Is your company on this list? If so you are probably already feeling the effects of the disconnect GXS has caused between you and your trading partners. Were you prepared for this and had your contingency plans in place, or did you suddenly find your orders and other transactions missing in action - effectively shut out from communication.
If you’ve been following the multiple conversations over the last few months about how GXS has changed its policies regarding what it calls daisy-chaining you were most likely prepared for some kind of change to happen in your EDI communications. But you may not have known whether or which of your trading partners was in jeopardy. Some of these connections have in place and functional for nearly a decade, and in that time may have required little to no intervention with regard to connectivity.
In the change that has been reported to already have taken place, trading partners that traverse via ECGrid are being blocked from their connections. In the normal course of transaction management, blockages and undelivered files are reported and dealt with as standard retransmission events. But with an actual blockage in place it’s anyone’s guess as to how or even if these lost transactions will be resolved.
If you have not yet experienced an interruption of service, take this opportunity to check whether you or any of your trading partners are on this list* and then make the necessary arrangements to avoid lost business and possible penalties. As for GXS’ actions in disconnecting ECGrid and its customers… well, we’ve already considered what their motives are in this earlier article.
* The referenced list was removed because of reader comments regarding concerns about company privacy and the possible proprietary nature of the list.