering EDInow!, an Eclipse IDE based mapper – a mapper like no other. The EDInow tools from Oakland are based on an ESB, an Enterprise Service Bus, a super connector and runtime orchestrator ideal  for companies requiring the power to consolidate multiple data sources, apply  complex maps, generate custom code, and then run the translations in real time on Mulesoft ESB.

This is the future of EDI data management and communications. Have you been subjected to wining, dining, and a round of golf by the salespeople from the old line VANs?; that’s because they don’t have Jack to offer – nothing new to sell or demo, just the same old solutions. But Oakland and Loren Data Corp now bring you the latest, most up to date technology that is proven  and designed for demanding service providers, integrator / operators, and B2B Cloud Commerce ventures.  The combination of Eclipse, MuleESB, and ECGridOS is a killer combination for professionals whose needs are just not met by old line, smokestack era mapping tools. (ODT used by several prestigious companies for mapping and translation, and ECGridOS is used by a rapidly growing cadre of established and new EDI ventures).

Francis Designed EDInow to exceed the capabilities and power of “old-line” EDI mapping and translator offerings. There is nothing like EDInow, because it inherits the extensible power of Eclipse, the most popular Open Source Language Agnostic IDE, and Runs on the Proven Mulesoft ESB (soon other ESB’s as well).

I know there are B2B SAAS and EDI service providers that have been lurking and getting my emails, and you are waiting to make your architectural move to EDI for 3PL and other complex transactions that exceed the reach of most of the worn out old mappers that were designed in the Smokestack Era. And, the first group that gets in on Oakland’s Beta of EDInow will get hands-on support and help from the program’s author and engineer himself, Francis Upton -

Francis is very modest, perhaps too modest. He is one of the leading thinkers and doer’s of the data transformation world -in and outside of EDI. This is a rare opportunity to get plugged in, get the best tools, and expand your horizon as to what can be done with real power tools in an ESB environment. And, ECGridOS EDI network management is built in.

This future is here, and I invite all on the ECGridOS list to experience the future of EDI data management on Eclipse and Mulesoft ESB – life will never be the same for service providers and B2B Cloud Operators who have been frustrated with the limitations of Old Line EDI Tools – So See the EDInow details here.

Participate in the beta and demo-  by  Contacting Oakland Software here.

The ECGridOS in Action page has a new use case by Dimension Software of Denmark, see how Jesper Carstensen extended Orbis TaskCentre BPM suite with ECGridOS’ powerful EDI network management functionality.  Dimension Software Use Case

Never Forgetting for a Moment the Premier EDI Use Case – NetEDI of the UK

The EDI Communications industry had pretty much settled on a few connection modalities before we brought ECGridOS to market. The ability to command and control the entire vertical stack of user functions required to enable a commerce communications network had never been offered by the industry – at least as a programmable interface. Todd, long an observer of the industry, saw that hosted applications (cloud commerce, if you will) were use cases that could specifically benefit from communications integration. There is also no shortage of Web 2.0 and Enterprise 2.0 applications that have grown considerable user communities, but have not considered the ability to communicate within the typical EDI enabled supply chain businesses. We totally get why these dynamic new businesses like Freshbooks, and other innovative e-invoicing and lightweight accounting and management systems have steered clear. We are going to try and offer the tools and knowledge to remedy this situation. I personally hope that if some of the developers or even principals of these companies gets a chance to read this article, we might start a dialogue.

The idea of horizontal commerce communications ala X12 within these dynamic new Web based application communities has not happened as of yet, in a big way. There are good reasons for this, not the least of which is the complexity of the steps required to get peer buyer / supplier relationships working beyond communications setup (where ECGridOS excels). For example, despite the burgeoning availability of data handling tools, and the ability to liberate data from a strict field ordering, there has not been a large uptake of intersystem and even intra-system business document exchanges. Within these systems, the invoice reigns supreme, and it works quite well as the carrier of the most important data items between parties who typically use these Web 2.0 invoicing and small accounting systems.

Connecting disparate E 2.0 systems, including some of the pricier SAAS ERP systems, or even Netsuite based applications, seems almost as if there’s a foot stuck in the past, with FTP often hanging off the side of these systems, or the reliance on VAN connections, or cobbled up direct AS2 in some otherwise streamlined on-demand applications platform. Come on already! Integrate natively!

So for those wanting more, we can turn to the excellent culture of open APIs offered by these leading platforms. There’s a wealth of add-ons that leverage the Freshbooks API, and we can say that Web 2.0 business applications leveraging API’s as a business strategy have done quite well, adding a great channel for growth. Now, combining these great APis with an EDI communications API, mashing up as they say, plus a new series of interoperability enhancements being added to ECGridOS in 2011, and we are on our way to making that final connection. And, personally, I can’t wait to see the first mashups between ECGridOS and Twitter, for example. What a great way to send EDI related notifications; dont get me started, I’ll never shut up.

The most important thing: Bringing a set of component network services to market should inspire developers and applications vendors to create new, groundbreaking services. Sure, the motto here is “Be Your Own EDI Network with ECGridOS”, but what we always envisioned was for completely new, groundbreaking mashups, entry into E 2.0 and Web 2.0 Web Applications, PAAS, SAAS, Cloud B2B, and more. Sure, recreating a VAN service is now possible with nothing more than ECGridOS and a copy of Visual Studio or Eclipse, a little front end, our back-end infrastructure, and poof, you’re the VAN.  But……I see so much more as an entirely new class of applications attaching via a set of REST APIs to say, FreshBooks, then traveling through ECGridOS as Canonical Class Objects, and then connecting on the other end to various E2.0 systems – with no translation or mapping needed. Stay tuned. This is just the start.

The next series of articles will not just draw a picture of the future and our hopes of what ECGrid and ECGridOS could attain, but what we will be providing in actual fact during the course of 2011 – about one post per week about ecommerce, E2.0, and the next frontier made possible by the combination of open APIs.

And, expect to see some very interesting applications and code demonstrating what can be done with APIs on different systems, when used with ECGridOS to connect to the world of global and local commerce.

Benoit Lheureux of Gartner takes a look at several B2B integration technologies and finds ECGridOS unique among B2B integration APIs! (we knew it!).  We are not allowed to quote the report (we try to be respectful of agency guidelines), but the work that Ben is doing springs from this link http://blogs.gartner.com/benoit_lheureux/ where you will find several links to his blog articles on the subject. Ben is “the man” when it comes to B2B vendors that support cloud B2B commerce. That’s us – we arm the on-demand and cloud B2B ecommerce operators with the best, bar none, EDI Web Services API.

You can purchase the cool vendors report at http://www.gartner.com/resId=1351615

Don’t we wish that our Top Engineers and Product Managers could go to every cloud event?

You betcha. Many of the on-demand software infrastructure vendors that we romance go to all of these events. We go to a smaller subset, and we think very hard about our total costs and opportunities.  We are changing the EDI industry’s means of configuring  SAAS and Cloud Managed B2b EDI communications. That is not hyperbole at all, we are real, deliver real services, and have innovated in the EDI network sector for well over a decade.The ECGridOS Services Delivery API is nothing like off the shelf EDI communications. In 90+ rational functions,  ECGridOS exceeds in every use case, in every requirement check-off, as the best way to configure EDI routing for multi-tenant platform B2B.

Boomi, Netsuite, Azure, all of these giants should be using ECGridOS to offer integrated EDI Communications services, And I can back up the statement that these highly respected cloud platform vendors and services providers should offer integrated EDI communications.

The featured cloud services and SAAS integration providers do everything well, except they revert to old methods when configuring EDI network services. One Pipe for all on the platform? Sending each client packing for their own EDI communications solution?  We integrated your data model, smoothed out your process orchestration, and solved your access and client delivery, now good luck with that EDI! Here is a list of VANs. They could have offered these services as an integral part of their platform, click click click, there’s your mailbox, customized at the user and account level.

And, thankfully, we were not wrong about this API, as some are coming along. But as we service them and continually upgrade our data center, Loren Data Corp, now 23 years in business as an EDI developer and 9 years in continuous service with ECGrid®,  an EDI Routing network un bundled from Packaged Solutions, we are the preferred EDI carrier of Cloud based supply chain operators.

Now, we want the On-Demand and Cloud Integration Crowd. I call for the Product Managers of Biztalk, Azure, AWS, Boomi, Netsuite, to offer the best EDI communications with the most transparent platform integration possible. You folks can do it. We built it. Let  your clients be their own EDI Network with your cloud platform services and ECGridOS.

Why would I, an EDI Guy
Need a 90 function API?
I'm an FTP Upload and Download man
I gotta call, and hassle with a VAN
to manage user accounts
and Interconnects.
ECGridOS is for me
with integrated control
Glued right into my code
Self Managed EDI
with ECGridOS (Beats on syllables) Boom Boom Boom Boom Boom
We are B2B in the Cloud

With services on demand,
For a modest monthly fee,
No EDI manage-abil-ity.
Now each client on our hub
trades globally, with transparency,
its EDI, they dont even need to know!

With ECGridOS.
We make ERP, for B2B
We do business globally
gave 'em AS2 or FTP
at the end of each project naturally
for those EDI connections
that was such a wrong direction
We went with built-in-EDI
With ECGridOS.

In-house AS2, and FTP
cost us dearly
It made suppliers sad,
to configure numerous vendors...
Too many receivers and senders,

Now we're down with the API
For few bucks a month, we Fly
With  Globally Routed,connections
Going in the right Direction
Our supply chain has no pain
And its no drain on our pocket,
wer'e even making a decent profit
We're a real EDI Network
with ECGridOS