Loren Data CSO Tony D’Angelo sat down with Janet Kushabo on Rewind’s Back Up to Level Up podcast at ShopTalk 2026. The conversation covered ECGrid’s origins, the state of the industry, and where we’re going next.
The 80-90% Moment
The most interesting part of this conversation might be the host’s reaction when Tony mentions that 80–90% of supply chain data exchange runs on various flavors of EDI.
Genuine surprise.
None of that is news to our audience. But the gap between what this industry knows and what the rest of the market understands is worth paying attention to. It shapes how platforms get evaluated, how integration decisions get made, and how much education still has to happen before a prospect even gets to a technical conversation. Every service provider on ECGrid has felt that in a sales cycle.
Watch: 1:48 — The 80–90% moment
The Origin Story
Tony also walked through his own career arc, which tracks closely with ECGrid’s. He started on the user side at an auto parts manufacturer in the mid-90s, managing dialup EDI budgets that were large and the technology that ate them was not good. That led to co-founding ICCNet, one of the first internet-based EDI networks, and connecting early with the team that was building ECGrid. Both companies bet on web services when the industry was still on proprietary protocols.
That history is relevant now because the same dynamic is playing out again. API-first architectures, real-time expectations, AI-assisted operations. The platforms that moved early last time are positioned to move early again.
Watch: 0:39 — The origin story
The Training Gap
The conversation turned to workforce, and Tony was blunt: EDI is barely present in Computer Science curricula. Graduates are entering the field without exposure to the technology that carries most B2B transactions on the planet. If you manage EDI operations or hire for integration roles, you already know what that looks like — longer ramp-up times, institutional knowledge concentrated in fewer people, and a bench that gets thinner every year.
ECGrid’s work in certification, training, and industry engagement through NEECOM, X12, RVCF, and GS1 is one piece of a much larger problem. The pipeline needs more contributors.
Watch: 6:44 — The training gap
Global Product Access
Tony closed with a preview of Global Product Access. GPA is a product data synchronization service built on GS1 standards, designed to make catalog exchange a network-level capability rather than a partner-by-partner integration project. He kept the details light for this audience, but the target is clear: reduce the cost and friction of getting accurate product data from brands to retailers and distributors at scale.
Watch: 8:46 — Global Product Access