SPS Commerce Ineffective Testing

Please read this email string below, in it's entirety, BEFORE making SPS Commerce your companies outsourced EDI (Electronic Document Interchange) solution. This should serve as a review of SPS Commerce, exposing their limitations and how effective their testing will be.

It is impossible for me to explain just how bad SPS Commerce is at what they try to do with automated document testing solutions so I will let the email below speak for itself.

________________________________________________________________________________

Todd,

Once the certification process with SPS Commerce is complete, I will send a notice to both Trima** and each individual DA retailer. Each individual retailer will then contact Trima** to coordinate a move to production data. It is more than acceptable to tell each individual retailer at that time that you require a Ship To location listing before you can receive production purchase orders.

Amanda McFarlane

Sr. Implementation Analyst – EDI

SPS Commerce - The Intelligent Way to Work with Trading Partners

612-435-9521

ammcfarlane@spscommerce.com

From: Todd Singleton [mailto:********@Trima**.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 06, 2009 1:58 PM
To: Amanda M. McFarlane
Cc: Drew Cook; Dale Niemeyer; Lisa Smith
Subject: RE: EDI Testing for DA Inc / Trima** Has Begun

Amanda,

It is an EDI matter for us, in that we have never before proceeded with an EDI partnership for any customer when we do not have their location information (because it is not possible) to set up location cross references in our order processing translator (vSync). It has been confirmed by the translator vendor, vSync, that the customer's location information is required for us to have an active EDI customer.

We must move forward with the understanding that testing, as currently prescribed by SPS Commerce, will not equate to our being able to process electronic orders from DA . We will fake a successful document exchange, per your instructions, never proving that an actual 850 can be processed to fulfillment for ANY DA customer and you will sign off on the testing as complete.

At the time when we are expected to “go live” with DA I will keep your email below to explain to them that we are unable to process an actual electronic order from them despite SPS “signing off” that we are ready for every DA partner. We have six or seven DA Customers. We have no location information for any of them. There is no such thing as an EDI translator I am aware of that can processing incoming orders without the customer's shipping location XREF's.

Are you aware that we created the 850 we are processing? So here's how this testing will complete…

We set up a DA trading partner on our system for United Hardware and I provided SPS the customer information.
You sent us a ridiculously generic 850 document. There's no way anyone could do anything with it to represent actual 850 acceptance or processing.
This “test” document had to be modified by us to match the United Hardware trading partner in our system.
You re-sent us the 850 we modified to “test” and it was received successfully.

But we can't export the 850 to generate a 997 because we don't have all the necessary customer information to import the electronic order into a test or live environment. Apparently SPS, as the “outsourced EDI solution” can't produce the required information from your client, DA, to continue the set up of the trading partnership.

So we will go through the buyers for each DA partner, with the attached SPS information as an explanation, and get the shipping location information for each company thus completing the necessary partnership information exchange.

http://Trima**.com | Total Jobsite Protection!

From: Amanda M. McFarlane [mailto:ammcfarlane@spscommerce.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 06, 2009 1:28 PM
To: Todd Singleton
Subject: RE: EDI Testing for DA Inc / Trima** Has Begun

Todd,

A Store Location listing is not an EDI matter; instead, this is a vendor compliance matter that needs to be directed to the appropriate DA retailer. I recommend contacting your buyer at United Hardware for a Store Location listing. For testing purposes, the below store will be used as Ship To location. These will need to be added to your ERP system.

Distribution Center 01

Ship To Address

Ship To City, MN 55075

If you are not ready to move forward with testing at this time, you will need to provide me the exact date (i.e., October 30 th and not end of October). I will then mark that as your Start Testing Date.

Amanda McFarlane

Sr. Implementation Analyst – EDI

SPS Commerce - The Intelligent Way to Work with Trading Partners

612-435-9521

ammcfarlane@spscommerce.com

From: Todd Singleton [mailto:***********@Trima**.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 06, 2009 11:15 AM
To: Amanda M. McFarlane
Subject: RE: EDI Testing for DA Inc / Trima** Has Begun

Amanda,

Please explain this notice. It is well known by our testing representative that we can test no further without information from DA or SPS Commerce that neither party can provide. I will be forwarding you the emails the detailing the problem which now lies in the hands of SPS Commerce, not Trima**, as SPS is the testing liaison in communication with DA..

http://Trima**.com | Total Jobsite Protection!

From: Amanda McFarlane [mailto:ammcfarlane@spscommerce.com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 06, 2009 12:11 PM
To: Todd Singleton
Subject: EDI Testing for DA Inc / Trima** Has Begun

Dear Trima**:

Your testing period with DA Inc has begun. Please keep a copy of this email for your records. It contains:

-- your Compliance Date for testing completion
-- inbound test requirements
-- outbound test requirements
-- label test requirement
-- how to access test results

__________________________________________________

Compliance Date

Your Compliance Date for testing completion is 10/30/2009 . Please note that testing beyond this date will result in an extension fee.

__________________________________________________

Inbound Test Requirements

You can expect to receive the following mandatory test transactions within several hours of this email.

850 Bulk (PO #1234566)

We must receive a 997 Functional Acknowledgment for each to satisfy the testing requirement.

This data was sent to:

Test Qualifier/ID: 01 / 044******
VAN: GXS

This data was sent from:

SPS Commerce's Test Qualifier/ID: ZZ*TSTDSTAMLD
VAN: nuBridges

If you do not receive your data, verify this information is correct and tabled at your VAN. It is your responsibility to insure that your VAN is able to connect with ours.

__________________________________________________

Outbound Test Requirements

We expect you to return the following mandatory test transactions:

856 Bulk
810 Bulk
856 Drop Ship (This test is optional if you pass the 856 Bulk.)
810 Drop Ship

You must generate the BULK transactions from the test data you received (PO #1234566); the DROP SHIP transactions must reference PO #2234566 in order to process. You may send them at any time, in any order, prior to your Compliance Date.

__________________________________________________

Label Test Requirement

Your trading partner also requires a GS1-128 bar code label test.

For proper quality assurance, we require a hard copy test label printed on label stock. Please mail the test label to:

ATTN BAR CODE LABEL TESTING
SPS COMMERCE INC
C/O Amanda McFarlane
333 S 7TH ST STE 1000
MINNEAPOLIS MN 55402

You may wish to visit http://www.gs1-128.info/ if you need information on the GS1-128 standard.

__________________________________________________

Accessing Test Results

Test results post to your portal site under the EDI Testing banner. Login information is case-sensitive.

Site Address – www.spscommerce.net
Username – vusexuwa
Password – jawari!5

There will be a separate, dated link for each transaction's test result; the "View Testing Status" link is not used. The result will indicate whether your data passed or failed. For failed transactions, correct all errors in red and submit another test.

Our system sends an automated email when test results are available. If you do not receive this email within 12 hours, and a test result link doesn't appear on your portal site, please confirm your VAN successfully sent the data.

If further investigation is necessary, please provide me the following information:

-- Date(s)/time(s) of the missing transmission(s)
-- Interchange Control Number(s) (This is the ISA13 value in your EDI data.)
-- Mailbag Number(s) (This is the proof that your VAN sent data to ours.)

__________________________________________________

When all mandatory transactions noted above have passed testing, a certification notice will be sent to you and your trading partner.

If you have any questions during the testing process, please don't hesitate to contact me. I am your new Testing Analyst as Laura has returned to Customer Operations.

Sincerely,

Amanda McFarlane
Implementation Analyst - EDI
(612) 435-9521
ammcfarlane@spscommerce.com