This is a very unauthorised history of EDIMatrix which, since it is being written by the Serf de Jour who has had the production of this website dumped onto his unwilling shoulders when what he really wanted to do was get on with developing EDI software, may be less of a polished story than the marketing boys normally turn out. It also deals almost exclusively with internal product development, because that is Serf de Jour's major interest, although he does realise that it isn't the major part of the company's work.

1988
Owing to an administrative error, the Swedish subsidiary of SD is closed down shortly after the merger with Scicon. Three guys (two consultants who are techies at heart and a salesman) who have been working with EDI and communications decide to make their fortunes by setting up a company to sell Interbridge, the seminal EDI converter from Sitpro. These are the heady days soon after the formalisation of EDIFACT. In the UK Fred Metzgen has the idea for a an international group of companies which work with EDI and cooperate with one another. EDIMatrix companies are formed in England, Sweden and Holland.

1989
The Swedish EDIMatrix works hard to get business but by the end of the year discovers that, in EDI, ambitious projects tend to shrivel by a factor of ten when it comes to actual installations. Everyone is talking about EDI, everyone wants to learn about it, few feel quite ready to start using it. Use of Interbridge on PC proves difficult as soon as a client starts filling up memory (still only 640kb in those days) with networking or management software.

1990
A significant year for EDIFACT; the QC process results in radical changes to the directories and casts a large stone into the EDI millpond. Business is not helped by this. Jeremy. one of the techies, writes an EDI converter in Pascal, Chris, the other techy (who doesn't understand Pascal) is slightly narked by this and counters by producing one in C, thus drawing ahead since C is more 'macho'. Jeremy rallies with an excellent specification for an EDI workstation to incorporate the C converter ('EMX') and they both finish the year in a fury of coding to complete it for the first installation.

1991
EMX excites interest amongst PC EDI enablers since it functions well and uses very little memory. Amongst others, EDIMatrix in Holland take it on board. This influences the development of the converter, since it has varied operational demands made of it. Chris produces the interactive table editor 'TPROF'. Whilst this is an insignificant product in terms of sales it has internal importance since it makes very fast prototyping of converter tables possible. Jeremy (who is very presentation minded) produces utilities to generate segment and message diagrams from converter tables. Projects can now be developed, tested and documented using EMX even though they will be installed using other EDI systems. It is a poor year for EDI takeup, and by the end of it the Swedish EDIMatrix is the only one which remains independent.

1992
EDI in Sweden finally starts recovering from the hiatus caused by QC, and the order book begins to be healthier. There is less time for program development. A significant number of installations are using 'EDIFAX' i.e. receiving orders by EDI and then printing them out on paper rather than importing the data into their applications, Chris grows weary of writing variants of print programs and produces 'PRINT', a template driven output engine which can take tagged flat files and generate reports from them. Customers like it because it seems to de-mystify EDI, and the technicians like it because it is actually a very versatile general re-formatting tool.

1993
EDIMatrix AB takes on more consultants and has moved into larger premises. Chris moves back to England to get married, sets up EDIMatrix Ltd, and with a couple of kindred spirits sets to work to develop a new generation of EDI software. The basic idea is to move most of the functionality of an EDI Gateway into the converters themselves, so that OEM customers (to whom the bulk of sales had been made in the past) merely needed to provide a user interface compatible with their own product, if they wanted a user interface at all. By the end of the year the DOS converters, with all the necessary support programs, are ready for marketing.

1994
Windows versions are produced. These turn out to be a real pain to maintain, since there are many detail differences in the structure and interface, and there still is not any great demand for them. We test BT EDI*NET and find it a cheap'n'cheerful VAN. DMXCOMMS, a script driven communication engine, is written to provide an easy interface to it and other networks. Chris decides that for incoming EDI many people do not want the sophistication of a conventional converter, and re-works the DMXPRINT program so that it can read EDI directly. DMXEFAX is born, and gets a baptism by fire when we use it to convert the new DIRDEF message (EDIFACT as an EDIFACT message!) into a database which can subsequently be used for automatic generation of converter tables. From now on any EDIFACT message is 'only a moment away'.

1995
It begins to occur to us that we may have put a little too much emphasis on the development and not enough on the marketing. Claire wants a significant bit of EDI software to develop for her M.Sc. project and is given the Traffic Analyser, the last software component needed for a conventional EDI Gateway. This turns out to delay its appearance as a commercial product significantly, since the demands made by academia and the marketplace are rather different. Healthcare identified as a promising growth area; so the converters are put through Syntegra type testing, which they pass with ease. We produce an interface to the RUA from our old mates Alprange (later to become ESL) and have a natty little NHS workstation. Sales, alas, are initially underwhelming. By a series of cunning tricks we have discovered how to utilise the same source code for both DOS and Windows programs and the entire DMX range appears as native Windows versions early in the year. This attracts a lot of attention in our old stamping ground - Sweden.

1996
We start the year by launching a shrinkwrap message receipt product, BUDGET*EDI, which clients can install themselves. It uses the 'easy' DMXEFAX reformatter, DMXCOMMS configured for BT EDI*NET, and the glue to install them and hold them together. We are impressed to see some new clients using it as a 'quick fix', since it is cheaper and easier than getting another message table for their existing converter. A number of OEM agreements are made for the Windows DMX products, and the balance sheet starts looking less bleak. We finish the year by introducing TEDIT, the Windows equivalent to the old DOS workhorse TPROF. This is something of a luxury, since converter tables are normally generated from the EDI database, but it proves very handy for fast fixes on site.

1997
We move to larger premises. Development environment switched to NT4 (astonishing how disruptive a change of network is), and all DMX modules written in C ported to 32-bit code. DMXCOMMS experiences a renaissance and is ported to Windows. Scripts for Geis INS and AT&T EasyLink access are developed. Much against Chris' better judgement DMXREFRM is enhanced to be able to create EDI directly from relational files and we can now offer a full 'EDI Lite' solution. More OEM deals - high volumes - ultralow margins. Lots of travel for installations but, fortunately, not much for maintenance since the DMX system is unusually robust even when shoehorned into bizarre configurations. It is the first year in which we do not launch a major new product; possibly because of increased volume of business.

1998
The VB3 'databased' DMX programs are ported to VB5 32-bit applications, so that the whole DMX system is now available for Win-32. This website is enhanced with a download area so that existing clients can obtain the latest software versions, and a working evaluation system can be fetched by those curious about DMX. The DMXSMAPI interface begins to be used commercially for EDI transfer by Internet email. A utility to generate converter tables from .SEF files, which can be exportd by several EDI documentation tools, is developed. We introduce the 'robot workstation' - an automatically generated user workstation based on the tables of the messages it is intended to process, with the intention of finally being able to offer a low cost product which isn't an economic disaster for us, and make a first installation using it. This completes our 'Lite EDI' range. Although the bulk of our sales are still to OEM's; the proportion of direct end user installations more than doubles, and 1998 ends with our busiest quarter since the UK company was founded.

1999
A very busy year. A significant amount of effort devoted to the Baan IV Bemis interface for automotive supply messages; for both DMX and EDI-TIE systems. Porting of the DMX console mode modules to Linux (and AIX) carried out when time allows. Two new OEM deals for DMX in the UK. The capabiliies of the re-formatters (Refrm, Print & Efax) enhanced. New Gateway IBM IE interface using IBM Expedite Base (which is free) developed, and a freestanding Tradanet interface developed for TIE, and other, systems. Switch to CD distribution for 32-bit systems (why do the labels cost nearly as much as the CD-R blanks?). MS Access used increasingly to provide an 'application' for clients who want a bespoke EDI workstation. Sales of the TIE products increase noticeably. Turnover nearly double 1998's; who said EDI was dead?

2000
A quiet first quarter after the millenium bug fever. We take the opportunity to make detail enhancements to the gateway and network interfaces. DMXCOMMS is given a TCP/IP capability and a new direct Internet network interface DMXSPOP3 introduced. WINTASKS has by now grown from a sequencer through a batch despatcher into something more like a scripting language for EDI operations. By April the orders are coming in so rapidly that we reluctantly put further major development on a back burner. DMXCOMMS used to implement a TCP/IP connection to Tradanet and as a budget mailer; its status as our best selling module seems set to continue. We keep a watching eye on the XML-EDI developments. The DMX C modules are now officially supported under PC Linux, amd are Solaris and AIX compatible as well. FTP being used increasingly for EDI file transfer.

2001
No lull at the beginning of the year. First use of DMXCOMMS to implement a TCP/IP file server. Budget EDI package for Book Trade developed. First beta of a network interface for FTP released. Business was very healthy, but it was a year of consolidation and detail improvement to existing software rather than innovation.

2002
Relative quiet at year start, but frantically busy by April. We take on another consultant in an effort to meet the workload. If the year had a theme it was warehouse management, including installations in Canada using the ANSI X12 transactions. No new major products, but the re-formatters are progressively enhanced with new scripting capabilities, and a standard installation shell developed for our Budget products.

2003
An unusual year in that we spent a significant proportion of our time developing very complex systems for certain major clients. The period up to August was frantically busy, but it eased up a little after that, and we had time to introduce generic XML processing facilities into the DMX system. There is currently very little demand for XML handling in the EDI world, but it is good to have the software available should the need arise. We terminate our Agency for TIE products, although we still act as their UK distributor.

2004
This was a very quiet year, mainly devoted to internal development. We set up a local computer on broadband, and use it to develop the Internet capabilities of DMX and provide services for our agents. A web viewer for showing EDI traffic is introduced. The XML capabilities of DMX are enhanced, although there is still minimal demand, including a 'splitter' DMXMLCUT which can analyse and resolve files containing XML into identified messages for subsequent processing. There was unfortunately very little new business and commercially the year was the worst for nearly a decade.

2005
We expect a lull at year start, but after 2004 it was difficult not to be nervous. Fortunately it did prove to be just a lull, and by March the order book was filling up again. We acquired a new OEM in Holland (run by a veteran of the old Dutch EDIMatrix!), and Book Trade business in particular picked up again. Our previous premises were closed for re-development, and we moved to a new location in the same area. The only casualty of the move was a pot shrub which, after nearly 12 years of TLC, had grown into a tree and proved impossible to get through a doorway. The year ended with the customary December rush

2006
A fairly calm and steady year. We modify DMXEFAX so that it can process incoming XML messages, and add a multi-mailbox capability to the DMXSPOP3 network interface. There are minor enhancements to some of the other network interface. Apart from this it was just business as usual.

2007
At the beginning of the year we moved again to a permanent location in South London. Apart from this disruption it was another calm and steady year. We introduced the DMXIFTPS network interface to allow secure FTP, either by TLS or SSH, and used it as the basis for access to GXS Trading Grid. A number of other products were enhanced with new features. We sadly said goodbye to Claire Hunt as a full-time member of EDIMatrix, since she is now working towards a doctorate at Imperial College. Claire had been with the firm since its UK launch in 1993.

2008
Our fifteenth anniversary in the UK. Another quiet year with no major developments to report.One of our clients started using AS2 communication, which is still uncommon in England. There were indications towards year end that 2009 would be noticeably busier.

(EMX is a trademark of EDIMatrix AB)