[artistminute]

Isn't it crazy that X12 standards come out and are constantly updated to provide a way to send all the data you need in a standardized format however ALMOST EVERY receiver or sender likes to have their own flavor of it, making it near useless. I would rather just call it what it is and just make seperate systems to intake every new customers format instead of rewrite the existing one to work with the currently implemented flavor

[donzog]

So true. The purpose of EDI/X12 was to be the single source of truth. It was okay while the military used it, as they would have stricter control over the standard, but once it was unleashed into the world of business...

There is not much point in it other than every customer is not starting from a plain slate but modifies the existing format to their needs and reuses the COBOL-style software to parse/generate the files. It's the path of least resistance.

[chevman]

When all else fails, shove it in 'ZZ mutually defined' baby!

If you know, you know!!!!

Ha, ha, this gave me flashbacks to reading the X12 834 spec for healthcare transactions when it first came out.

[donzog]

Ha, ha, can't believe DC/Marvel haven't invented the ZZ-man/woman already