The Most Significant Challenge To Blockchain Adoption Is Execution (Not Education)

Contrary to what many are saying about blockchain, the biggest challenge to faster blockchain adoption is not the lack of education. Education is definitely important and must be continued for those in both the technical and business community, but, the largest barrier to adoption is deriving measurable business value from applying it.

Consider the history of the internet. Blockchain’s revolutionary potential has been compared to the rise of the internet, and rightly so. Yes, engineers needed to understand all the nuances of protocols, domain structures, bandwidth, etc. But unless there was business value to using the internet, it would have continued to simmer in the halls of academia as a sublime, yet undervalued technology.  The application of the technology drove the internet's growth through communication (email), sales (e-commerce), marketing (company websites), etc. to what now seems to be ubiquitous use. This is what will lead blockchain’s revolution, too.  

Similar comparisons can be made to major ERP adoptions like SAP.  Engineers needed to understand all the nuances and ABAP programming, but did CEO/CFOs? NO! The C-Suite needed to know how these applications would give them a competitive advantage and increase their profitability. Again, without this driving force, the technology would have had little reason to advance.

Blockchain's REAL Value

Cryptocurrencies, notably Bitcoin, were the first application of blockchain technology that drove value.  Volumes have been written about this as well as the potential of the application of blockchain to a myriad of industries like Supply Chain Management, Insurance and Pharmaceuticals.

Bitcoin was a "first-mover" transitioning the theory of distributed ledgers into a practical application. Other industry first-movers who do likewise for areas like data integration will deliver to their customers enormous business value, giving them a radical competitive advantage. Enough talking - time for doing!

Additional Reading

https://blogs.wsj.com/cio/2018/02/23/blockchain-and-the-promise-of-an-open-decentralized-internet/
http://blog.irvingwb.com/blog/2017/07/realizing-the-potential-of-blockchain.html

EDI: Mature Technology. Why Is It Still Hard & Expensive?

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). 

It’s been around since the 70’s, matured through the 80’s with standard bodies developed for X12, EDIFACT, etc, was declared “dead” in the 90’s - yet still continues to grow in ever-increasing incarnations and volume to this day with no end in sight.  Why?  The promise and delivery of VALUE to the business.  The concept of “frictionless” trade between companies is Nirvana, and though in theory would be perfect, much like a perfect vacuum, will never be completely achieved. 

Since we know there will always be some friction, let’s discuss this from two perspectives internal to organizations: Financial/Business and Technical.

First is the Financial/Business view.

CEOs, CFOs and others with fiduciary responsibilities are driven to maximize revenue and decrease costs to deliver the financial performance on which their jobs depend.  To do so, they need timely data and usable tools to access the data, to help them make sound financial decisions.  Okay, that’s a given.

Most recently these business needs have given rise to new technologies to deliver information with Big Data Analytics, IIOT, and an ever-evolving landscape that is frankly dizzying to these fiduciary stakeholders.  They care about the “what”, not the “how” - unless those solutions affect their performance measures (cost too much and/or take too long to achieve the business value).

So, this takes us to the second perspective, the Technical view.  Businesses trust their technology teams to evaluate, choose, and utilize technology to help them achieve their business objectives.  All know that the technology landscape (or battlefield) is exploding with ever-new and promising solutions.  It is also littered with a lot of their graves, and frankly, even a lot of careers.  It is indeed an exciting and dangerous landscape.

There are many “heroes” out there too, and many more are needed.  Security, AI/Machine learning, Photonics, Blockchain, and many others come to mind.  Thank goodness bright minds across the globe are pushing our capabilities on so many of these fronts!

BUSINESS VALUE (positive or negative) occurs at the intersection of these two perspectives, which leads us back to our question: “If EDI is a mature technology, why is it still so hard and expensive?”

Common answers abound, summarized as something like, “It’s the best we’re ever going to get without throwing a lot more money at it.  We’ve been on this road a long time and have reached the point of diminishing returns.  Yes, it is a pain point we, of course, would like to solve - but all our experts agree the time and cost to fix it is not worth the trade-offs.  Our resources are better spent elsewhere on our core business.”  In the end, it’s a resignation to accepting lower business value.

Why haven’t traditional integration companies solved it?  Because vendors focus on maximizing their OWN valuations first, rather than their customers’ through high software licensing and consultancy costs, transactional pricing models that are often exponentially expensive once a customer is “locked in,” and complicated deployments that make it very hard to change.

So is there a better way?  YES!!!

The new “David” on the battlefield of “Goliaths”, brings a revolutionary approach that is really quite simple:  DI. Platform. A lightweight. NET-based software stack on minimal x86 infrastructure that can handle very small to massive workloads. Deployable on-premise, in the cloud, or in a hybrid model. It provides a real-time view of all B2B traffic in a role-based dashboard for business and technical users, that is non-disruptive to current processes and priced is at a fraction of traditional and even new “solutions”.

Sound too good to be true?  The proof is in the pudding, as they say.  A very quick analysis will provide the proof and leave evaluators asking, “Why hasn’t anyone done this before?”  We wonder the same… 
Contact us to learn more.

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BizTalk Server 2020

Microsoft recently announced that BizTalk Server 2020 will be available as of January 15, 2020.
Here are some of the great new features it offers:

Group Managed Service Accounts (gMSA):

Extends windows GMSA support to BizTalk operations and service. New installations of BizTalk Server may be configured with gMSA by running BizTalk Server Custom Configuration (not available with a Basic Configuration).

Note for BizTalk 2016 users: You cannot use these accounts during installation. Instead, use a temporary account and update the account after installation.

The following table shows the BizTalk Server features that support gMSA:

Azure Blob Adapter:

Send and receives messages to/from Azure Blob Storage.
The Azure Blob storage receive adapter supports high availability. You can add multiple host instances in the same Azure Blob storage adapter. The receive handler receives from the same blob container simultaneously. Blob leasing is used as a lock to avoid the same blob being received by multiple host instances. Accordingly:

• Blobs leased by other processes won't be received by Azure Blob storage adapter.

• Blobs being received by the Azure Blob storage adapter can't be updated while in a leased state.

The Azure Blob storage send adapter, like most send adapters, provides high availability for the sending host by utilizing multiple host instances in the same send host.

Logic App Adapter:

Starting with BizTalk Server 2020, the Logic App adapter and BizTalk Adapter Pack (BAP) is included with the BizTalk Server installation.

Note for BizTalk 2016 users: We use the LogicAppAdapter.iso to run the LogicApp Adapter.msi file for install.

Audit Log:

Makes BizTalk even more secure by maintaining audit trails of all management operations. Administrators can configure BizTalk Server to generate audit trails for management operation on application artifacts such as send ports, receive ports, receive locations, orchestrations, and resources. Auditing of suspend/resume/terminate operations on service instances is also possible.

Read Only Operator Role:

Facilitates dev ops model, where access to production stamp is provided without the ability to update anything.

XSLT 3.0:

New extensible model for runtime map execution, out-of-box wiring to work with Saxon XSLT3.0.

BizTalk's default XSL transform engine implementation is based on .Net Framework XSLT Transformations. This support is limited to XSLT 1.0. Use this property to configure other XSL transform engines at map level. This makes it possible for BizTalk server maps to support newer versions of XSLT. Registered Saxon users can readily use XSLT3.0.

BizTalk Configuration:

This feature applies to BizTalk Server 2020 is newer and allows for the configuration of REST APIs and BizTalk TMS.

Note for BizTalk Server 2016 Feature Pack 1 users: A Windows PowerShell script to install the above REST APIs is available.

Additional updates:

• New long-term supported Microsoft OLEDB Driver for SQL Server.

• Support for SSO Affiliate applications in SFTP adapter.

• SQL Availability Group support for BAM DTS Package via SSIS Catalog.

• Partially disabled receive locations.

• Improvements to Dynamic Send Ports with Ordered Delivery throughout.

Deprecated & Removed List:

If you are considering an upgrade, please CLICK HERE for our scorecard for migration and FAQs.
CONTACT US for an in-depth analysis and review of your migration or new BizTalk implementation.

Implement or Migrate to Microsoft BizTalk Server 2020

The Aidant team recently got hands-on experience with BizTalk 2020. They completed a POC for an existing customer who will be now migrating from BizTalk 2016 R2. The target was an aggressive five* days! 

A lot has changed in BizTalk 2020. However, Microsoft is keeping the promise it made in 2015 to keep BizTalk on-premise alive while adding features to bring it closer to Azure (a.k.a. Cloud). 

FAQ! Here are some frequently asked questions for those considering migrating to, or starting brand new, with BizTalk 2020.

*Five days does not include installation, configuration, and end to end testing. Includes unit testing.

Q1: What are the software requirements/support for BizTalk 2020?

A. Windows 10, Windows Server 2016 or 2019 

B. SQL Server v.2016 SP2, v.2017, v.2019

C. Visual Studio 2019 (.NET Framework 4.7)

D. Office Excel 2016 or 2019

E. SharePoint (optional) 2016, 2019 or SharePoint Services Online

F. IBM MQ Series version 8 and 9 supported (if used)

Q2: Will my existing BizTalk integrations work, or is there a lot to retrofit?

Answer: YES

However, there are some variations depending on your current setup. Based on Aidant’s extensive
experience with BizTalk migrations, we can grade each of the following scenarios on a scale of 1 to 10,   1   being the easiest and shortest migration, and  10  being the longest and hardest.

2 - Currently running BizTalk 2013 or higher

In-place migration possible, but not recommended.

4 - Currently running BizTalk 2010

.NET framework and deprecated functions in C# or VB .NET to be re-written. Adapters need to be switched. Testing with external partners is key.

6 - Currently running BizTalk 2006, 2006R2, 2009

In-place upgrade not recommended and not fully supported anymore. However, the migration is less painful compared to “Grade 9” below.

9 - Currently running BizTalk 2002 or 2004

We need to evaluate inventory of integrations running and create a migration checklist. Our team has developed tools to access and auto-migrate maps. This type of migration is accelerated using the Aidant DI.Platform.

Q3: Will I be able to leverage old and existing code?

Answer: YES

We take what you have, migrate it over, and improve the implementation in the process before testing.

Q4: Will there be special training required for existing BizTalk staff?

Answer: NO

Special training is not required. The look and feel remains similar, so teams usually adapt easily and quickly. The Aidant team specializes in cross-training and highlighting what needs to be focused on going forward.

Q5: Will we be Cloud-ready after implementing BizTalk 2020?

There are exceptional new features in this version that will bring you closer to Cloud or Azure implementations. However, Microsoft has done a great job of keeping the choice with the customer. You’ll be able to decide how much you want to be on Cloud versus on-premise. We recommend a hybrid approach based on individual needs.

Meet the Team! Paul Jones

About Paul:

As a Chief Architect, Paul Jones leads the Software Development Team at Aidant Technologies. Paul has been developing software and leading engineering teams on the enterprise level for over 15 years.  Paul contributes to our clients’ success at all levels of the organization, with a particular focus on driving the development of the next generation of DI.Platform.    

Learn more about Paul on Linkedin

We’d like to introduce our remarkable team for you to get a better understanding of how we think and feel about data integration. Below are some questions that we asked Paul Jones, Chief Software Architect.

What Is Your Role In Aidant Technologies?

I am Aidant’s Chief Software Architect. I am responsible for making high-level design decisions, setting software coding standards, and choosing the tools we use for development. 

What About Aidant Technologies Interested You And What Do You Like About Working At A Growing Technology Company?

The world of integration has always fascinated me. There are unique problems to solve and even more unique solutions to bring to the table. Working at an innovative tech company gives me the agility and freedom from red-tape to make a meaningful impact.

What’s Something Interesting That You’re Working On Now?

Currently, we are working on virtualizing our DI-Platform infrastructure in Aidant's private cloud. This allows our clients to rapidly spin up servers in a secure ecosystem hosted in our data center, which means greater flexibility and reduced infrastructure costs for our clients.

What New Technologies / Tools Are You Interested To Try Or Using Currently That You’re New To Using?

The latest and greatest is blockchain and its associated technologies, I’m excited about integrating smart contracts, ledgers, and other exciting blockchain features into our existing product line.

What’s Something Unique You Bring To The Aidant Team?

Experience in all of the facets of IT, from project management to software development.

What Matters To You Most When You’re Working With A Client?

Our guiding principle is bringing value to the client. Through years of experience in the realm of integration across a myriad of verticals, Aidant has created a framework that radically reduces development time. This allows us to offer tremendous functionality for less than our competitors and in some cases even allows for the self-funding of projects.

What Is Your Favorite Meal?

Beanie-weenies

Meet The Team! Brad Ricketson

We'd like to introduce you to our Lead Developer, Brad Ricketson. Below are some questions we've asked him to showcase what he brings to Aidant. 

1. What Is Your Role In Aidant Technologies?

As Lead Developer, I'm currently working as an application architect on a client project.  I’ve served as an integration specialist for B2B and intracompany systems.

2. What About Aidant Technologies Interested You And What Do You Like About Working At A Growing Technology Company?

The environment and atmosphere are more pleasant than in other places I have previously worked, which makes a huge difference in the success of the company and personal professional growth.

Also, a wide focused outlook on the company’s future, and working on the entire problem rather than smaller focus with a bigger company. There are more opportunities for different projects. In a bigger corporation, there isn’t much crossover in tasks which leaves you focused on smaller issues.

3. What’s Something Interesting That You’re Working On Now?

The process of rewriting applications that were written over a decade ago is very interesting to me. Making the applications more modern and more supportable is a challenge because the technology is antiquated and I find this interesting because this integration will be used in their day-to-day operations.

4. What New Technologies / Tools Are You Interested To Try Or Using Currently That You’re New To Using?

Microsoft Asp.net core is what we are currently using on a particular project.

MVC with a combination of data annotation attributes on the models, which allows for validation of inputs and streamlines developments for the applications. Also, cybersecurity concerning B2B communications and keeping up with current standards interests me, due to the constant and changing needs is also very interesting to me.

 5. What’s Something Unique You Bring To The Aidant Team?

Over 15 years of experience working with system integrations and complex EDI situations.  These systems are vital to a company’s day-to-day success and are such an ingrained part of the business infrastructure that they must work as seamlessly as possible.

6. What matters to you most when you’re working with a client?

I like to anticipate things that the client hasn’t considered adjacent to the scope of the current project, which would lead to more success on their part.

7. What Is Your Favorite Meal?

Spicy basil eggplant with brown rice.

Simplify Sending Data To SAP

This example focuses on sending multiple IDOC messages to SAP, all using one Send Port. Often there is a need to limit the number of LOB ports that can be created as it necessitates giving usernames and passwords to multiple people or when password changes there are multiple places to change which can be cumbersome and also error-prone.

By having one point of entry to a LOB system (SAP), more control and management can be exerted over the entry points. This approach is especially useful when there are planned outages or maintenance on the LOB systems; there is one place to look from a support perspective when something happens.

Applies to: BizTalk 2006 R2 and up

Logistical Setup Of This Orchestration

5. Add one variable

a. Name: MsgNS

b. Type: System.String

6. Add one Correlation Set and Correlation Type

a. Right-click Correlation Set and Select New

b. Under properties change the name if required

c. From Correlation Type Drop-down select “Create new Correlation Set”

d. The screen jumps to the Correlation Set Property….look for “Correlation Properties”

e. Click the … and it will bring up the following screen.

f. Expand the “WCF” section and Add “Action”  

i. This is the property that is equal to the Namespace of the IDOC Schema  that was generated using the Consume Web Service option (another blog on this)

ii. This property can be different depending on which WCF end-point you need to send these messages to.

1. Create a BizTalk Project and Add New Item…..and select Orchestration. (not getting into the naming conventions etc…maybe another blog idea)

2. Add the following shapes in a top-down sequence

a. Receive

b. Expression

c.  Message Assignment

d. Send

3. On the port surface, add two Logical ports

a. Always Receive messages and Specify Later

b. Always Send messages and Specify Later

4. Add 2 Message Type

a. Incoming Message

 i. Name: msg_AnyIdocXML_In

 ii. Type: System.Xml.XmlDocument

b. Outgoing Message

   i. Name: msg_AnyIdocXML_Out

 ii.Typ e: System.Xml.XmlDocument

After following this procedure, the Orchestration should appear with the following order and similar properties. I have included limited screenshots but you get the idea (naming convention excluded).

Now you should see the Orchestration in the following order and similar properties etc…I am putting certain screen shots but you get the idea (naming convention excluded).

Finalize Orchestration

Now to button up the Orchestration in the following order (not necessary however, it’s a good development practice so nothing is missed).

1.  Receive Shape

A.  Select the message “msg_AnyIdocXML_In” created before from the drop-down

2. In the Get Vars Expression Shape put the following one line code

MsgNS = xpath(msg_AnyIdocXML_In, "string(namespace-uri(/*))");

This is assigning the variable “MsgNS”the namespace of the received IDOC XML message as in the example IDOC Namespace is the same as the WCF Action needed by the Send Port to send this message to SAP using WCF SAP Adapter

3. On the Message Assignment Shape set

A. Select  Message Constructed property = “msg_AnyIdocXML_Out” created before from the drop down

B. Double Click the Message Assignment inside the Construct Message and enter the following code

msg_AnyIdocXML_Out = msg_AnyIdocXML_In;

msg_AnyIdocXML_Out(WCF.Action)=MsgNS;

This is passing the incoming message and assigning it to the outgoing message type. Then it is setting the WCF Action and assigning the Namespace value captured before.

4. Send Shape
A. Select the message “msg_AnyIdocXML_Out” created before from the drop down
B. From the drop down for Initializing Correlation Sets, select the Correlation set created before (See step # 6 above in Logical Setup)

5. Drag the Receive Logical Port to the Receive Shape.

6. Then Activate the Receive Shape

7. Drag the Send Shape to the Send Logical Port

Deploy

Sign and set the deployment for the project and deploy.
Right, Click Project – Deploy.

 Run Time Setup After Deployment

1. Open BizTalk Administration Console and expand to the application where the Orchestration is deployed.

2. Created a Physical Receive Port to pick up any SAP IDOC XML Files.
This is important to note as this will be the generic location that all the other processes (post-mapping etc…) will submit files to

3. Create a Send Port with WCF-Custom Adapter

A. Select WCF-Custom on the Adapter list dropdown

B. Click Configure

C. For the Address URI (address for WCF Endpoint) SAP in this case enter the following: (again this is the basic connection string, which you may need to change based on your requirement)

sap://CLIENT=100;LANG=EN;@a/{SAP Server Address/IP}/{Client ID}?&RfcSdkTrace=False&AbapDebug=False
** Note the underlined text between curly brackets is the environment-specific value.

D. Under Binding Tab Select the Binding Type = “sapBinding”

E. Under Credentials Tab select the appropriate option and enter the details. Usually there is a user assigned by SAP Team with a password.

F. Go back to the General Tab and here is the Fun Part!
Under SOAP Action Header put the following

<BtsActionMappingxmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<Operation Name="SendToSAP" Action="" />
</BtsActionMapping>

• Pay attention to the text in the second line.

• The Operation Name should be the same asset in the Orchestration

• By default, this name is “Operation_1” like it adds in Orchestration when you first create it. Until you intentionally change it which you should to make it more tuned to what it is.

• Secondly, the Action is supposed to be blank as this is what the Orchestration is actually setting and promoting as a Context property

• If this Action element has a value, then it simply overrides the value coming from Orchestration making the orchestration use pretty much useless.

4. After all the above setup
Go to the Orchestration and bind the orchestration with:

• Host

• File-based Receive Port created in Step 2 above

• WCF-Custom based Send Port created in Step 3 above

5. Start the Ports and Orchestration

6. You are ready to test and implement this Generic IDOC loader process

The above design pattern can greatly simplify SAP communications with not just BizTalk but with any other WCF compliant product toolset. This is one of the many enhancements and streamlining of processes that the Aidant Technologies team provides through our DI. Platform and Professional Services. How can we help simply your integrations? Contact us to find out. 

This article covers sending data to SAP. Please subscribe to our newsletter (see signup below) or follow our LinkedIn page to find out how to simplify receiving data from SAP.

Modernize EDI: Is Your Modern Business Running On Outdated Platforms?

Using the Aidant DI.Platform will unlock the full potential and maximize IT spend on licenses and other expenses for the EDI Team. Make your business teams more efficient and focused on business and not IT issues.

Does your EDI & data integrations team perform functions around B2B, A2A, and ETL? Are those functions used to perform services such as data transformation (mapping), communications (sftp, As2, web services, HTTP, etc.)? Is data from internal line of business systems such as SAP, PeopleSoft, Lawson, MS Dynamic and home grown ERP systems, sent and received between your Trading Partners (suppliers, customers)? Are you also connecting with external web-based systems such as Salesforce, WorkDay, and services hosted on AWS and Azure Cloud infrastructure.

If the answer is “YES” to any of these questions, it is likely that you are using some bulky integration tools such as Coast, WebMethods, WebSphere, Sterling Integrator, BizTalk, Mercator, or similar products. In rare cases, you may be using the old-school custom application that you developed in the 1980s. Or you may be the courageous few using cloud-based services to connect to the trading partners.

💡  See our recent blog post on using current cloud-based integration platforms.

The Limitation Of Traditional Methods

Traditional EDI tools such as those mentioned above have worked great for the last decade or so. However, given the current technological advancements and desire to be aggressively efficient, the traditional methods of data integration lack features that should be a basic requirement of any platform. These features can make or break any business, large or small, in the ever-changing current landscape.

Having access to these necessary features can give companies critical tools to grow and operate efficiently. Allowing businesses to focus on their customers and suppliers rather than spending time (and budget) with their IT teams.

Critical Features For Data Integration Platforms

1. Ease of onboarding customer and suppliers to trade and exchange documents electronically

2. Customize and implement customer rulebook requirements based on industry-standard or custom data formats

3. End-to-end visibility of data coming in and out of the ERP systems

4. Real-time data warehousing/data mining of transactions to avoid dependencies on long-running/reactive ETL or batch processes that feed into business intelligence tools

5. Ease of connectivity with trading partners and ERP systems through harmonized implementation of various secure protocols

6. Search functionality for customer service and other business teams in one central location to get all the answers regarding data

7. Standardization and templating of change management and other development tasks and production support

8. Easy subscription of critical alerts and events that take place during data processing via email or text 

Cloud-Ready And Scalable

Aidant’s DI.Platform is fully service-oriented and cloud-ready. The DI.Platform offers an agnostic model that provides scalability over older solutions.

For example, connections to retailer rulebooks need to be perpetually updated. Traditional solutions require manually updating individual instances for each retailer connection a supplier may have. However, with Aidant’s DI.Platform these updates are replicated instantly across all business units and also all suppliers for a given customer. Retailers (ie. Amazon, Walmart, Target, Costco) also have rulebooks containing standards and formats in which distributors and suppliers must comply. When a new supplier wishes to do business with a new retailer, the retailer requires the supplier to be tested for compliance of its rulebook. The testing and implementations are streamlined with Aidant’s implementations. Suppliers using it can get to market faster and avoid vendor chargebacks and headaches presented by traditional platforms.

Get greater visibility, tracking, and tools to scale and support business with DI.Platform. Lower total cost of ownership and hidden costs that arise from unwanted production support, outages and vendor chargebacks that cost business their hard-earned margins. Don’t let data integration and EDI hold you back from doing business with your trading partners.

Apply integrations with greater confidence and information with Aidant.

Still Using Covast? Time To Consider An Upgrade.

Covast EDI Accelerator was built in early 2000 to run specifically with Microsoft BizTalk Server. Covast was implemented along with BizTalk Server version 2006 and prior to enable the processing of EDI Data (X12 and EDIFACT). Covast filled that gap with this EDI accelerator to enable EDI processing for customers who wanted to use BizTalk, and also wanted to process their X12 and EDIFACT documents to/from their Trading Partners (Customers, Vendors, and Suppliers) to facilitate B2B and E-commerce.

At the time, customers chose Microsoft BizTalk Server over other older middleware tools to lower their integration costs and consolidate their communication layers with a data processing layer (mapping and BPM). BizTalk also enabled true ESB and SOA patterns. XML-based protocols, data, and standards were becoming popular during the early 1990s and BizTalk became a robust alternative to other software platforms. The inclusion of Covast EDI Accelerator toolkit made perfect sense in that environment.

Why Didn’t Microsoft Build EDI Support For X12 And EDIFACT Standards?

X12 and EDIFACT are flat file-based standard documents. With advancements of XML and internet-based protocols, these EDI standards were presumed old and formats that were unlikely to be continued in the future. Therefore, EDI support was not built into the prior version of BizTalk 2000 through version 2006.

Change In Microsoft BizTalk Strategy

Almost two decades later and EDI still is far from dead!

X12 and EDIFACT EDI standards still exist and are becoming even more important as some of the sectors such as retail and healthcare consolidate - wanting to become more efficient in their integrations with other businesses. As a result, Microsoft bought the rights from Covast and built native support for EDI in BizTalk 2006 R2 onwards. This marked the end of Covast.

Microsoft continued to invest heavily in BizTalk by refining and streamlining its X12 and EDIFACT support in all subsequent versions after BizTalk version 2006 R2 up to current BizTalk 2016.

Time To Update Technologies: The Aidant Advantage

Aidant Technologies developed a platform based on deep experience supporting clients with transitions from Covast as well as building EDI natively. We are uniquely positioned to help customers that are still running Covast or other old versions of BizTalk Server to migrate to the latest version of BizTalk without using unsupported versions of BizTalk/Covast. Aidant executes these migrations at lower cost and low impact to the business while training EDI staff to use the new version of BizTalk along with the Aidant D.I. Platform.

The Aidant DI.Platform

• Simplifies EDI integrations

• Streamline change management

• Accelerates new customer EDI onboarding and mapping

• Lowers TCO (license + infrastructure costs)

• Allows our clients to quickly realize significant ROI on new platform implementations

Aidant solves the complex migration by:

1. Creating automation to migrate maps from Covast to BizTalk

2. Forming testing tools to lower impact on final migrated maps

3. Managing all business logic and routing of messages

4. Providing true visibility into EDI acknowledgments and end to end tracking to drill down into Batched EDI messages

5. Creating Trading Partners setup in new BizTalk from historical analysis

6. Providing our professional services team with experience in Covast - among the very few who can still operate Covast to get information out for migration

Think Cloud Integration Is Pie In The Sky? Say Hello To – Hybrid Integration!

“Cloud is the Future” -  has become a cliché in the technology arena. Implementation of cloud technologies has been touted as a means to level the playing field for all. As of now, it has been successful in commodity-type applications that are mostly mass market and directly facing the consumer. Most of them have evolved, successfully causing disruption to the traditional software models.

However, Enterprise Applications, ERPs’ and Integrations (EAI, EDI & ETL) with on-premise applications and its use cases for being able to leverage the cloud vary greatly across the spectrum. While the industry consolidates and evolves specifically around Integration using cloud platforms, here are four things to consider before moving your data integrations to any type of cloud platform.

For the purposes of this article, when we reference “The Cloud” or “Cloud Platforms”, we mean Software as a Service (SaaS) for the data integration space.

Top FOUR Things To Consider Before Moving To SaaS / Cloud For Data Integration

Your business has unique needs.
Varied data formats such as EDI, XML, IDOCS, AgGateway, cXML, CIDX, PIDX. RosettaNet etc. along with company-specific ERP systems make integrations unique. Additionally, the respective business logic on how companies operate is either a competitive advantage or market differentiator. A Cloud Platform integration that is generic enough to support all businesses including potential competitors may take away market differentiators. 

The cloud becomes a black box.
If integrations are completely moved to a SaaS provider platform on the Cloud, the companies are setting themselves up for a dependency on the SaaS provider – where all business logic, data mappings, and BPM rules are externalized and out of control. The change in mass-market platforms is not performed on an individual customer basis.

Ongoing costs add up quickly.
Generally, EDI cloud solutions are priced as per transaction or by message volume/size. As each message received/sent - in/out of the ERP system to/from external Trading Partners, it spins off several new messages.  Each of these messages has to make those round trips to and from the SaaS black box. This means a multiplier cost structure for each transaction.

Take for example an incoming EDI Purchase Order from a customer going into the ERP system for fulfillment, which will generate Order Confirmation, Order Change, Shipment Notice, Invoice transactions and all the Acknowledgements for all the mentioned documents in both directions.

Support and maintenance needs.
Support and maintenance will each cause more headaches and business continuity will always be at risk. Besides most SaaS platforms for integrations will come with a learning curve for existing technical staff plus the cost of vendors trying to help out. Due to the sensitive data coming from ERP systems there is a huge security risk when using Internet protocols with Cloud platforms for batch or real-time processing of data from trading partners.

Hybrid Data Integration

When dealing with data integration, the ideal choice we recommend is the separation of integration functionality into two keys services. Communication Services and Business Process Management [BPM]. While Communication Services can live on the cloud or “IaaS”, BPM Services should reside inside the firewall and on-premise data center.

By separating out these two functions and applying different technology solutions, the drawbacks listed above for pure cloud platforms can be avoided.

This is the hybrid solution provides the best of both worlds. Companies can now leverage the current infrastructure investments while preparing themselves for cloud integrations in the future. Besides integrating with ERP systems such as SAP, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, Lawson, MS Dynamics, Oracle, it will be much simpler if the integration platform that handles the data transformation and BPM functions is on-premise, within the firewall. This is helpful to avoid data latency and ERP systems are not expected to make round trips to the cloud platforms to perform basic integration functions.

Meet the Team! Nar Reddy

About Nar:

Nar has 18+ years of work experience in IT, with specialization in EAI environment, many years of experience in variety of industries. In Nar’s career, he has excelled at independent consulting, team leadership, and developing.

Learn more about Nar on LinkedIn

We'd like to introduce you to our Senior BizTalk Developer, Nar Reddy. Below are some questions we've asked him to showcase what he brings to Aidant. 

1. What Is Your Role In Aidant Technologies?

I am a Senior BizTalk Developer, directly interacting with clients to get requirements for implementations. I work onsite to help with clients and their customer needs directly. I also work to improve and keep our DI. Platform up to date and current with new tools and improvements. Along with testing all DI. Platform enhancements and making sure they are perfect for our clients.

2. What About Aidant Technologies Interested You And What Do You Like About Working At A Growing Technology Company?

I’ve known Amit for 10 years and when he wanted to grow his company, I knew I wanted to grow with him and Aidant Technologies.

Aidant's view on new technology adoption, high-level teamwork that was also paired with new opportunities to grow my career were all contributing factors in choosing to work for Aidant. 

3. What’s Something Interesting That You’re Working On Now And Why?

Integration Projects using SAP integration with real-world problems that come from internal issues that a company might have been interesting for me to implement. Automating simple business transactions that can be fixed by requirements and can save the client from wasteful spending of money and time from many parties.

4. What New Technologies / Tools Are You Eager To Try Or Using Currently That You’re New To Using, And Explain Why?

New cloud technologies solve many problems by de-centralizing data. Cloud technology is faster and more efficient to be able to plug in data that you need when you need it. I look forward to helping future clients because of certain cloud tools that Aidant’s DI. The platform can provide to current and future clients.

5. What’s Something Unique You Bring To The Aidant Team?

My availability and time that I prioritize for clients and team members to make sure all work is complete and is exactly what the client needs. Being a quick starter and focused on time management is important to me, in regards to both internal and client-side business.

6. What Matters To You Most When You’re Working With A Client?

The first impression is the best impression when operating closely with a client. We are working hard in an effort to grow the company name at client locations while contributing to overall company growth for future client relationships.

7.   What Is Your Favorite Meal?

Sitting at a table with my kids, parents and grandparents eating together as a whole family.

Microsoft BizTalk Support Lifecycle

*BizTalk Version includes all editions viz. Developer, Standard, Enterprise, Branch, Partner, DataCenter.

If you are using 2013R or earlier – it’s time to investigate an upgrade.
Aidant has compiled an easy-to-reference summary of the support available for BizTalk versions.

X Critical X
This is a highly critical situation and creates a high risk for business continuity and prevents growth. BizTalk Support is not the only one that has ended. Microsoft Server OS and other development tools such as Visual Studio, SQL Server and other support tools like Covast, etc. are also not supported anymore. Information security is compromised as a result of unpatched and unsupported software.

! Getting Critical !
The normal support for BizTalk has ended and Microsoft is under extended support (see definition below). If the BizTalk version used is in extended support, the customer must start planning (and budgeting) for an upgrade. The following should be incorporated into an upgrade strategy:

• Lower the infrastructure footprint

• Decrease the total cost of ownership

• Re-architecting data integrations and EDI platforms for current and future needs

• Develop cloud strategy

💡 This is the perfect opportunity to explore options for partners and platforms that can guide the transition.

✔ Current ✔
There is nothing to worry about regarding the end of the support cycle from Microsoft. If a company is considering moving an older EDI platform (generally non-Microsoft) to BizTalk/Azure, there are still other challenges to tackle and will require roadmapping and rethinking on EDI. Data integration can be leveraged and moved closer to the business and create value add.

💡 Considerations for migration:

• Master data migration (x-ref, party configuration)

• User impact – technical and business users

• Data quality – scope for improvement to avoid IT overhead

• Migration testing and validation

• Trading partner impact

• Re-architect for cloud and next-generation readiness

• Information security compliance and considerations

• Reducing infrastructure footprint

• The lower total cost of ownership

• Bring business closer to EDI and create self-servicing options for businesses to create efficiency and lower their dependency on IT/EDI Teams for trivial/day-to-day questions

Mainstream Support: Hotfixes will be issued if any major bugs are found including security patches. Microsoft will issue these updates and hotfix at no cost. Service packs will be provided along with the product warranty at no cost. Microsoft support will be provided at no charge.

Extended Support: Microsoft will support issue patches and hotfix for a fee with non-security type issues found. Security related patches will be provided in special cases. However, no security updates, warranty, feature updates or service packs will be provided. Normal support and research may be charged by Microsoft.

What else happens after extended support ends?

1. No updates will be available. Any critical or non-critical bugs will be user liability.

2. Security patches and vulnerability, along with keeping up information security becomes customer responsibility.

3. Platform upgrades for Windows Server and other Developer tools not supported.

4. Microsoft Server lifecycle needs to be monitored and once Windows Server Operating Systems is out of support BizTalk Server as an application becomes unreliable.

5. The top reason Microsoft supports BizTalk in extended support mode, is to give customers enough lead time to plan, develop and execute BizTalk Migration to next platforms before Server OS becomes unsupported.

Running BizTalk Version 2006 or prior and using EDI Accelerators like Covast? – Contact us for streamlined, low impact migration services.

Stay up to date with your EDI Platforms and realize full return of investment and achieve peace of mind, along with confidence to grow and support your business leveraging EDI platforms of the future.

For reference: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/lifecycle

Why EDI?

Consider the hundreds of documents you have to process every day in order to run your business. Consider all of the time it takes to interface all of these documents with other businesses and systems in order to keep moving forward. Are you as efficient as you need to be to succeed?

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) solutions are designed to help you manage this massive amount of paperwork. Savings in time, potential errors from mistyped or incorrectly logged information, the impact on the environment—all of these are important considerations when you’re looking into an EDI solution for your business.

• EDI continues to prove its business value by lowering costs, improving speed, accuracy and business efficiency. The greatest EDI benefits often come at the strategic business level.

• Expenses associated with paper, printing, reproduction, storage, filing, postage and document retrieval are all reduced or eliminated when you switch to EDI transactions, lowering your transaction costs by at least 35%.

• EDI can speed up your business cycles up to 60%. Process transactions in minutes instead of the days or weeks required when using traditional paper-based systems.

• Improves data quality, delivering at least a 30-40% reduction in transaction errors-eliminating problems resulting from illegible handwriting, lost faxes/mail and keying errors.

• Enables real-time visibility into the status of transactions. This in turn enables faster decision-making and improved responsiveness to changing customer and market demands, and allows businesses to adopt a demand-driven business model rather than a supply-driven one.

Three Things You Need To Know About EDI/EAI & Middleware Costs!

Software Licensing Costs Will Continue To Grow

Companies large and small spend a significant portion of their IT operational budgets on renewing the various software licenses. Additionally, capital budget investments are spent on infrastructure upgrades every 3-5 years, which force further spend on new licenses with the new platforms. These costs continue to compound when additional resources are added to the team or external consultants to do the work or up-train existing EDI staff to keep up with these upgrades. All this is done while ensuring business continuity and making sure their departments/teams are addressing business needs to contribute to company growth.

SaaS (Cloud) Providers May Have Proprietary Integration Needs (And Ongoing Costs)

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) based systems make sense initially, with quick implementation promises. However, SaaS potentially comes with proprietary integration methods which necessitate ongoing subscription costs and may make migrations or non-standard integration very painful in the future. Therefore, SaaS is not a preferred approach for most long-term EDI/EAI integration roadmaps.

Custom EDI/EAI Implementations Can Be More Efficient

The EDI/EAI and Middleware Stack solve essential business functions, such as:

• Connect trading partners (protocols)

• Analyze & Route data

• Map services (transformations)

• Mine data

• Implement business logic and rules (BPM)

• Report errors and exceptions

• Provide visibility into business operations

• Onboard new customers and vendors (B2B)

• Connect one or many applications to each other (A2A)

• Support batch or scheduled functions

By implementing a custom EDI/EAI integration with industry-focused platforms, the implementation can support your specific business needs. Additionally, the implementation team will support the specific integrations that your business needs while simultaneously minimizing the number of software licenses needed and not requiring ongoing subscription costs.

The ongoing work of implementing or maintaining EDI/EAI & Middleware platforms; keeping the systems up-to-date; on-boarding new partners; taking care of business needs while keeping business users happy; supporting all the cutting-edge toolsets out there; and keeping internal staff up-trained and motivated can all feel like trying to change a tire on the car while driving down the road.

Or maybe, it can be more appropriately described by one line from Scotty in Star Trek Into Darkness
“The notion of transwarp beaming is like trying to hit a bullet with a smaller bullet, whilst wearing a blindfold, riding a horse”.

EDI/EAI can appear to be overwhelming, but Aidant Technologies can help you streamline and simplify your integrations both operationally and financially. You can be in control of the costs and functionality. We will show you how we achieve end-to-end functionality with flexibility and lower ongoing licensing and migrations costs. We use Microsoft tools and technology to support EDI and all data integration needs through our ready to implement data integration platform.