Original publication date: June, 2009
When we introduced Athena 2.0 last year, we billed it as a great alternative to Softshare Vista, especially if you were a multi-user Vista client. Athena 2.0 can handle as much traffic as Vista, at the same network subscription rate. And with the advantages that come with online solutions (access from anywhere, no maintenance, instantaneous communications, etc.), Athena is a more elegant solution for your forms-based EDI operations than Vista.
Unless you were running Vista with the add-on FTP or AS2 Bridge module. Athena 2.0 didn’t initially support these communications methods and users of these modules had to remain on Vista. But guess what? FTP and AS2 are no longer barriers to upgrading to Athena. Athena now supports these communications methods and Vista users running the FTP or AS2 Bridge module are free to make the transition!
But there are some differences between how Athena and Vista handle FTP and AS2 communications that you should note. In Vista, FTP and AS2 communications require a secondary mailbox and some additional configurations. In Athena, no additional configurations are necessary because FTP and AS2 communications are seamlessly handled by Softshare’s value-added network. This makes FTP and AS2 easier to manage in Athena, but it also means that transactions delivered via these methods by Athena incur network transaction fees, whereas in Vista, they bypassed our network. You’ll want to take this transaction count increase into account when choosing an Athena subscription level. Luckily, transaction fees are minimal and we have several flexible programs for you to choose from.
If you want to learn more, we invite you to visit the Athena guest account or view the Athena brochure. And, of course, you’re always welcome to contact a sales representative who will be happy to help you apply the pros and cons of Athena to your specific situation.