Once an organization has data moving back and forth between applications and trading partners, they should look into the quality of data. Of course we have to be able to take data format A and turn into data format B; however, there are additional issues that need to be understood and analyzed if an organization truly wants to efficiently manage their business. Organizations must evaluate solutions that are capable of assisting in the validation of the documents we exchange. Too often, our operational staff is having to manually intervene with:

• Data Entry to hand type faxed documents or snail mail
• Document formatting because our trading community is sending hundreds of different data formats and errors are occurring
• Correcting Order, Invoice, ASN, Delivery Forecast information because the data such as product code or pricing is incorrect
• Altering Invoice data sent from a supplier because it doesn't match the order or shipping notice

As we expand our business into different geographies and potentially into different industries, our IT systems will have to handle multiple data formats. Unfortunately, the e-business community has not created a one stop fits all data standard. And, XML has shown that it is not the end all resolution to these issues. In fact, there are now multiple versions of XML standards (i.e. RosettaNet, CIDX, STAR). The key is to have one solution which is capable of Any-to-Any Conversion so that multiple solutions are not needed.

Data Validation is a mission critical concept that every organization needs to analyze further. This could be as simple as syntax checking to ensure that our documents which we are exchanging are in the correct format, to more complex validation, which would include validating product codes and product information. It is also critical that validation components are tightly integrated with business processes so that any errors detected can automatically be routed to the correct user or administrator. SEEBURGER includes a series of modules that allow for data validation including:

• Syntax Validation which would include standard functional acknowledgements to ensure B2B standards or other documents maintain a valid structure (i.e. Ansi X12 and XML formatting issues)
• Data Validation which allows the system to verify certain information is correct in an inbound or outbound data file prior to processing.
• Document Matching is a critical process for organizations.  Many customers whether they are handling paper invoices or other documents via electronic means often find that corresponding documents don't match on a line item level or data element level (i.e. Orders and Invoices).
• Pre-defined Validation Workflows can be used for coordinating human intervention for exchanges which need approval as well as triggering real-time data checks in multiple internal applications

• Provide validation of data formats for inbound and outbound message formats and standards
• Provide cross-checking of information to reduce the manual interpretation of data and/or related documents
• Coordinating data checks within necessary applications such as look ups in inventory levels prior to acknowledging orders and deliveries or generating credit checks prior to approving order acceptance