virtualRecently I have been seeing what my almost thirty years of EDI experience has prepared me for. Working with a private corporation that operates with an almost virtual national headquarters, I have been challenged with a wide variety of assignments. The skill that got me into this was a good rapport with the senior manager of the corporation (an LLC). I attribute my acquiring this skill because an EDI person is constantly working with both business managers and technical managers.

The first skill the senior manager challenged me with was what he refers to as “mapping”. He knew that EDI included “something” called mapping, so he requested me to “map” his warehouse network, supply network and customer network. Guess it is easy to get confused with mapping, it is both a noun and a verb and gets big coverage in any dictionary. Anyway, his version of mapping was a “walk in the park” for me. I used the same analytical approach that I would use to create an EDI document.

The senior manager carefully studied my biography and saw that I had started two EDI service businesses along the way. So my next challenge was to work on his business plans. Had to do a little reading up on preparing business plans, but the knowledge of his business I had gained in mapping (EDI) and mapping (process) made this another cool assignment.

Next, the senior manager admitted to me he was a “talker” and not a “writer”. He needed somebody to write up a presentation for him. Especially as an EDI Project Manager, I had a lot of experience and found this easy. Funny, I just read last week that military officers rank as one of the most proficient groups in creating Power Point presentations.

Now he read my biography again and discovered that I had once worked in a “finance” function (before EDI even was). He asked me how I was with spreadsheets. I admitted my experience then was with 14-column paper “spreadsheets” done on 10-key “Plus Adders”. That answer didn't stop him, so I just jumped in. Gladly I see relief on this as he is now hiring a Chief Financial Officer. So next he wants to utilize my project management skills.

All this goes to show you how valuable your EDI skills are.

Looking for work? No! Next project is to find out how to work electronically with third-party logistics providers (3PL), fourth-party logistics providers (4PL) and what are 5PL and is there a 6PL. Watch for my answers next month.

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