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Version Migrations - A Thing of the Past?
Ever wonder where the EDI version numbers came from and why they change so infrequently?

If you have been around EDI for a while, you might remember that throughout the 1990's we spent lots of time and effort upgrading EDI versions. When the EDI standards were new, they naturally evolved more quickly as we understood and implemented new business requirements. In order for the enhancements to take place in an orderly fashion, the ANSI X12 committees review the requested changes and once approved they are held for an annual update to the X12 EDI standards.

During the mid 1990's we were on version X12 3010 and each year the standards were upgraded and the last two digits incremented by 10.  In other words, we migrated from 3010 to version 3020, then 3030 the next year, and so on. The version migration for the year 2000 (released in 1999) was a major change in structure by expanding the date fields and we then jumped to a new series starting with version 4010. The EDI standards continue to be enhanced this decade and we have moved to 4020, 4030, and finally this past year to 5010.

We have not seen too many retailers and hubs using the newer versions of EDI. Why is this? The hub must look at the effort required to migrate versus the benefits of a new version.  Most large hubs have thousands of trading partners communicating via EDI.  When they do decide to upgrade, they either must decide to continue to support older versions or require all trading partners to upgrade.  Either choice is costly. During a version migration each trading partner being migrated must be tested.

So why upgrade to version 5010? There has not been a mad rush to upgrade. In fact a quick survey (based on the retailers' publicly available EDI guidelines) showed only one major grocery retailer that is currently supporting 5010. They are doing so for implementation of GTIN (Global Trade Identification Numbers). Here's the current EDI version of 35 major retailers:

Version   Number of Retailers

4010                25
4030                  7
4050                  1
4060                  1
5010                  1

We may see some migrations next year as the retailers release their updates for 2007.

New EDI Documents and Related Requirements

The retailers try to avoid making changes during the busy holiday season.  If they are making changes, most will post their updated guidelines during the first half of 2007. The following are highlights of ongoing retailer programs.

VICS Bill of Lading is gaining adoption with several major retailers including Dillards and JCPenney endorsing the 17 digit Bill of Lading. The VICS Bill of Lading uses the manufacturers block ID (the one that is also used in UPC codes) as the first several digits of the BOL number. The benefit of using this standardized format is that no two vendors can inadvertantly use the same bill of lading number on their documents.

Global Data Synchronization (GDS) is starting to show more utilization as the systems mature and studies show improvement in supply chain efficiencies.  Much of the research is driven by the Grocery Manufacturers Association and in depth information can be found on the GMA website.

Retail Mergers and Acquisitions

The Bon Ton Stores acquired the Sak's Northern Department Store Group consisting of Carson Pirie Scott, Bergner's, Herberger's, Younker's and Boston Stores. During the fall of 2006, they are consolidating systems by migrating to a new mainframe. They will be using the Carson Pirie EDI systems and migrating Bon Ton and Elder Beerman vendors to that format.

Federated Department Stores has completed most of their changes from the acquisition of the May Company stores. Changes to routing guides should slow down some now.

For additional EDI in Retail news and information, visit the EDI Center website.