Web EDI
What you should know about EDI
The structured transmission of data between organizations through electronic means is called Electronic Data Interchange, or EDI. It is used for the transfer of electronic documents from one computer system to another – for example, from one trading partner to another trading partner. It is not just mere email, for instance, organizations might very well replace bills of lading and even cheques with the appropriate EDI messages. EDI also refers to a specific group of standards – which includes the X12 series. The pre-Internet roots are also exhibited by EDI, and the standards usually tend to focus on ASCII (American Standard Code for Information Interchange) formatted single messages, as opposed to the whole sequence of conditions and exchanges that make up the business process of inter-organizations. In EDI, the data is entered into the buyer’s computer system, unlike the traditional methods of transmission.