"SCENES FROM A SERVER - PART 2"

For those that enjoyed (or were disturbed by) the last one, here is "PART 2" of the multi-part video series "SCENES FROM A SERVER". We released the first of the series back in June. The video puts a funny spin on the data integration challenges that face businesses today. As you will see bad “Data”, and the integration of it, continues to be a problem for the “System” integrator.

Thousands viewed the first video. View and forward to your Information Technology friends. The video is accessible at: http://www.remedi.com/screeningroom/server_video.html

If you missed "PART 1", it and other videos are available on our company site at:
http://www.remedi.com/resources/videos.html

Another Year in the Books...

As of today we have completed our 16th year in business! In many respects it seems as though it was just yesterday. In other respects the integration business has been through a lot of changes. REMEDI and our clients have endured those changes, not to mention three economic downturns of major significance. Fortunately, we are in a niche that assists clients in enhancing productivity and efficiency, along with reducing cost.

We would like to thank all those who made the last 16 years possible, and, we'll be counting on you for a few more :-)

It's funny to look back at the inception of the company and consider the things of 1994...

-The White House launches its first web page
-Initial ecommerce sites were established
-$1.16 - Price of regular gasoline/gallon
-$0.29 - Cost of a first-class stamp
-Forrest Gump - Top grossing movie of the year
-ER and Friends - Premiered on NBC
-The O.J. high speed chase (where were you for that one?)

All joking aside we are most proud of what has been accomplished in service to our clients. We have helped customers traverse through several cycles of economic turbulence. We have provided clients with expert service while maintaining our quality, integrity, and positioning within the industry as a value option to utilization of the big players, and a stable option with resource depth as compared to the 1 or 2 person show.

Thanks again to all those who have contributed to REMEDI's success.

Hiring Trends

Pendulums make for pretty good employment cycle analogies because they both have a recognizable arc, apex, and return path. Regardless the size, pendulums typically aren’t dangerous unless you turn your back on them. That’s when you don’t see “it” coming until…..Wwhhhaaack!

The first time you get caught flat-footed because the market’s best candidate took a role elsewhere (or worse, a better offer at one of your competitors) can be sobering leaving you with quite a headache.

Several times during my recruiting career I’ve had the opportunity to watch this pendulum effect as employment markets heated up and cooled off, only to invariably grow hot again. The hiring managers who best leverage the pendulum’s momentum seem to follow a few simple patterns that work to prevent them from getting blind-sided.

Here are a few suggestions to consider as the current technical labor pendulum prepares to swing back:

Stay in touch.

Mentally divide the general unemployment trends and percentages you hear in the news reports by about half. The numbers given on the evening news are typically for the general population at large. Yet skilled technical professionals typically experience unemployment at around half the rate of the general working population. Seek sources of information more in touch with the technical hiring environment in which you exist. Examine the state of your industry and whether it is growing or declining independent from the state of the economy. Be sure to stay abreast of trends within other closely related industries for any early indicators of what may be headed your way soon.

Listen for clues.

Keep regular tabs on how tight the variable labor markets and full-time candidate pools really are. But keep these two labor pools separate in your mind because during weak economic times you’ll find career consultants in full-time jobs and full-time minded professionals willing to do consulting work. At least until the economy improves. During interviews, be prepared to have open candid conversations about this topic.

Look behind you.

Don’t be surprised by a recovery that happens faster than you realized. During the last recovery in fourth quarter 2004, there was a sudden rebound in the technical labor market that caught many hiring managers by surprise. Because of the stark lack of an expected gradual trend it was not uncommon for hiring managers to finally land a consultant or employee on the 2^nd or 3^rd try. The most common causes for this were complacency and a lack of labor market intelligence. Unfortunately the result often means filling a seat with a runner up instead of your top pick.

Gaining Acceptance.

Your goal as a hiring manager is to have your offers accepted. Here are 3 quick tips in a transitioning market to keep in mind.

1. Avoid complacent thinking which leads you to assume the candidate will still be there when you’re ready to make the offer. Stay in touch with peer managers at other companies to gain a sense of who is hiring, and at what volume and pace. This provides you a valuable snapshot of the hiring market beyond merely that of your own company.

2. If you are concerned about the possibility of a candidate’s competing opportunity, be sure to ask. It’s only reasonable that both you and the candidate be able to gain clarity instead of making assumptions about where the other stands.

3. If anything will delay your decision, then keep your top 2 or 3 candidates informed of the hiring status regularly, and ask that they extend you the same courtesy on a schedule that is realistic for both of you. Regular communication will avoid anyone feeling “strung along” by the other party.

Charley Hughes has successfully placed hundreds of job-seekers into career-advancing positions during his eleven years as an Information Technology recruiter, and now works exclusively with EDI, EAI, and eCommerce professionals across the United States. Charley makes his home in Ohio with his wife of 22 years and their two teenage sons.

Integration Strategy, Integration Suites - What's Your Plan?

In Blog articles from February...B2B eCommerce Opportunities in Today's Economy and March...B2B eCommerce - The Stimulus Package For Your Organization, I talked about organizations that view the IT department as a valuable driver of efficiency and effectiveness though the systems they develop. I also spoke of opportunities where existing integration tools could be further employed to support the business in tough economic times. The result of these additional solutions include enhanced productivity, reduced cycle times, and enhanced business process modeling/management, thereby allowing for better business network integration, collaboration, and supply chain visibility/management. With the constrained budgets of many, much of my ranting early in the year was about getting the most out of the integration tools that exist within the organization.

While former articles sought to identify integration opportunities for the budget constrained, in May I turned my sites towards the evolution of EDI, EAI, and file transfer tools into multi-functional integration suites. This outlined a new class of product offered by leading integration companies with consolidated B2B integration, A2A enterprise integration, and managed file transfer capabilities.

Integration suite products are for the less budget constrained and offer huge return opportunities for the investment. Many organizations that have implemented integration suites are realizing the benefits these tools offer and are using them for integration solutions that combat the tough competitive/economic landscape. Yet others have not implemented an integration suite or are not realizing all the benefits of such a tool if they have one.

In any event those having, or considering, an integration suite would be particularly well served if the acquisition and implementation of an integration suite followed an enterprise integration strategy. The pieces of this strategy could include: high level integration needs for the business, the documentation of every known or anticipated integration need, and outline the integration tool components required to accomplish the integrations. These are just a few of the items that could exist within the strategy, but the point is the acquisition of an integration suite would match the requirements as defined in an integration strategy.

The value of such a strategy, and of a comprehensive integration solution (CIS / integration suite), is addressed in an excellent piece of research I stumbled across prior to departing on a recent vacation. It outlines the value of implementing a comprehensive integration solution and provides statistics on the number and types of firms that might be planning to do so.

The research was a commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Sterling Commerce. This study had some excellent recommendations, and the survey of 260 IT executives had some surprising results.

Important observations based on the research...

- Often times there is not an enterprise wide approach to internal/external business integration.
- Multiple EDI, EAI, and file transfer tools exist and this, of course, is not optimal in regard to uses of human and financial capital.
- Plans some firms have for upgrades to their integration infrastructure may be step wise and not the large jump in infrastructure improvement one needs to gain maximum benefits and efficiencies.
- Comprehensive integration solutions should be evaluated and acquired only after the development of an enterprise integration strategy.

Important observations based on the survey responses...

- More than 80% of those surveyed are planning on upgrading their internal and external infrastructure in the next 12 months or less.
- The survey does not specify if those planning to upgrade integration infrastructure are making step wise upgrades or upgrades to a comprehensive integration solution.
- The current integration infrastructure is not effective in regard to quick response to integration challenges, as cited by survey participants.
- Delays in integrating systems, or across business partner networks, was reported to be costing significant time and money.
- The top two reasons cited for the lack of quick response to integration challenges was the need to rely on multiple integration tools, and existing integration tools were based on older technology.
- Respondents recognized the value of a CIS citing benefits of better support for complex supply chain integration and lower costs for hardware, maintenance, and training.

These are just a few of my observations from what was a very lengthy study. Maybe a CIS (or integration suite) isn't right for your organization. But if you are considering it, have the evaluation guided by an enterprise integration strategy and read this research. It's worth a look.

Links:
Evolution of Commerce Transactions
Managing Automation Article
TMCnet Article

Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Sterling Commerce, December 31, 2008.

EDI Training - Still Highly Sought After?

Surprisingly, EDI training requests continue to lead our inbound service requests. This has been the case for as many years as I can remember. The circumstances that lead to training requests and engagements vary from training turnover/termination backfills and expansion of staff, to product training on newly acquired EDI and business integration tools, to rogue outsourcing firms that land contracts then need to figure out how to get staff trained on all things EDI.

As varied as the reasons are for training, so are the desired approaches to delivery of the training. Some seek traditional classroom product-based training as an alternative to their software vendor offering. A few want WebEx or recorded training. Others want customized training to address specific needs and concerns omitting basic/known topics. Finally, the training that is requested most and is of the greatest interest to firms is on-premises training.

Known by many names, "over the shoulder", "pilot/copilot", "side by side", "on the job", on-premises training is at the client location with client EDI/integration software, in the client IT environment, with the client/partner implementation requirements, and with at least one if not many client resources.

The result of this approach is a staff/consultant experience that goes from integration spec analysis, to development/testing, to production implementation. All this unfolds in a custom manner with staff participation in a real test/production environment, with a real instance of the client ERP system, and with actual partner integration opportunities.

Other than live implementations engagement goals vary based on budget and include: trained staff, documented systems, knowledge transfer, and organizational self sufficiency.

With all of the benefits, no wonder this training approach has been so popular for so long.

Decade of Change.

What happened in the World of EDI in the last decade?

Well, at the end of the 1990's there was a lot of talk about “Is EDI Dead?” It was going to be replaced by XML. VANs were going to be replaced by AS2. Everybody can do EDI over the WEB! At the end of the decade, we were all tied up with Y2K (gee! I was even an AIAG-certified inspector!). In 2000, the “bubble burst” on a lot of the “go-go” Internet companies. Some lasted a year or two until their venture capital $$$ ran out. Some even survived. We thought it would be a transition to a perfect world where everyone communicated together in a paperless environment. But we thought that too when we went from the 1980's to the 1990's. Some things did get better then. Anybody remember when they had to recompile an entire EDI COBOL program everyime you added a partner or even changed the specs?

COMPANIES
I have had a look around and many of the companies I knew have disappeared. Even some of the big players seem to have gone. Who are the current big players? Harbinger was merged away as was Supply Tech into something called Inovis. Gentran got bigger. Where did Seeburger come from? GEIS became something else called GXS. EDICT Systems is still around and got better.

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Posted by Ken Kinlock