X12 EDIFACT MappingIn 1979, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) chartered the Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) X12 to develop uniform standards for interindustry electronic exchange of business transactions-electronic data interchange (EDI)

In 1986, the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE) approved the acronym "UN/EDIFACT," which translates to United Nations Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport. UN/EDIFACT is an international EDI standard designed to meet the needs of both government and private industry.

The UN/EDIFACT Working Group (EWG), a permanent working group of the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT), develops and maintains UN/EDIFACT

X12 is used in the USA but most of the rest of the world uses the EDIFACT transaction sets.

Mapping

This is a partial list of the more popular transaction sets.

TRANSACTION SET/DOCUMENT ANSI SET

EDIFACT

PRODUCT/PRICING TRANSACTIONS

Price Sales Catalog 832 PRICAT

Price Authorization Acknowledgement/Status 845 --

Specification/Technical Information 841 PRDSPE

Request For Quotation 840 REQOTE

Response To Request For Quotation 843 QUOTES

Electronic Bid Form 833 --

ORDERING TRANSACTIONS

Purchase Order 850 ORDERS

Purchase Order Acknowledgement 855 ORDRSP

Purchase Order Change 860 ORDCHG

Purchase Order Change Acknowledgement 865 ORDRSP

Order Status Inquiry 869 ORSSTA

Order Status Report 870 ORDREP

Contract Award 836 --

MATERIALS MANAGEMENT TRANSACTIONS

Planning Schedule/Material Release 830 DELFOR

Shipping Schedule 862 DELJIT

Production Sequence 866 --

Ship Notice/manifest (ASN) 856 DESADV

Report of Test Results 863 QALITY

Material Safety Data Sheet 848 --

Contract Award 836 --

SHIPPING/RECEIVING TRANSACTIONS

Shipment Information (Bill of Lading) 858 IFTMCS

Receiving Advice 861 RECADV

Non-conformance Information-Disposition Transaction, Cause/Correction

842 NONCON

INVENTORY MANAGEMENT TRANSACTIONS

Inventory Inquiry/Advice 846 INVRPT

Product Transfer and Resale Report 867 SLSRPT

Product Transfer Account Adjustment 844 --

Response To Product Transfer Account Adjustment 849 --

FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS

Invoice 810 INVOIC

Freight Invoice 859 IFTMCS

Payment order/Remittance Advice (EFT) 820 REMADV

Lockbox 823 --

Financial Information Reporting 821 --

CONTROL TRANSACTIONS

Functional Acknowledgement 997 CONTRL

Application Advice 824 BANSTA

Trading Partner Profile 838 PARTIN

EDIFACTFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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UN/EDIFACT is the international EDI standard developed under the United Nations. The acronym stands for United Nations/Electronic Data Interchange For Administration, Commerce, and Transport. The work of maintenance and further development of this standard is done through UN/CEFACT, the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business under the UN Economic Commission for Europe, in the Finance Domain working group UN CEFACT TBG5. EDIFACT has been adopted by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) as the ISO standard ISO 9735. The EDIFACT standard:

Provides a set of syntax rules to structure data. Provides an interactive exchange protocol (I-EDI) Provides standard messages (allows multi-country and multi-industry exchange)

This is an example EDIFACT message used to answer to a product availability request:

UNB+IATB:1+6XPPC+LHPPC+940101:0950+1’UNH+1+PAORES:93:1:IA’MSG+1:45’IFT+3+XYZCOMPANY AVAILABILITY’ERC+A7V:1:AMD’IFT+3+NO MORE FLIGHTS’ODI’TVL+240493:1000::1220+FRA+JFK+DL+400+C’PDI++C:3+Y::3+F::1’APD+74C:0:::6++++++6X’TVL+240493:1740::2030+JFK+MIA+DL+081+C'PDI++C:4’APD+EM2:0:1630::6+++++++DA’UNT+13+1’UNZ+1+1’

' is a segment terminator + is a data element separator  : is a component data element separator  ? is a release character

Note: The line breaks after each segment in this example have been added for readability. Typically, there are no line breaks in EDI data.

UNH+1+PAORES:93:1:IA’- This is the header segment. It is required at the start of every message - this one specifies that the message name and version is PAORES 93 revision 1 and it was defined by the organisation IA (IATA).

IFT+3+NO MORE FLIGHTS’ - This is an 'Interactive Free Text' segment containing the text 'NO MORE FLIGHTS'

UNT+13+1’ - This is the tail segment. It indicated that the message sent contains 13 segments.

Contents

[hide] 1 Structure 2 Current state of EDIFACT

3 See also

4 External links

[edit] Structure

EDIFACT has a hierarchical structure. The top level is referred to as an Interchange. Underneath an Interchange, one or more Messages can exist. Messages consist of Segments which in turn consist of Composites and the final iteration is called an Element. Elements are derived from the UNTDED (United Nations Trade Data Element Directory) and are normalised throughout the EDIFACT standard.

A group or segment can be mandatory (M) or conditional (C) and can be specified to repeat, for example C99 would indicate between 0 and 99 repetitions of a segment or group, whereas M99 would mean between 1 and 99 repetitions.

A group, like a message, is a sequence of segments or groups. The first segment/group beneath a group must be mandatory. If the logic of the situation demands it is conditional, then the group itself should be made conditional instead.

[edit] Current state of EDIFACT

It seems there is a battle between XML and EDIFACT. An equivalent EDIFACT message will be smaller in size than an XML message but the XML message will be easier to read for a human (which is correct but of course not necessary because the content of such messages are not developed to be read by human but by computers). Another possible explanation is that compatibility is being favored over performance, since more tools exist to work with XML data than with EDIFACT. As mentioned in the beginning, EDIFACT-messages are smaller, in some cases about ten times smaller than XML-messages, and therefore not recommended for large message contents. The advantage of EDIFACT is the availability of agreed message-contents and the XML-world today needs these contents to develop similar "agreed" contents for XML.

One of the emerging XML standards is RosettaNet, widely used in the semiconductor and high tech industry in general. Another is UBL, currently being adopted by Scandinavian governments as legal requirement to send invoices to governments. For example, all invoices to the Danish government have had to be in electronic format since February 2005.

An other XML standard (also built by UN/CEFACT, like EDIFACT) is ebXML, often seen as a standard best suited for small and medium enterprises.

However, EDIFACT is still widely used in the high tech, civil aviation, retail and tourism industries and is likely to remain so for some time due to the amount of software making use of it and the need for newer systems to be able to integrate with legacy systems. Europe started early with adopting EDIFACT and therefore has a large installed base,

where as for example the Asian region started later with B2B implementations and is therefore using more XML standards. As mentioned EDIFACT is widely used in Europe in nearly all areas of economy and the application will grow in future. One example is the energy market where the EDIFACT-Standard in Europe is a requirement for now and the future.

X12 Document ListFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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The following is a list of the approved EDI ANSI X12 documents for EDI version 4 Release 1 (004010):

Contents

[hide] 1 Order Series (ORD) 2 Materials Handling Series (MAT) 3 Tax Services Series (TAX) 4 Warehousing Series (WAR) 5 Financial Series (FIN) 6 Government Series (GOV) 7 Manufacturing Series (MAN) 8 Delivery Series (DEL) 9 Engineering Management & Contract Series (ENG) 10 Insurance/Health Series (INS) 11 Miscellaneous ANSI X12 Transactions Series (MIS) 12 Mortgage Series (MOR) 13 Product Services Series (PSS) 14 Quality and Safety Series (QSS) 15 Student Information Series (STU) 16 Transportation

o 16.1 Air and Motor Series (TAM) o 16.2 Ocean Series (TOS) o 16.3 Rail Series (TRS) o 16.4 Automotive Series (TAS)

17 See Also

[edit] Order Series (ORD)

180 Return Merchandise Authorization and Notification

290 Cooperative Advertising Agreements

810 Invoice

816 Organizational Relationships

832 Price/Sales Catalog

850 Purchase Order

855 Purchase Order Acknowledgment

856 Ship Notice/Manifest

857 Shipment and Billing Notice

860 Purchase Order Change Request - Buyer Initiated

865 Purchase Order Change Acknowledgment/Request - Seller Initiated

875 Grocery Products Purchase Order

876 Grocery Products Purchase Order Change

877 Manufacturer Coupon Family Code Structure

880 Grocery Products Invoice

881 Manufacturer Coupon Redemption Detail

885 Retail Account Characteristics

887 Coupon Notification

888 Item Maintenance

[edit] Materials Handling Series (MAT)

511 Requisition

517 Material Obligation Validation

527 Material Due-In and Receipt

840 Request for Quotation

843 Response to Request for Quotation

845 Price Authorization Acknowledgment/Status

847 Material Claim

851 Asset Schedule

878 Product Authorization/De-authorization

879 Price Information

893 Item Information Request

[edit] Tax Services Series (TAX)

149 Notice of Tax Adjustment or Assessment

151 Electronic Filing of Tax Return Data Acknowledgment

152 Statistical Government Information

155 Business Credit Report

157 Notice of Power of Attorney

170 Revenue Receipts Statement

521 Income or Asset Offset

540 Notice of Employment Status

813 Electronic Filing of Tax Return Data

826 Tax Information Exchange

[edit] Warehousing Series (WAR)

883 Market Development Fund Allocation

884 Market Development Fund Settlement

886 Customer Call Reporting

891 Deduction Research Report

940 Warehouse Shipping Order

943 Warehouse Stock Transfer Shipment Advice

944 Warehouse Stock Transfer Receipt Advice

945 Warehouse Shipping Advice

947 Warehouse Inventory Adjustment Advice

990 Response to a Load Tender

[edit] Financial Series (FIN)

248 Account Assignment/Inquiry and Service/Status

810 Invoice

811 Consolidated Service Invoice/Statement

812 Credit/Debit Adjustment

818 Commission Sales Report

819 Operating Expense Statement

820 Payment Order/Remittance Advice

821 Financial Information Reporting

822 Account Analysis

823 Lockbox

824 Application Advice

827 Financial Return Notice

828 Debit Authorization

829 Payment Cancellation Request

831 Application Control Totals

859 Freight Invoice

980 Functional Group Totals

[edit] Government Series (GOV)

105 Business Entity Filings

150 Tax Rate Notification

151 Electronic Filing of Tax Return Data Acknowledgment

152 Statistical Government Information

153 Unemployment Insurance Tax Claim or Charge Information

154 Uniform Commercial Code Filing

175 Court and Law Enforcement Notice

176 Court Submission

185 Royalty Regulatory Report

195 Federal Communications Commission (FCC) License Application

256 Periodic Compensation

280 Voter Registration Information

[edit] Manufacturing Series (MAN)

196 Contractor Cost Data Reporting

830 Planning Schedule with Release Capability

844 Product Transfer Account Adjustment

846 Inventory Inquiry/Advice

849 Response to Product Transfer Account Adjustment

852 Product Activity Data

861 Receiving Advice/Acceptance Certificate

866 Production Sequence

867 Product Transfer and Resale Report

869 Order Status Inquiry

870 Order Status Report

894 Delivery/Return Base Record

895 Delivery/Return Acknowledgment or Adjustment

[edit] Delivery Series (DEL)

219 Logistics Service Request

220 Logistics Service Response

222 Cartage Work Assignment

223 Consolidators Freight Bill and Invoice

224 Motor Carrier Summary Freight Bill Manifest

225 Response to a Cartage Work Assignment

250 Purchase Order Shipment Management Document

853 Routing and Carrier Instruction

854 Shipment Delivery Discrepancy Information

856 Ship Notice/Manifest

857 Shipment and Billing Notice

858 Shipment Information

862 Shipping Schedule

882 Direct Store Delivery Summary Information

[edit] Engineering Management & Contract Series (ENG)

196 Contractor Cost Data Reporting

501 Vendor Performance Review

503 Pricing History

504 Clauses and Provisions

536 Logistics Reassignment

561 Contract Abstract

567 Contract Completion Status

568 Contract Payment Management Report

620 Excavation Communication

625 Well Information

650 Maintenance Service Order

805 Contract Pricing Proposal

806 Project Schedule Reporting

836 Procurement Notices

838 Trading Partner Profile

839 Project Cost Reporting

841 Specifications/Technical Information

871 Component Parts Content

896 Product Dimension Maintenance

[edit] Insurance/Health Series (INS)

100 Insurance Plan Description

112 Property Damage Report

148 Report of Injury, Illness or Incident

186 Insurance Underwriting Requirements Reporting

252 Insurance Producer Administration

255 Underwriting Information Services

267 Individual Life, Annuity and Disability Application

268 Annuity Activity

270 Eligibility, Coverage or Benefit Inquiry

271 Eligibility, Coverage or Benefit Information

272 Property and Casualty Loss Notification

273 Insurance/Annuity Application Status

274 Health Care Provider Information

275 Patient Information

276 Health Care Claim Status Request

277 Health Care Claim Status Notification

278 Health Care Services Review Information

288 Wage Determination

362 Cargo Insurance Advice of Shipment

500 Medical Event Reporting

834 Benefit Enrollment and Maintenance

835 Health Care Claim Payment/Advice

837 Health Care Claim

924 Loss or Damage Claim - Motor Vehicle

925 Claim Tracer

926 Claim Status Report and Tracer Reply

928 Automotive Inspection Detail

[edit] Miscellaneous ANSI X12 Transactions Series (MIS)

101 Name and Address Lists

159 Motion Picture Booking Confirmation

242 Data Status Tracking

814 General Request, Response or Confirmation

815 Cryptographic Service Message

864 Text Message

868 Electronic Form Structure

996 File Transfer

997 Functional Acknowledgment

998 Set Cancellation

[edit] Mortgage Series (MOR)

197 Real Estate Title Evidence

198 Loan Verification Information

199 Real Estate Settlement Information

200 Mortgage Credit Report

201 Residential Loan Application

202 Secondary Mortgage Market Loan Delivery

203 Secondary Mortgage Market Investor Report

205 Mortgage Note

206 Real Estate Inspection

260 Application for Mortgage Insurance Benefits

261 Real Estate Information Request

262 Real Estate Information Report

263 Residential Mortgage Insurance Application Response

264 Mortgage Loan Default Status

265 Real Estate Title Insurance Services Order

266 Mortgage or Property Record Change Notification

833 Mortgage Credit Report Order

872 Residential Mortgage Insurance Application

[edit] Product Services Series (PSS)

140 Product Registration

141 Product Service Claim Response

142 Product Service Claim

143 Product Service Notification

180 Return Merchandise Authorization and Notification

244 Product Source Information

889 Promotion Announcement

[edit] Quality and Safety Series (QSS)

138 Testing Results Request and Report

249 Animal Toxicological Data

285 Commercial Vehicle Safety and Credentials Information Exchange

286 Commercial Vehicle Credentials

842 Nonconformance Report

848 Material Safety Data Sheet

863 Report of Test Results

[edit] Student Information Series (STU)

130 Student Educational Record (Transcript)

131 Student Educational Record (Transcript) Acknowledgment

135 Student Loan Application

139 Student Loan Guarantee Result

144 Student Loan Transfer and Status Verification

146 Request for Student Educational Record (Transcript)

147 Response to Request for Student Educational Record (Transcript)

188 Educational Course Inventory

189 Application for Admission to Educational Institutions

190 Student Enrollment Verification

191 Student Loan Pre-Claims and Claims

194 Grant or Assistance Application

[edit] Transportation

[edit] Air and Motor Series (TAM)

104 Air Shipment Information

106 Motor Carrier Rate Proposal

107 Request for Motor Carrier Rate Proposal

108 Response to a Motor Carrier Rate Proposal

110 Air Freight Details and Invoice

204 Motor Carrier Load Tender

210 Motor Carrier Freight Details and Invoice

211 Motor Carrier Bill of Lading

212 Motor Carrier Delivery Trailer Manifest

213 Motor Carrier Shipment Status Inquiry

214 Transportation Carrier Shipment Status Message

215 Motor Carrier Pick-up Manifest

216 Motor Carrier Shipment Pick-up Notification

217 Motor Carrier Loading and Route Guide

218 Motor Carrier Tariff Information

250 Purchase Order Shipment Management Document

251 Pricing Support

601 U.S. Customs Export Shipment Information

602 Transportation Services Tender

715 Intermodal Group Loading Plan

920 Loss or Damage Claim - General Commodities

[edit] Ocean Series (TOS)

109 Vessel Content Details

300 Reservation (Booking Request) (Ocean)

301 Confirmation (Ocean)

303 Booking Cancellation (Ocean)

304 Shipping Instructions

309 U.S. Customs Manifest

310 Freight Receipt and Invoice (Ocean)

311 Canadian Customs Information

312 Arrival Notice (Ocean)

313 Shipment Status Inquiry (Ocean)

315 Status Details (Ocean)

317 Delivery/Pickup Order

319 Terminal Information

322 Terminal Operations and Intermodal Ramp Activity

323 Vessel Schedule and Itinerary (Ocean)

324 Vessel Stow Plan (Ocean)

325 Consolidation of Goods In Container

326 Consignment Summary List

350 U.S. Customs Status Information

352 U.S. Customs Carrier General Order Status

353 U.S. Customs Events Advisory Details

354 U.S. Customs Automated Manifest Archive Status

355 U.S. Customs Acceptance/Rejection

356 U.S. Customs Permit to Transfer Request

357 U.S. Customs In-Bond Information

358 U.S. Customs Consist Information

361 Carrier Interchange Agreement (Ocean)

[edit] Rail Series (TRS)

161 Train Sheet

404 Rail Carrier Shipment Information

410 Rail Carrier Freight Details and Invoice

414 Rail Carhire Settlements

417 Rail Carrier Waybill Interchange

418 Rail Advance Interchange Consist

419 Advance Car Disposition

420 Car Handling Information

421 Estimated Time of Arrival and Car Scheduling

422 Shipper's Car Order

423 Rail Industrial Switch List

425 Rail Waybill Request

426 Rail Revenue Waybill

429 Railroad Retirement Activity

431 Railroad Station Master File

432 Rail Deprescription

433 Railroad Reciprocal Switch File

434 Railroad Mark Register Update Activity

435 Standard Transportation Commodity Code Master

436 Locomotive Information

437 Railroad Junctions and Interchanges Activity

440 Shipment Weights

451 Railroad Event Report

452 Railroad Problem Log Inquiry or Advice

453 Railroad Service Commitment Advice

455 Railroad Parameter Trace Registration

456 Railroad Equipment Inquiry or Advice

460 Railroad Price Distribution Request or Response

463 Rail Rate Reply

466 Rate Request

468 Rate Docket Journal Log

470 Railroad Clearance

475 Rail Route File Maintenance

485 Ratemaking Action

486 Rate Docket Expiration

490 Rate Group Definition

492 Miscellaneous Rates

494 Rail Scale Rates

[edit] Automotive Series (TAS)

120 Vehicle Shipping Order

121 Vehicle Service

124 Vehicle Damage

125 Multilevel Railcar Load Details

126 Vehicle Application Advice

127 Vehicle Baying Order

128 Dealer Information

129 Vehicle Carrier Rate Update

160 Transportation Automatic Equipment Identification

163 Transportation Appointment Schedule Information

Electronic Data InterchangeFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is a set of standards for structuring information to be electronically exchanged between and within businesses, organizations, government entities and other groups. The standards describe structures that emulate documents, for example purchase orders to automate purchasing. The term EDI is also used to refer to the implementation and operation of systems and processes for creating, transmitting, and receiving EDI documents.

Despite being relatively unheralded, in this era of technologies such as XML services, the Internet and the World Wide Web, EDI is still the data format used by the vast majority of electronic commerce transactions in the world.

Contents

[hide] 1 Standards 2 Specifications 3 Transmission

o 3.1 Value Added Networks o 3.2 Internet

4 Interpreting data 5 Advantages of using EDI

o 5.1 Advantages over paper systems 5.1.1 Barriers to implementation

6 See also 7 Standards bodies

8 External links

[edit] Standards

Generally speaking, EDI is considered to be a technical representation of a business conversation between two entities, either internal or external. Be noted that there is a perception that "EDI" consists of the entire electronic data interchange paradigm, including the transmission, message flow, document format, and software used to interpret the documents. EDI is considered to describe the rigorously standardized format of electronic documents.

The EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) standards were designed to be independent of communication and software technologies. EDI can be transmitted using any methodology agreed to by the sender and recipient. This includes a variety of technologies, including modem (asynchronous, and bisynchronous), FTP, Email, HTTP, AS1, AS2, MQ, etc. It is important to differentiate between the EDI documents and the methods for transmitting them. While comparing the bisynchronous 2400 bit/s modems, CLEO devices and value-added networks used to transmit EDI documents to transmitting via the Internet some people equated the non-Internet technologies with EDI and predicted erroneously that EDI would be replaced along with the non-Internet technologies. These non-internet transmission methods are being replaced by Internet Protocols such as FTP, telnet and email but the EDI documents themselves still remain.

As more trading partners use the Internet for transmission, standards have emerged. In 2002, the IETF published RFC 3335, offering a standardized, secure method of transferring EDI data via e-mail. On July 12th, 2005, an IETF working group ratified

RFC4130 for MIME-based HTTP EDIINT (aka. AS2) transfers, and is preparing similar documents for FTP transfers (aka. AS3). While some EDI transmission has moved to these newer protocols the providers of the value-added networks remain active.

EDI documents generally contain the same information that would normally be found in a paper document used for the same organizational function. For example an EDI 940 ship-from-warehouse order is used by a manufacturer to tell a warehouse to ship product to a retailer. It typically has a ship to address, bill to address, a list of product numbers (usually a UPC code) and quantities. It may have other information if the parties agree to include it. However, EDI is not confined to just business data related to trade but encompasses all fields such as medicine (e.g., patient records and laboratory results), transport (e.g., container and modal information), engineering and construction, etc. In some cases, EDI will be used to create a new business information flow (that was not a paper flow before). This is the case in the Advanced Shipment Notification (856) which was designed to inform the receiver of a shipment, the goods to be received and how the goods are packaged.

There are two major sets of EDI standards: the United Nations recommended UN/EDIFACT is the only international standard and is predominant outside of North America; and the U.S. standard ANSI ASC X12 (X12) is predominant in North America. These standards prescribe the formats, character sets, and data elements used in the exchange of business documents and forms. The complete X12 Document List includes all major business documents, including purchase orders (called "ORDERS" in UN/EDIFACT and an "850" in X12) and invoices (called "INVOIC" in UN/EDIFACT and an "810" in X12).

The EDI standard says which pieces of information are mandatory for a particular document, which pieces are optional and give the rules for the structure of the document. The standards are like building codes. Just as two kitchens can be built "to code" but look completely different, two EDI documents can follow the same standard and contain different sets of information. For example a food company may indicate a product's expiration date while a clothing manufacturer would choose to send color and size information.

Standards are generally updated each year.

[edit] Specifications

Organizations that send or receive documents from each other are referred to as "trading partners" in EDI terminology. The trading partners agree on the specific information to be transmitted and how it should be used. This is done in human readable specifications (also called EDI Implementation Guidelines). While the standards are analogous to building codes, the specifications are analogous to blue prints. (The specification may also be called a mapping but the term mapping is typically reserved for specific machine

readable instructions given to the translation software.) Larger trading "hubs" have existing EDI Implementation Guidelines which mirror their business processes for processing EDI and they are usually unwilling to modify their EDI business practices to meet the needs of their trading partners. Often in a large company these EDI guidelines will be written to be generic enough to be used by different branches or divisions and therefore will contain information not needed for a particular business document exchange. For other large companies, they may create separate EDI guidelines for each branch/division.

[edit] Transmission

Trading partners are free to use any method for the transmission of documents. In the past one of the more popular methods was the usage of a bisync modem to communicate through a "Value Added Network" (VAN). Some organizations have used direct modem to modem connections, "Bulletin Board System" (BBS), and recently there has been a move towards using the some of the many Internet protocols for transmission, but most EDI is still transmitted using a VAN. In the healthcare industry, a VAN is referred to as a "Clearinghouse".

[edit] Value Added Networks

In the most basic form, a VAN acts as a regional post office. They receive transactions, examine the 'From' and the 'To' information, and route the transaction to the final recipient. VAN's provide a number of additional services, e.g. retransmission of documents, provide third party audit information, and act as a gateway for different transmission methods, handling telecommunications support, etc. Because of these and other services VAN's provide, businesses frequently use a VAN even when both trading partners are using Internet-based protocols. Healthcare clearinghouses perform many of the same functions as a VAN, but have additional legal restrictions that govern protected healthcare information.

[edit] Internet

Until recently the Internet transmission was handled by nonstandard methods between trading partners usually involving FTP or email attachments. There are also standards for embedding EDI documents into XML. Many organizations are migrating to this protocol to reduce costs. For example, Wal-Mart is now requiring its trading partners to switch to the AS2 protocol.

[edit] Interpreting data

Often missing from the EDI specifications (referred to as EDI Implementation Guidelines) are real world descriptions of how the information should be interpreted by the business receiving it. For example, suppose candy is packaged in a large box that contains 5 display boxes and each display box contains 24 boxes of candy packaged for

the consumer. If an EDI document says to ship 10 boxes of candy it may not be clear whether to ship 10 consumer packaged boxes, 240 consumer packaged boxes or 1200 consumer packaged boxes. It is not enough for two parties to agree to use a particular qualifier indicating case, pack, box or each; they must also agree on what that particular qualifier means.

EDI translation software provides the interface between internal systems and the EDI format sent/received. For an "inbound" document the EDI solution will receive the file (either via a Value Added Network or directly using protocols such as FTP or AS2), take the received EDI file (commonly referred to as a "mailbag"), validate that the trading partner who is sending the file is a valid trading partner, that the structure of the file meets the EDI standards and that the individual fields of information conforms to the agreed upon standards. Typically the translator will either create a file of either fixed length, variable length or XML tagged format or "print" the received EDI document (for a non-integrated EDI environments). The next step is to convert/transform the file that the translator creates into a format that can be imported into a company's back-end business systems or ERP. This can be accomplished by using a custom program, an integrated proprietary "mapper" or to use an integrated standards based graphical "mapper" using a standard data transformation language such as XSLT. The final step is to import the transformed file (or database) into the company's back-end ERP.

For an "outbound" document the process for integrated EDI is to export a file (or read a database) from a company's back-end ERP, transform the file to the appropriate format for the translator. The translation software will then "validate" the EDI file sent to ensure that it meets the standard agreed upon by the trading partners, convert the file into "EDI" format (adding in the appropriate identifiers and control structures) and send the file to the trading partner (using the appropriate communications protocol.

Another critical component of any EDI translation software is a complete "audit" of all the steps to move business documents between trading partners. The audit ensures that any transaction (which in reality is a business document) can be tracked to ensure that they are not lost. In case of a retailer sending a Purchase Order to a supplier, if the Purchase Order is "lost" anywhere in the business process, the effect is devastating to both businesses. To the supplier, they do not fulfill the order as they have not received it thereby losing business and damaging the business relationship with their retail client. For the retailer, they have a stock outage and the effect is lost sales, reduced customer service and ultimately lower profits.

In EDI terminology "inbound" and "outbound" refer to the direction of transmission of an EDI document in relation to a particular system, not the direction of merchandise, money or other things represented by the document. For example, an EDI document that tells a warehouse to perform an outbound shipment is an inbound document in relation to the warehouse computer system. It is an outbound document in relation to the manufacturer or dealer that transmitted the document.

[edit] Advantages of using EDI

[edit] Advantages over paper systems

EDI and other similar technologies save a company money by providing an alternative to or replacing information flows that require a great deal of human interaction and materials such as paper documents, meetings, faxes, email, etc. Even when paper documents are maintained in parallel with EDI exchange, e.g. printed shipping manifests, electronic exchange and the use of data from that exchange reduces the handling costs of sorting, distributing, organizing, and searching paper documents. EDI and similar technologies allows a company to take advantage of the benefits of storing and manipulating data electronically without the cost of manual entry or scanning.

[edit] Barriers to implementation

There are a few barriers to adopting electronic data interchange. One of the most significant barriers is the accompanying business process change. Existing business processes built around slow paper handling may not be suited for EDI and would require changes to accommodate automated processing of business documents. For example, a business may receive the bulk of their goods by 1 or 2 day shipping and all of their invoices by mail. The existing process may therefore assume that goods are typically received before the invoice. With EDI, the invoice will typically be sent when the goods ship and will therefore require a process that handles large numbers of invoices whose corresponding goods have not yet been received.

Another significant barrier is the cost in time and money in the initial set-up. The preliminary expenses and time that arise from the implementation, customization and training can be costly and therefore may discourage some businesses. The key is to determine what method of integration is right for your company which will determine the cost of implementation. For a business that only receives one P.O. per year from a client, fully integrated EDI may not make economic sense. In this case, businesses may implement inexpensive "rip and read" solutions or use outsourced EDI solutions provided by EDI "Service Bureaus". For other businesses, the implementation of an integrated EDI solution may be necessary as increase in trading volumes brought on by EDI force them to re-implement their order processing business processes.

The key hindrance to a successful implementation of EDI is the perception many businesses have of the nature of EDI. Many view EDI from the technical perspective that EDI is a data format; it would be more accurate to take the business view that EDI is a system for exchanging business documents with external entities, and integrating the data from those documents into the company's internal systems. Successful implementations of EDI take into account the effect externally generated information will have on their internal systems and validate the business information received. For example, allowing a supplier to update a retailer's Accounts Payables system without appropriate checks and balances would be a recipe for disaster. Businesses new to the implementation of EDI should take pains to avoid such pitfalls.

Increased efficiency and cost savings drive the adoption of EDI for most trading partners. But even if a company would not choose to use EDI on their own, pressures from larger trading partners (called hubs) often force smaller trading partners to use EDI.