The latest version of Odette’s File Transfer Protocol is finding favour with the automotive industry.

Undeniably, businesses within the automotive supply chain are exchanging ever more digital data. Equally undeniably, that data covers an ever-broader range of information and transaction types, and is likewise getting larger: a CAD file, for instance, can these days stream across many gigabytes. And finally, and just as indisputably, the tough ‘cost down’ pressures seen within the industry seem here to stay.

Roll all three trends together, and what emerges is a need for a way of exchanging data that not only stands apart from tried-and-tested industry workhorses such as X.25 and ISDN, but also from their more modern-day alternatives such as North America’s Automotive Network Exchange (ANX), its European counterpart the European Network Exchange (ENX), and the various point-to-point VPNs that exist within the world of the automotive supply chain.

Why? Because, in short, the limitations and drawbacks of each of these approaches to exchanging digital data have been cast into sharp relief by the rapid development of the public Internet.

Consequently, as an Odette report published in June 2011 argues, that development has brought about the need for a specific automotive file transfer protocol that can leverage the power, low cost and ubiquity of the public Internet—but do so securely and reliably. The report - entitled Comparison of File Transfer Alternatives For B2B Data Exchanges - is available as a free download from the Odette website.

At Gothenburg, Sweden-headquartered truck and bus manufacturer Volvo Group, for instance, there were clear concerns in early-2009 regarding the longevity of X.25 and ISDN, with telecommunications providers openly signalling the imminent shutdown of their ISDN and X.25 networks during April 2011—although that deadline was subsequently extended.

And with EDI messaging volumes topping a million transmissions a month, there was a clear need for a proactive project to identify and implement an alternative, rather than wait to see what the telecommunications providers suggested.

“ISDN and X.25 shutdowns had happened in other countries, and we couldn’t assume that it wouldn’t happen in Sweden,” says Katrin Skepp, service manager for business-to-business integration and messaging within Volvo. “Within the business, too, we were facing pressures for a reduction in communication costs, as well as a solution for emerging markets where ISDN communication wasn’t possible.”

Accordingly, a decision was reached in the autumn of 2009 to move away from X.25 and ISDN, and migrate the business and its 2,264 messaging partners—a combination of suppliers, carriers, the Swedish customs agency and some banks—to the second generation of the Odette File Transfer Protocol, OFTP2.

“We’d participated in the technical discussion that led to OFTP2, and were very comfortable with the choice,” says Helena Dimming, line manager for EDI within Volvo’s IT arm, Volvo IT. “OFTP2 was secure, was an open standard with no usage fee, and leveraged the public Internet, which is available worldwide.”

To date, notes Ms Skepp, over 2,000 partners have migrated to OFTP2, with the bulk of the migration occurring within a four-month period from November 2010 to February 2011. Only around 200 partners remain to be migrated, she adds, and so successful has been the transition to OFTP2 that Volvo now proactively intends to discontinue X.25 and ISDN transmissions itself.

“If partners aren’t ready, we will migrate them to solutions such as WebEDI, a VAN, or a proprietary lightweight OFTP2 software package,” she says. “At the present moment, we are explaining the options open to them.”

Broadly speaking, she adds, the migration was straightforward, although several lessons have been learned.

“It’s difficult to predict the timescales involved in individual migrations, as partners will only do it when they’re ready, or have the budget for it—which can make resource planning difficult,” says Ms. Dimming. “As a result, it’s difficult to determine when the peaks in workload will arise.”

Enthusiasm

One early adopter was Regensburg, Germany-based tier-1 automotive supplier Continental Automotive, which had first become attracted to the Odette File Transfer Protocol in its earlier version, OFTP1.

“Volvo was our first ‘live’ partner, and we migrated communications over to OFTP2 back in December 2010,” says Continental Automotive EDI manager Josef Radlbeck. “Now, we have twelve OFTP2 partners—a mixture of suppliers and customers. We’re using it for CAD data and also logistics data, although we’re not partnered with any third-party logistics providers yet.”

These twelve, he is sure, are the first of many.

“OFTP2 is free, and public Internet based, and so running costs are very much lower,” he enthuses. “There’s no doubt in our mind that OFTP2 adoption will grow, simply because of the cost pressures within the industry. It’s a better solution—and it’s cheaper, too.”

Udo Thienelt, cross-applications manager in the SAP R/3 corporate competency centre at Lippstadt, Germany-headquartered tier-1 automotive supplier Hella KGaA Hueck & Co, concurs.

While needing a customer’s migration initiative to provide the OFTP2 programme with its initial impetus, he explains, the company is now connected to some 15 partners via OFTP2, despite a relatively late start. The primary use is for the exchange of drawings and CAD data, he adds, although there is some commercial transaction traffic, and this is scheduled to grow with the roll-out of OFTP2 into the supply chain over the next few months.

“There’s more bandwidth, we can transfer data more quickly, it provides a connectivity option in markets where ISDN isn’t possible—and it’s also cheaper than ISDN,” he enthuses. “It’s too early to estimate eventual savings at this stage, but we are most certainly expecting savings.”

And as more companies come to appreciate the merits of OFTP2—and also its superiority over its predecessor, OFTP1—the move to the Odette File Transfer Protocol can only accelerate, says Dietmar Koch, the Berlin, Germany-based senior vice-president for product management and development at business-to-business integration specialist Axway, a member of the initial group that defined OFTP2.

“There are huge advantages to OFTP2, especially for users with thousands of connections,” stresses Koch. “And compared to OFTP1, OFTP2 offers far more security options, with signed files, certificates, and on-the-fly encryption. For automotive applications, we’re strongly recommending that users move to OFTP2.”

Click here to download a free copy of the report.