Technical issues can be perplexing! In this section we attempt to explain technical matters that have special interest in the WISL community.

Application System Interfaces

WISL freight management applications often require interfaces with corporate order entry or financial information systems. This need occurs when one system requires the data generated and stored by the other in order to effectively undertake an operation. There are standard EDI transactions that would effectively handle many of these interface needs. WISL offers the infrastructure to utilize EDI transactions to satisfy these requirements but in most cases the corporate systems are incapable of implementing an EDI interface. This is unfortunate because EDI not only defines the record formats but also offers a framework for communicating the data between the two systems as illustrated in the EDIT flow diagram below.

In the absence of the EDI record format standards and transfer facilities, both features must be developed to accommodate the needs of the specific interface. Usually a simple fixed length record is specified containing all of the data fields required by the target system and a batch file transfer mechanism is established. The records are accumulated over a period of time and sent to the target system as a batch. The transfer is normally accomplished utilizing the standard TCP/IP(internet protocol). WISL keeps logs of the actual transactions and batch totals for several generations of transferred batches in the event of communication problems. In some cases WISL also provides record inquiry and reporting facilities for these transaction files.

In some instances an interactive interface is required. The situation in which WISL Branch Freight is being utilized to control the shipping process may require the transfer of order records individually as soon  as they reach fulfillment in the order process. In these cases the communication interface becomes more complex and dependant upon the specific computing environments.

WISL also maintains an interface with the Bank of Montreal INTERAC bank authorization service for the WATPOS Point of Sale system. This interface involves the use of proprietary hardware, communication protocol and a secret decoder ring.