EDI solution other than Lawson?

We use GHX to send EDI transactions (PO, Acknowledgments and Invoices) to and from vendors. GHX has allowed us to rapidly deploy the EDI solution set to far more vendors than when we were using Lawson EDI alone. GHX is fairly responsive to requests and the setup is pretty easy with them. You go through a standard boarding process for vendors that is straight forward.

Customer Service has been just ok with them but we have been on with them from 3 years now and we rarely have to contact them execpt to add new vendors or transactions sets for us so it has worked out well. We would use them again in the purchasing decision.

The downside to GHX is that their services are costly.  We were a member quite a few years ago when it cost only $3000 per IDN for their services, which were limited to EDI transactions.  2 years later the cost jumped to $10,000 per IDN and I felt they just didn't deliver the bang for the buck so we dropped them and I've been setting up EDI with each vendor either direct or through a VAN like GXS/Inovis.  We do use GHX as a VAN to ftp EDI orders to J&J.  I will say that GHX offers a lot more on their menu of services than they did when we were a member.  But last time we looked into them there was a $20,000 fee just to have their people come in and do an audit to determine which of their services would benefit us and provide a proposal.

Are you having issues with Lawson EDI that is leading you to look for other options?

Posted By JonA on 02/01/2012 09:24 AM
Are you having issues with Lawson EDI that is leading you to look for other options?

Yes, we are.  Our primary EDI person has never had real formal training on the EDI product and we are having a lot of problems with building new maps.  In addition, we are testing an upgraded environment (9.0.1.8) and we are unable to get EDI started.  I've had a case opened with GSC for well over two weeks and so far they are nowhere close to a resolution. 

So, we are trying to look for a new EDI solution that is more intutive / easier to use.

I would echo mark.cooks response.  We have been on GHX for a year and it has made my life easier when setting up vendors.  I don't have to worry about different mapping.  They are responsive to our request.  I wasn't involved with the cost part so I cannot comment on that.

I understand the frustration with EDI when you've had no formal training. When I started this job 13 years ago I'd never even heard of EDI. I came into it from a nursing background and had to teach myself. We were on a different system at that time (McKesson Matkon) and when we implemented Lawson I thought their solution made more sense to me than the way McKesson was set up. We recently upgraded our environment to 9.0.1.8 as well and the only issue I can recall is the commserver and mail agent wasn't running and needed to be restarted.. Did you upgrade just environment or also apps at the same time? If your EDI person wants to contact me he can email me jon.athey@midmichigan.org. With some more info I might be able to help.

But do look into GHX as well. They do offer a lot more than just a VAN.

Hello Jon - Thanks for your offer for trying to help.  This has been a real headache and Lawson Support has been slow in trying to help and have thus far come up with nothing,

The particulars:

• Windows Server 2008 - 64-bit
• SQL-Server 2008
• Lawson Environment 9.0.1.9 (using LUU)
• Lawson Applications 9.1.0.7

The problem is that I am unable to run ED330.  I keep getting an error indicating the user requires a security class.  I've added a security class to the user in LAUA with no effect.  At this time, I have security turned off and I still am getting the security error.  Personally, I believe the error has something to do with using Lawson Unix Utilities instead of MKS Toolkit.  We've been trying to thoroughly test LUU on this test environment so that we can get MKS Toolkit removed from our prod system.

In any case, my EDI guy has received little training on the product though he is able to muddle through some of the daily issues that come up in our prod system.  But ideally, we'd like an EDI product that is more intuitive and easier to use.

All of our EDI transactions are made through the use of text files and direct FTP transfer of files between us and our vendors.  Since we make extensive use of SQL-Server SSIS, I'm beginning to think that maybe using some sort of EDI "plug-in" with SSIS to parse and generate these text files might be a better way for us to go, but that's only something I am considering.

Some of EDI transactions we do include:

810 - Invoice
820 - Payment Order / Remittance Advice
850 - Purchase Order
855 - Purchase Order Acknowledgement
856 - Shipment Notification

I'd appreciate any advice users here on the forum can continue to provide.

Couple thoughts:

1. I am aware of an organization that will manage your EDI setups for you for a nominal annual fee. If you are interested in that service, give me a ring at 443.744.2204 and I will point you in the right direction.

2. I understand you are looking for alternate solutions to EDI...but if you are also trying to get Lawson working in the meantime, here is something to consider. (In other words, if you are not wanting to get Lawson EDI working then no need to read further).

I had a client with this exact issue in the same environment a few months back (Windows environment);

Our short term fix was that the system administrator had to run the ED330 execution script manually using LID. I believe if your sys admin were to review the job log that is created when ED330 fails, they would see the script that Lawson is trying to run and then they (the system admin) could manually type that same script into the command line of LID and kick off the ED330.

On a related note, I just assisted a Windows client with an EDI implementation and we never had this issue so I think it might be a matter of not being on the latest version of Lawson EDI programs.

So, in summary, you should be able to kick off the ED330 manually as a work around until you can get help from GSC on the underlying issue. I know it's a hassle that GSC always asks you to upgrade your version when you call them, but I have learned that in the case of EDI, it really does help.

Feel free to reach out to me if you need more assistance.
Mike
443.744.2204

Can you run ED330 from LOGAN? After we upgraded I found that ED330 still lived in LOGAN even though ED screens had been moved to PROD. I could run ED330 in LOGAN but I got a "No programs or bookmarks were found" message when I tried to bring it up in PROD. It was a simple fix though, just adding the PROD ED330 to one of my security classes.

Interesting. I have found the ED330 job in PROD along with all the other ED setups screens. Wasn't aware that it still lived in LOGAN.