As my career in EDI is now reaching the decade mark, I recently began some self-reflection and surprisingly found both depth and breadth of the opportunities and experiences those three letters combined have brought my way. Daily interaction with all levels of an organization from customer service representatives to executives, across multiple industries and platforms has given me the opportunity to view business operations from a multitude of perspectives and become what I believe to be a more well rounded in the entire supply chain process.

As electronic trading continues to evolve, one of the areas of interest is with buying organizations wanting to get confirmation of the receipt of orders, on-going alerts on the order status and managing requested changes. What I'm talking about here is the use of the 855 Purchase Order Acknowledgement transaction and the confusion on the expected use or interpretation of this transaction.

Back in the old days, you placed orders with your supplier by phone, fax, mail, and by walking into their store. They entered your order into their system, picked and delivered your products, and mailed you an invoice. Your AP clerk took the invoice, did the 3 way match, put it in the stack to be paid, and you mailed a check at the end of the month. Have times changed or what?