997 / 999 Generation for EDI-X12 document

In the case of an EDI-X12 document that is received from the trading partner, it can be acknowledged in 2 ways.

• 1.       By sending 997, i.e. Functional Acknowledgement

• 2.       By sending 999, i.e. Implementation Acknowledgement

Even though the usage of the both document are similar, the 997 can be used to verify the syntactical correctness of the document, where as the 999 does indicates the relational analysis of the control structure as well.

In the case of 997 generation for X12 version 5010 and higher, there are additional elements (optional) generated as below

<Element-480>005010</Element-480>
<Element-1705>Implementation Convention Reference</Element-1705>

In addition to this, Oracle B2B (AS11) also validates the 997/999 during the translation to native against the default pre-seeded 997/999 definition. Hence while implementing the solutions using Oracle B2B (AS11); it is a suggested practice to use 999 for the version 5010 or above.

Cloud Computing and B2B

After a Heavy buzz on Cloud computing with all giants marching towards Cloud computing, I was just thinking on how B2B as a domain go with the "Cloud" :) :)
Can look at different angles.... B2B vendors, B2B users, and B2B service providers

At the outlook... a good prospect for all B2B users... and here is my SWOT analysis :) :)

Strength:

• Software as a service available at the door step!!!
• no investment for hardware
• easy to use
• no maintenance hazzles
• helpful for common man, as the details are abstracted and no need of technical knowledge

Weakness:

• At times data integration cost might be cheaper than investing on cloud .. In this EAI world, there might be chances that services provided by different clouds can be varying..which might lead to invest in different clouds
• If 2 trading partners in different cloud, the Synchronous communication, performance in stress.. to be watched out

Opportunity

• No Hardware investment
• Globalisation, the next avtar of e-commerce.. :)
  

Threat

• Security constraints.. Specifically in B2B world, the sharing the signing, encryption credentials might be a threat
• Response time between message exchange also a thought to be given to.. as the HL7 world...or few of EDI world have a Heavy transactions and requires faster response time
  
• Inter cloud connectivity, communication ...
• Too many clouds
• technical competencies, innovations might go down
• Hardware ppl to watch out !!!!
• Terms and conditions are controlled by cloud owners

Wanna check your EDI knowledge????

Answer these Questions :

• What are the various protocols in use?
• Why should you use EDI?
• What is the structure of EDI message
• What is EDI envelope?
• Which part of the EDI message constitutes the envelope?
• What is the message format before translation
• What is the message format after translation
• Who does the translation
• What do you mean by control number
• How many control numbers are there in an EDI message and what are they
• Why do you need so many control numbers for one edi message
• How are various segments are distinguished in an edi message
• How do I get to know number of segments (segment count) in an EDI message?
• What are delimiters
• Are there any default delimiters?
• If there are default delimiters, can it be over written
• What is the format of delimiter (a. ASCII b. Hex)
• What do you mean by functional acknowledgment
• How different is it from acknowledgement in B2B world
• What is internal properties
• Can I put multiple messages into one and send to trading partner?
• What is batching?
• When and why is batching required?
• Which are all the various verticals use batching?
• Can I use batching to send one document to multiple TPs? If Yes, how different is this from broadcast feature? If No, how can I achieve this usecase
• Can I send multiple docs to more than one TP using batching technique?
• Does validation of payload validates the envelope?

EDI Batching

Batching of messages are an important feature for mostly in transport, logistics, retail world. Batching is a processing of a bunch of messages of similar types. These bunc of messages may belong to one or more trading partners. There would be multiple messages being exchange in a transport, logistics, retail world between two partners, and batching of messages of same document type and revision makes the process easier for both the parties. For example, if all the purchase orders are batced together, it is easy to process all the orders at once and there by avoid multiple exchange of messages and easier for shipping andother purposes.

Since EDIFACT or X12 are the widely used documents in retail industry, batching of EDI document becomes very helpful.

Multiple questions comes to mind... :)

1. How will/should the batch message behave if one of the document is with error?
2. How do we handle if the batching has to periodical and for ever?
3. Can we batch all the PO's for multiple trading partners?

... and so on...

Answer is Yes. It depends on the business logic behind.

-- We can have an option to exclude the error message and batch rest of them Or... we can error out all the messages that is part of that batch!!
-- It is possible batch all the POs of different trading partners. The native payload would have different envelops for different trading partners.

Also, we can have another option of count based batching!!!! Yes... we can have a count being set on the number of messages to be batched.. along with repetitive batching. Depending on either of the criteria, the batch can be triggered!!!


One of the products that provides all these options is .. .Oracle AS B2B ...!!!

Adding a special instruction/ Note to an EDI document

EDI document provides a place holder to provide special instruction or a Note as part of EDI document. This enables the trading partners to add special instructions as part of the actual document. This particular element has been reformed from V3010 to V4010.

In the case of V 3010, it is available as part of NTE element

NTE01     363     Note Reference Code
NTE02     3     Free Form Message


In the case of V 4010, it has been moved as part of Advertising Demographic Information.

MTX01     363     Note Reference Code
MTX02     1551     Message Text



Sample list of qualifiers are :
PUR Purchasing
ADD Additional Information
CAI General Business Description
....

A Retail Usecase using X12

1. The Seller expects the buyer/customer to sent a Request for Quotation (840) for the product.

a. Send the Functional Acknowledgement (997) (optional)

2. The seller replies with a Response to Request for Quotation (843), providing prices and shipping details for the item(s) requested.

Alternatively, user can also send the Inventory Inquiry/Advice (846) instead of the above 2 steps

a. Send the Functional Acknowledgement (997) (optional)

3. Upon the satisfaction of response, the buyer/customer sends a Purchase Order (850)

a. Send the Functional Acknowledgement (997) (optional)

4. Also, receives either a Purchase Order Acknowledgment (855)

a. Send the Functional Acknowledgement (997) (optional)

Optionally,

5. Buyer/Customer sends Purchase Order Change Request (860) - Seller Initiated message in response.

a. Send the Functional Acknowledgement (997) (optional)

6. Seller initiates a Purchase Order Change Acknowledgment/Request (865)

a. Send the Functional Acknowledgement (997) (optional)

7. Once the goods are delivered, seller initiates the Invoice (810)

a. Send the Functional Acknowledgement (997) (optional)


8. Finally, there would be a Payment Order/Remittance Advice (820) from the buyer/customer to the seller.

a. Send the Functional Acknowledgement (997) (optional)

Iinterchange acknowledgment (TA1) Vs Functional Acknowledgment (997)

Details soon...