WDCi Blogs

EDI integration uses industry-specific standards and it supports multiple communication protocols. Before you start EDI Integration, it would be good if you have the following information ready:

1) EDI Standard. For example: X12, EDIFACT, etc

2) Communication Protocol: How are we going to retrieve the EDI document? Is it through FTP, local disk or AS2?

3) EDI Document version: For example: 4030. 4050, 5010, etc

4) EDI Document type: This is depending on the integration flow and the standard. Take X12 for example, 850 (Purchase Order), 856 (Shipment), 861 (Receipt), etc

WDCi is currently looking for new members to be added to the team.

Who are them looking for? They are looking for Integration Developer.

For more details about the job application, please visit here.

Not long ago, we have talked how can integration helps in the SmartTurn Order Fulfillment process.  This time around, let’s us talk about another process that SmartTurn can handle, Purchasing and Inventory Control.

We can integrate SmartTurn with an ERP system, let us take an example of integrating SmartTurn and Netsuite:

1. User can create a purchase order in Netsuite for purchasing items.

2. The purchase order will then be created in SmartTurn automatically.

3. Once the user received the goods, a receipt will be created in SmartTurn and the inventory status will also be updated.

4. This will then update the status of the purchase order and a receipt will be created in Netsuite automatically.

Below is a diagram illustrates the above scenario:

Besides integrating with ERP system, SmartTurn can also be integrated with accounting system, E-Commerce system and etc. You can save time and effort by automating the inventory status update between the systems, automate purchase order creation when inventory is running low.

WDCi provides not only data integration and migration services, WDCi also have a reliable support team to provide a premium level of support to customer which is called the Support Plus. WDCi support monitors the Support Plus customer’s integration processes on a daily routine. The team will also:

- troubleshoot errors that occur
- maintain the processes to ensure that they run smoothly
- report daily update of the processes to the customers
- improve on the existing support system to challenge the status quo

One of the interesting facts is, just last month alone, more than 8 million documents have been processed and the support team has successfully troubleshoot, fixed and reported all the documents to ensure smooth data sync between applications.

Feel free to contact us if you are want to know more about this support service.

Boomi Platform has released a funtionality called ‘Find Changes’. So what does it do and how useful is it to build integration process?

• It is able to track the changes made to a document, and define whether this document is (newly created, updated or deleted). It will then sent this document to the path (Add, Update, Delete) accordingly.

• This is most useful when there are large amount of data (i.e. database tables, flat files) coming through the process. The ‘Find Changes’ step will parse each record (defined by key column(s)) for a specific profile down to the the appropriate path.

Here is an example of how it works:

• A flat file type Document 1 consists of three records (A, B, and C separated by colums).



• In the first execution, these three records will be split after the Find Changes step and sent down to the Add path as individual documents (we now have document A, B and C at the Add path).

• If there is no changes made to the Document 1, then no documents will be sent to any path.
• Record A has made some changes. On the next execution, document A will be sent down to the Update path.

• Record B has been removed from Document 1. On the next execution, document B will be sent down to the Delete path.

• A new record (record D) has been created in Document 1. On the next execution, document D will be sent down to the Add path.

If you are integrating with Quickbooks (desktop version), here we have an example of the transactional data model of the objects that can be integrated.

• A customer object can have one or many transactions (Sales Order, Invoice, Sales Receipt)
• A transaction object can have one or many items.
• A Sales Order can be converted into an Invoice.
• An Invoice can have one or many payments.

This is high level data model diagram involving the transactional objects:

Other objects in Quickbooks may be integrated too. If you want to know more about the Quickbooks integration, please feel free to contact us.

Dell Boomi has just launched a certification program for their partners.  If you’re asking yourself is this an attempt at shameless self promotion, you’re right, WDCi is one of the first certified partners.  Boomi announced the list of initial certified partners in their Spring Product Release announcement.

Details on the certification program can be found here: http://help.boomi.com/display/BOD/AtomSphere+Certification+Program.

Need to integrate some systems for your business?  Not sure how much it will cost or where to start?

Our integration planning guide has some information on how to plan your integration.  Maybe you want to get a quote before you plan, to determine your ROI and decide if you want to take it further.

How do you go about that?  What information do you need to provide a company like WDCi to enable them to give you a quote for your integration?

The key is in describing your use-case(s) and your business objective(s).

Here are some simple tips:

1. Describe your business process that you want automated - avoid any technical ideas or data level detail (that can come later).  Some simple business processes (use-cases) might be:

• When I change my Sales Opportunity to closed/won, I’d like an invoice to be created automatically in my financial system. When the invoice is paid, I’d like visibility of that payment in my sales system OR
• When I add certain tasks to my projects (in my project management system), I’d like these tasks to generate bug issues in my issue tracking system.  When the bugs are updated or completed, I’d like those updates to be reflected back in the project management tool - providing visibility to the PM. OR
• I need to synchronise my Customer data across our CRM, ERP and Sales Automation systems.  When a Customer is updated in one of them, I want that information to be reflected in the other two systems.

2. If you understand the process flow and sequence of events, draw that up, it will help you flesh out how it really works.  Your drawing could be just a few simple boxes and arrows, as long as it describes the flow you expect.   If you don’t understand the flow, focus on the high level detail of describing the process in plain language.

3. Identify the systems you want integrated, what version are you running?

4. Contact us

If you focus on the applications involved and the business process you want to automate between these applications - we’ll take it from there, work with you and provide a quick quote for your review.

We have vacancies for consultants to join our Kuala Lumpur team. The roles will be primarily focused on Data Migration and Data Integration. There also exists the opportunity for the right individual(s) to expand their knowledge in the SSO and Identity Management area if they are interested.

About us:

WDCi has 3 main areas of expertise:

1. Data Migration
2. Data Integration - with specialist expertise in SaaS integration
3. SSO and Identity Management - with a focus on SaaS SSO

The role:

Design, Develop and Support Integration solutions built on the leading SaaS integration platform Boomi Atomsphere.  Design and build data migration, ETL and integration solutions using the leading open source integration tool - Talend.

Job Components:

• Design: 10%
• Development: 40%
• Implementation: 20%
• Support: 30%

Personal attributes:

• Ability to work with remote team members.
• Flexible approach to work breakdown, can do what needs to be done on the day.
• Ability to work remotely with customers.
• Highly motivated to improve self knowledge and team knowledge.
• Good attention to detail.
• The ability to work in a rapid environment, while maintaining a high standard of delivery and communication - our mantra is “rapid but not reckless”.

The good stuff:

• You will work with a team that values respect and enjoys their customer involvement and the projects they work on.  We’re here for the long haul and we want you to enjoy the journey with us.
• Gain exposure to SaaS technologies, including salesforce.com, Netsuite, RightNow, Sugar, JIRA Studio, Accept 360 - and the list goes on.  
• Help us to expand our suite of packaged integrations.
• Learn to build Connectors for Boomi and Talend.

You will need to have the following:

• Background in data migration or data integration.
• Experience with either ETL tools or data integration tools.
• The ability to understand and extract customer use-cases for integration.
• Experience with customer support.

Interested?  Send us your details to careers@wdcigroup.net.

Time to blow our trumpet and party (briefly) before we get on with it.

Happy birthday to the WDCi team.  2 years old, 50+ global customers and the opportunity to work with some really great people.

Thanks to the team, and more importantly thanks to our customers for making it all happen and laughing with us along the way.