We all have experiences with situations we wish would be different. Short term encounters are easy to walk away from because there's usually little at stake. But longer term relationships, whether in business or in our personal lives are more difficult to walk away from. That doesn't make them any easier to deal with, but it does provide more incentive to make accommodations and look for ways to resolve differences. And the situations can get difficult when one side of the relationship seems to be bullying the other side. Read more...

The economics of EDI are closely connected with the politics of the supply chain. What started as a utility for moving order information between trading partners has become at times, a battlefield over territories and processes. As different companies and groups determine the most advantageous methods for themselves, there is a normal tension between what's best for one and what's good for the overall effort. And at some point the choices can approach a tipping point at which decisions that had been historically unthinkable become more appealing than following the pressures being applied by the dominant forces. Are we approaching a tipping point? Read more...

EDI pricing is one of those things that's hard to pin down. ec-bp.com has supported the lowering of costs of EDI since its first issue 10 years ago. We recently posted a story about how GXS intends to stop the practice it calls daisy-chaining, a move that would lower the number of options available to trading partners and likely increase overall costs of using EDI. In another counter-productive move, it seems that the costs of the guidelines for the 6050 specifications will increase in price and require annual 'maintenance fees.' Individually these changes may not seem like a big deal, but are they a trend? And will they have any long term effect on the marketplace? Will the price increases lead for a move away from a pricey X12 to a free and more internationally supported EDIFACT? Read more...