Anyone in Seattle?

[kyburg]

Something that came over the EDI-ML:

Location: Bellevue
Position: EDI Technical Support Specialist (TSS)
Type: Full time Direct
Salary: $46-50K

The MUST haves:

<*> 1-2y EDI Experience (Electronic Data Interchange)
<*> Helpdesk or tech support experience
<*>Must be self sufficient, have strong interpersonal skills,
ability to interact with others and possess excellent communication
skills.
Major in Computer Science or Technical College Degree

The things you will Do:
Are you ready for an exciting position with a leader in EDI?
Are you ready to be the first line of contact for customer questions
and issues via phone and e-mail? Our client needs an EDI support
person to track and manage the interaction with customer; research
issues in problem tracking database and with support team to
determine if the issue is a bug and/or known problem; document calls
and issue resolution in Helpdesk database; provide input into the
modifications of the product documentation; provide input into the
creation of and management of a customer support website; and provide
input into the testing team regarding product quality.

** Candidate must live in the metro-Seattle area ** <<<

If you think you the right person for this position please contact me
ASAP

johnb@recruitingpoint.com

Don't hesitate: Call Me 206-600-7899

John Bilodeau
Technical Recruiter
Recruiting Point
Johnb@recruitingpoint.com
206-600-7899
425-466-2290 Cell

www.recruitingpoint.com

Program manager

---

I'm willing to coach the EDI bit - as you can imagine, I don't consider it rocket science.

Comments

[riverheart.livejournal.com]

I think I can do this; I have 10+ years in software test. The experience should be convertible into this position. I would greatly appreciate coaching with EDI, as I have no experience with that whatsoever.

Thanks!! I would actually rather be working directly with users and helping to improve the user experience than testing back-ends.

[riverheart.livejournal.com]

I've already got a call in to him, as of about 2 minutes ago.

The quick and dirty -

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

EDI is a very structured method used to provide data over an electronic connection. I've been known to call it "programming while transmitting," largely because both parties know what the transmission contains, based on placement inside the file.

There are a number of "conventions" used - think of XML as one type, and "old-style" EDI has at least four that I know of, but the most commonly used type in the US is X12, with it's subset, VICS.

Document types are identified by their number. The numbers begin in the low 100's and go to 997, the functional acknowledgement. Documents most often used in the retail industry are the 850 - Purchase Order, 810 - Invoice, 856 - Advance Ship Notice. Ask which document types they are going to ask you to support - that will be telling as to how much you need to know.

Documents then are broken down into segments. Segments are broken down into elements.

Documents contain two segments at the beginning of a document, and two segments at the end of a document to identify which trading partner is sending the document, which type it is, etc. These segments are called the envelope.

The actual document begins with a ST segment, ends with an SE.

Still with me?

This is Kennedy-era technology - plain text ASCII files. The bitch is in the formatting.

Segments are separated by terminators; elements are defined by separators within the segments.

I'm going to go find one good book link at Amazon and cobble together an example. Will be back.

EDI, part two

[kyburg.livejournal.com]

EDI is very buzz-word oriented. You'll find that out.

I'm going to make up a typical 810 Invoice - this is what the X12 file would look like - with some notes.

ISA*00* *00* *ZZ*SENDER *ZZ*RECEIVER *030815*155
6*U*00401*000000016*0*T*>^M - Outer envelope
GS*IN*SENDER*RECEIVER*20030815*1556*4*X*004010VICS^M - Inner Envelope
ST*810*1 ^M - Beginning of document
BIG*20030813*22136497*19991006*96676^M
REF*DP*159^M
N1*ST*NAME*92*236^M
N1*BY*NAME*92*236^M
N1*RI*VENDOR NAME^M
ITD*01*2*10**0*20030912*30^M
DTM*011*20030813^M
IT1**6*EA*8.5**UP*827443626983^M
IT1**1*EA*8.5**UP*827443627010^M
TDS*5950*5950*5355^M
ISS*7*CA*12*LB^M
CTT*2^M
SE*14*1 ^M - Document end
GE*3*4^M - Inner envelope
IEA*1*000000016^M - Outer envelope


--------

In this example the segments are terminated with CR/LF characters (^M) and the elements are separated with astericks (*).

Each segment begins with a segment identifier (ISA, GS, ST, etc.) Based on what segment and element you are talking about, you can determine what the value is for a portion of that document. The invoice number, for example, is kept in the BIG02 element, the date of the invoice is in the BIG01, the date of the Purchase Order is in the BIG03 and the PO itself is in the BIG04.