Edi

X12 EDIFACT Mapping In 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 EDIFACT SET

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

--

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

--

Planning Schedule/Material Release

830

DELFOR

Shipping Schedule

862

DELJIT

Production Sequence

866

--

Ship Notice/manifest (ASN)

856

DESADV

ORDERING TRANSACTIONS

MATERIALS MANAGEMENT TRANSACTIONS

Report of Test Results

863

QALITY

Material Safety Data Sheet

848

--

Contract Award

836

--

Shipment Information (Bill of Lading)

858

IFTMCS

Receiving Advice

861

RECADV

Non-conformance Information-Disposition Transaction, Cause/Correction

842

NONCON

Inventory Inquiry/Advice

846

INVRPT

Product Transfer and Resale Report

867

SLSRPT

Product Transfer Account Adjustment

844

--

Response To Product Transfer Account Adjustment

849

--

810

INVOIC

SHIPPING/RECEIVING TRANSACTIONS

INVENTORY MANAGEMENT TRANSACTIONS

FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS Invoice

Freight Invoice

859

IFTMCS

Payment order/Remittance Advice (EFT)

820

REMADV

Lockbox

823

--

Financial Information Reporting

821

--

Functional Acknowledgement

997

CONTRL

Application Advice

824

BANSTA

Trading Partner Profile

838

PARTIN

CONTROL TRANSACTIONS

EDIFACT From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search 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 XMLmessages, 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 List From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search 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)

18 Return Merchandise Authorization and Notification 0 29 Cooperative Advertising Agreements 0 81 Invoice 0 81 Organizational Relationships 6 83 Price/Sales Catalog 2 85 Purchase Order 0 85 Purchase Order Acknowledgment 5 85 Ship Notice/Manifest 6 85 Shipment and Billing Notice 7 86 Purchase Order Change Request - Buyer Initiated 0 86 Purchase Order Change Acknowledgment/Request - Seller Initiated 5

87 Grocery Products Purchase Order 5 87 Grocery Products Purchase Order Change 6 87 Manufacturer Coupon Family Code Structure 7 88 Grocery Products Invoice 0 88 Manufacturer Coupon Redemption Detail 1 88 Retail Account Characteristics 5 88 Coupon Notification 7 88 Item Maintenance 8

[edit] Materials Handling Series (MAT) 511 Requisition 51 Material Obligation Validation 7 52 Material Due-In and Receipt

7 84 Request for Quotation 0 84 Response to Request for Quotation 3 84 Price Authorization Acknowledgment/Status 5 84 Material Claim 7 85 Asset Schedule 1 87 Product Authorization/De-authorization 8 87 Price Information 9 89 Item Information Request 3

[edit] Tax Services Series (TAX) 14 Notice of Tax Adjustment or Assessment 9 15 Electronic Filing of Tax Return Data Acknowledgment

1 15 Statistical Government Information 2 15 Business Credit Report 5 15 Notice of Power of Attorney 7 17 Revenue Receipts Statement 0 52 Income or Asset Offset 1 54 Notice of Employment Status 0 81 Electronic Filing of Tax Return Data 3 82 Tax Information Exchange 6

[edit] Warehousing Series (WAR) 88 Market Development Fund Allocation 3 88 Market Development Fund Settlement

4 88 Customer Call Reporting 6 89 Deduction Research Report 1 94 Warehouse Shipping Order 0 94 Warehouse Stock Transfer Shipment Advice 3 94 Warehouse Stock Transfer Receipt Advice 4 94 Warehouse Shipping Advice 5 94 Warehouse Inventory Adjustment Advice 7 99 Response to a Load Tender 0

[edit] Financial Series (FIN) 24 Account Assignment/Inquiry and Service/Status 8 81 Invoice

0 811 Consolidated Service Invoice/Statement 81 Credit/Debit Adjustment 2 81 Commission Sales Report 8 81 Operating Expense Statement 9 82 Payment Order/Remittance Advice 0 82 Financial Information Reporting 1 82 Account Analysis 2 82 Lockbox 3 82 Application Advice 4 82 Financial Return Notice 7

82 Debit Authorization 8 82 Payment Cancellation Request 9 83 Application Control Totals 1 85 Freight Invoice 9 98 Functional Group Totals 0

[edit] Government Series (GOV) 10 Business Entity Filings 5 15 Tax Rate Notification 0 15 Electronic Filing of Tax Return Data Acknowledgment 1 15 Statistical Government Information 2 15 Unemployment Insurance Tax Claim or Charge Information 3

15 Uniform Commercial Code Filing 4 17 Court and Law Enforcement Notice 5 17 Court Submission 6 18 Royalty Regulatory Report 5 19 Federal Communications Commission (FCC) License Application 5 25 Periodic Compensation 6 28 Voter Registration Information 0

[edit] Manufacturing Series (MAN) 19 Contractor Cost Data Reporting 6 83 Planning Schedule with Release Capability 0 84 Product Transfer Account Adjustment 4

84 Inventory Inquiry/Advice 6 84 Response to Product Transfer Account Adjustment 9 85 Product Activity Data 2 86 Receiving Advice/Acceptance Certificate 1 86 Production Sequence 6 86 Product Transfer and Resale Report 7 86 Order Status Inquiry 9 87 Order Status Report 0 89 Delivery/Return Base Record 4 89 Delivery/Return Acknowledgment or Adjustment 5

[edit] Delivery Series (DEL)

21 Logistics Service Request 9 22 Logistics Service Response 0 22 Cartage Work Assignment 2 22 Consolidators Freight Bill and Invoice 3 22 Motor Carrier Summary Freight Bill Manifest 4 22 Response to a Cartage Work Assignment 5 25 Purchase Order Shipment Management Document 0 85 Routing and Carrier Instruction 3 85 Shipment Delivery Discrepancy Information 4 85 Ship Notice/Manifest 6 85 Shipment and Billing Notice 7

85 Shipment Information 8 86 Shipping Schedule 2 88 Direct Store Delivery Summary Information 2

[edit] Engineering Management & Contract Series (ENG) 19 Contractor Cost Data Reporting 6 50 Vendor Performance Review 1 50 Pricing History 3 50 Clauses and Provisions 4 53 Logistics Reassignment 6 56 Contract Abstract 1 56 Contract Completion Status 7

56 Contract Payment Management Report 8 62 Excavation Communication 0 62 Well Information 5 65 Maintenance Service Order 0 80 Contract Pricing Proposal 5 80 Project Schedule Reporting 6 83 Procurement Notices 6 83 Trading Partner Profile 8 83 Project Cost Reporting 9 84 Specifications/Technical Information 1 87 Component Parts Content 1

89 Product Dimension Maintenance 6

[edit] Insurance/Health Series (INS) 10 Insurance Plan Description 0 112 Property Damage Report 14 Report of Injury, Illness or Incident 8 18 Insurance Underwriting Requirements Reporting 6 25 Insurance Producer Administration 2 25 Underwriting Information Services 5 26 Individual Life, Annuity and Disability Application 7 26 Annuity Activity 8 27 Eligibility, Coverage or Benefit Inquiry 0 27 Eligibility, Coverage or Benefit Information

1 27 Property and Casualty Loss Notification 2 27 Insurance/Annuity Application Status 3 27 Health Care Provider Information 4 27 Patient Information 5 27 Health Care Claim Status Request 6 27 Health Care Claim Status Notification 7 27 Health Care Services Review Information 8 28 Wage Determination 8 36 Cargo Insurance Advice of Shipment 2 50 Medical Event Reporting 0 83 Benefit Enrollment and Maintenance

4 83 Health Care Claim Payment/Advice 5 83 Health Care Claim 7 92 Loss or Damage Claim - Motor Vehicle 4 92 Claim Tracer 5 92 Claim Status Report and Tracer Reply 6 92 Automotive Inspection Detail 8

[edit] Miscellaneous ANSI X12 Transactions Series (MIS) 10 Name and Address Lists 1 15 Motion Picture Booking Confirmation 9 24 Data Status Tracking 2

81 General Request, Response or Confirmation 4 81 Cryptographic Service Message 5 86 Text Message 4 86 Electronic Form Structure 8 99 File Transfer 6 99 Functional Acknowledgment 7 99 Set Cancellation 8

[edit] Mortgage Series (MOR) 19 Real Estate Title Evidence 7 19 Loan Verification Information 8 19 Real Estate Settlement Information 9

20 Mortgage Credit Report 0 20 Residential Loan Application 1 20 Secondary Mortgage Market Loan Delivery 2 20 Secondary Mortgage Market Investor Report 3 20 Mortgage Note 5 20 Real Estate Inspection 6 26 Application for Mortgage Insurance Benefits 0 26 Real Estate Information Request 1 26 Real Estate Information Report 2 26 Residential Mortgage Insurance Application Response 3 26 Mortgage Loan Default Status 4

26 Real Estate Title Insurance Services Order 5 26 Mortgage or Property Record Change Notification 6 83 Mortgage Credit Report Order 3 87 Residential Mortgage Insurance Application 2

[edit] Product Services Series (PSS) 14 Product Registration 0 14 Product Service Claim Response 1 14 Product Service Claim 2 14 Product Service Notification 3 18 Return Merchandise Authorization and Notification 0 24 Product Source Information 4

88 Promotion Announcement 9

[edit] Quality and Safety Series (QSS) 13 Testing Results Request and Report 8 24 Animal Toxicological Data 9 28 Commercial Vehicle Safety and Credentials Information Exchange 5 28 Commercial Vehicle Credentials 6 84 Nonconformance Report 2 84 Material Safety Data Sheet 8 86 Report of Test Results 3

[edit] Student Information Series (STU) 13 Student Educational Record (Transcript) 0 13 Student Educational Record (Transcript) Acknowledgment

1 13 Student Loan Application 5 13 Student Loan Guarantee Result 9 14 Student Loan Transfer and Status Verification 4 14 Request for Student Educational Record (Transcript) 6 14 Response to Request for Student Educational Record (Transcript) 7 18 Educational Course Inventory 8 18 Application for Admission to Educational Institutions 9 19 Student Enrollment Verification 0 19 Student Loan Pre-Claims and Claims 1 19 Grant or Assistance Application 4

[edit] Transportation

[edit] Air and Motor Series (TAM) 10 Air Shipment Information 4 10 Motor Carrier Rate Proposal 6 10 Request for Motor Carrier Rate Proposal 7 10 Response to a Motor Carrier Rate Proposal 8 110 Air Freight Details and Invoice 20 Motor Carrier Load Tender 4 21 Motor Carrier Freight Details and Invoice 0 211 Motor Carrier Bill of Lading 21 Motor Carrier Delivery Trailer Manifest 2 21 Motor Carrier Shipment Status Inquiry 3 21 Transportation Carrier Shipment Status Message 4

21 Motor Carrier Pick-up Manifest 5 21 Motor Carrier Shipment Pick-up Notification 6 21 Motor Carrier Loading and Route Guide 7 21 Motor Carrier Tariff Information 8 25 Purchase Order Shipment Management Document 0 25 Pricing Support 1 60 U.S. Customs Export Shipment Information 1 60 Transportation Services Tender 2 71 Intermodal Group Loading Plan 5 92 Loss or Damage Claim - General Commodities 0

[edit] Ocean Series (TOS) 10 Vessel Content Details

9 30 Reservation (Booking Request) (Ocean) 0 30 Confirmation (Ocean) 1 30 Booking Cancellation (Ocean) 3 30 Shipping Instructions 4 30 U.S. Customs Manifest 9 31 Freight Receipt and Invoice (Ocean) 0 311 Canadian Customs Information 31 Arrival Notice (Ocean) 2 31 Shipment Status Inquiry (Ocean) 3 31 Status Details (Ocean) 5

31 Delivery/Pickup Order 7 31 Terminal Information 9 32 Terminal Operations and Intermodal Ramp Activity 2 32 Vessel Schedule and Itinerary (Ocean) 3 32 Vessel Stow Plan (Ocean) 4 32 Consolidation of Goods In Container 5 32 Consignment Summary List 6 35 U.S. Customs Status Information 0 35 U.S. Customs Carrier General Order Status 2 35 U.S. Customs Events Advisory Details 3 35 U.S. Customs Automated Manifest Archive Status 4

35 U.S. Customs Acceptance/Rejection 5 35 U.S. Customs Permit to Transfer Request 6 35 U.S. Customs In-Bond Information 7 35 U.S. Customs Consist Information 8 36 Carrier Interchange Agreement (Ocean) 1

[edit] Rail Series (TRS) 16 Train Sheet 1 40 Rail Carrier Shipment Information 4 41 Rail Carrier Freight Details and Invoice 0 41 Rail Carhire Settlements 4 41 Rail Carrier Waybill Interchange 7 41 Rail Advance Interchange Consist

8 41 Advance Car Disposition 9 42 Car Handling Information 0 42 Estimated Time of Arrival and Car Scheduling 1 42 Shipper's Car Order 2 42 Rail Industrial Switch List 3 42 Rail Waybill Request 5 42 Rail Revenue Waybill 6 42 Railroad Retirement Activity 9 43 Railroad Station Master File 1 43 Rail Deprescription 2 43 Railroad Reciprocal Switch File

3 43 Railroad Mark Register Update Activity 4 43 Standard Transportation Commodity Code Master 5 43 Locomotive Information 6 43 Railroad Junctions and Interchanges Activity 7 44 Shipment Weights 0 45 Railroad Event Report 1 45 Railroad Problem Log Inquiry or Advice 2 45 Railroad Service Commitment Advice 3 45 Railroad Parameter Trace Registration 5 45 Railroad Equipment Inquiry or Advice 6 46 Railroad Price Distribution Request or Response

0 46 Rail Rate Reply 3 46 Rate Request 6 46 Rate Docket Journal Log 8 47 Railroad Clearance 0 47 Rail Route File Maintenance 5 48 Ratemaking Action 5 48 Rate Docket Expiration 6 49 Rate Group Definition 0 49 Miscellaneous Rates 2 49 Rail Scale Rates 4

[edit] Automotive Series (TAS)

12 Vehicle Shipping Order 0 12 Vehicle Service 1 12 Vehicle Damage 4 12 Multilevel Railcar Load Details 5 12 Vehicle Application Advice 6 12 Vehicle Baying Order 7 12 Dealer Information 8 12 Vehicle Carrier Rate Update 9 16 Transportation Automatic Equipment Identification 0 16 Transportation Appointment Schedule Information 3

Electronic Data Interchange From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search 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.