SPS Commerce Publishes New White Paper on Outsourced EDI.
Publication Identifies Ten Questions Manufacturers and Retailers Should Ask When Evaluating Outsourced EDI Vendors
Minneapolis, Minn., Aug. 24, 2006 – – SPS Commerce, the leading Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) provider of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), has written and published a white paper titled 'Ten Questions to Ask Your Prospective EDI Outsource Vendor.' The document identifies key questions for prospective users of outsourced EDI can use to discern the capabilities and ownership of the EDI solution, and the degree of outsourcing assumed by the vendor. It is designed to help individuals distinguish the true differences behind outsourcing or SaaS options, and uncover the importance of industry terms such as multi-tenant and service level agreements (SLAs).
“Outsourcing is a widely used term that can have a hundred different meanings,” commented Jim Frome, EVP at SPS Commerce and author the whitepaper. “At its most basic, it is changing out an employee for a contracted position. At the other end of the pendulum, it can be a complete changeover which replaces an entire function with remotely located infrastructure, or Software-as-a-Service. Many companies are led to believe that all outsourced solutions offer the same capabilities and hands-free operations. Unfortunately, they vary greatly and the terminology is often confusing. Our whitepaper's goal is to help organizations turn the conversation from a vendor-led discussion on their products, to one that addresses only the specific needs of the prospective EDI user.”
The Ten Questions
The whitepaper explores the following questions in depth:
- Is the EDI service capable of performing the requirements with all of my trading partners?
- What infrastructure is included by the outsourcer's solution?
- What implementation tasks are included in the outsourcer's solution?
- What on-going, application management tasks are included in the outsourcer's solution?
- How does the outsourcer assure reliability?
- How does the outsourcer assure availability?
- How does the outsourcer assure serviceability?
- How does the outsourcer integrate to my business application(s) and business partners?
- What other applications can the outsourcer provide your organization now or in the future?
- What evidence can you provide me of your company's leadership?
SPS Commerce's white paper can be downloaded here.
