Creating an Electronic Data Interchange System?

jgrumbles asks: "I've been in a PC support technician internship for the past 7 months for a polyethylene (plastic) pipe company which has doubled in size the past 4 years. I've been notified that management wants me to head a new initiative within the company. The main goal, in the beginning, is to basically restructure the slipshod EDI system they are using right now. The IT director even admits he should have had some training when implementing the system, but it was at the time of the boom so he had to do it as he went along. Are there any definitive EDI/E-Commerce information conglomerates, websites, listservs, groups, or other sources of information? My main mission will be to recreate the EDI system, which includes an AS/400 in a Windows environment, from scratch. Further down the road I'll be in charge of implementing technology in other areas such as getting RFIDs on every piece of pipe we ship in order to further automate tracking and billing. So, does anyone have suggestions on where to look for information and possible case studies?"

I can see the memo now.

[grub]

Boss: jgrumbles, our company is growing fast; we've doubled in size over the past 48 months. We need you to design, build and implement an EDI to replace our AS/400 system. Plan for expansion into RFID, shipping and automated tracking & billing. Would you mind using Ask Slashdot for guidance in this risky, company-wide endeavour?

Re:Ask Slashdot: Do it yourself brain surgery?

[Samus]

1. I recommend GNU/Life. The current stable version is lacking some critical features so definitely go with the latest unstable version from CVS. I'd stay away from OpenLifeSupport and its KDE and Gnome counterparts. They seem to still be in their infancy.

2. No, I don't think so. You might want to perform your surgery at the local LUG's next install fest. That way you can get lots of support.