WAKEFERN PILOTING EDI LINK TO UCCNET

Michael Garry

ELIZABETH, N.J. -- Wakefern Food Corp. here is the first company to pilot a new service that allows distributors and manufacturers to leverage their existing EDI connections to send information to, and receive information from, UCCnet's Global Registry.

Sterling Commerce, Dublin, Ohio, provider of the service and a major VAN (value-added network), told SN last week that Wakefern was the first of its EDI (electronic data interchange) customers to test the new UCCnet service, called the Sterling Bridge Service. The service was announced in late August.

By linking distributors and manufacturers to UCCnet's Global Registry, a global product directory, the Bridge Service would facilitate synchronization of item information, such as updates and new products, between trading partners. An alliance partner of UCCnet, Sterling also offers a software solution, Gentran Integration Suite, that allows companies to connect to UCCnet. UCCnet is a division of the Uniform Code Council, Lawrenceville, N.J.

"The Sterling Bridge Service is very cost-effective for us because it extends the data management services offered by Sterling Commerce to incorporate special customer or industry requirements," said Russ Verducci, manager of logistic systems, Wakefern, in a prepared statement released by Sterling. Wakefern, the largest retailer-owned cooperative in the United States, declined to comment further for this article.

Jim Hendrickson, vice president, integrated network services, Sterling Commerce, said that to utilize the Bridge Service, a company would need to be a subscriber to UCCnet's Global Registry service. Wakefern was not, as of last week, an announced member of UCCnet, which has 24 retailers/distributors subscribing to the service. (Staples became a member last week.)

Yet Wakefern's participation in the pilot "suggests an interest in UCCnet," said Hendrickson. Wakefern, he noted, "would likely not have gone through this [pilot] if it had not intended to embrace UCCnet moving forward."

Wakefern is a longtime user of Sterling as a VAN for transmissions of EDI documents, such as purchase orders and invoices, with its trading partners. The Bridge Service takes a company's EDI information and converts it to XML, then transmits it to UCCnet via EDIINT AS2, thereby meeting UCCnet's format and communication requirements. By leveraging an existing EDI connection to UCCnet rather than building a separate connection, companies like Wakefern stand to better manage the cost of engaging in data synchronization with trading partners via UCCnet, Sterling said. "This is an aid in adoption of UCCnet, making it easier for companies to get there," said Hendrickson. "We want to support adoption of UCCnet." Sterling will charge a monthly subscription fee, still being developed, for access to the Bridge Service.

As part of the Bridge Service, Sterling will enable distributors to receive automatic manufacturer updates "pushed" from UCCnet's Global Registry, said Hendrickson.

Wakefern, noted Hendrickson, "is the company we partnered with for the engineering, design, mapping between EDI and XML, connectivity and testing with UCCnet. Wakefern worked with us to build out an end-to-end capability."

By leveraging an existing EDI connection to UCCnet rather than building a separate connection, companies like Wakefern stand to better manage the cost of engaging in data synchronization with trading partners via UCCnet, Sterling said. "This is an aid in adoption of UCCnet, making it easier for companies to get there," said Hendrickson. "We want to support adoption of UCCnet." Sterling will charge a monthly subscription fee, still being developed, for access to the Bridge Service.

According to Hendrickson, there is currently no standard for converting EDI data for transmission to UCCnet, though Sterling's view is that with its new service, it has "created a default standard."

Sterling's initial release of the Bridge Service does not include all of the data attributes unveiled by UCCnet in its latest version of the Global Registry, released in July. However, the next release of the Bridge Service, expected by late fourth quarter, will encompass those attributes, Hendrickson said.

Sterling plans to market the Bridge Service to its supplier EDI customers, as well as to its distributors. In the next release of the service, Sterling may make it available to companies using its Web-based EDI service, as well as to companies not using Sterling EDI services, said Hendrickson.

Hendrickson noted that the Bridge Service is not a synchronization engine, fully connecting trading partners via UCCnet, though it has the "rudimentary elements" of synchronization. The service currently lacks what he called a "change detection capability" that would be needed for full synchronization, he said. However, Sterling announced in late August that it would be partnering with HAHT Commerce, Raleigh, N.C., which does provide a change detection engine.