Frequently Asked Question on EDI
What is EDI?
EDI is a set of electronic transaction rules, standards and software that allow different companies to exchange business documents electronically over a secure (VAN) network. EDI is an efficient electronic alternative to using mail, email, phone, or fax to transmit and exchange paper documents.
Why can't e-mail be used to exchange information electronically?
E-mail is communication between two or more people while EDI is communication between two computers. By automating the exchange of documents, EDI can eliminate human data-entry and other mistakes. EDI is ideally suited for the automatic electronic exchange of large volumes of complex business documents.
What's the difference betwwen EDI and E-commerce software systems?
E-commerce systems can exchange information using a variety of standards and formats. EDI on the other hand uses one or two highly-structured and standardized formats and is ideally suited for exchanging large volumes of business documents such as purchase orders, invoices or bills-of-lading between trading partners.
What are the primary benefits of using EDI?
The most important benefits include: automating routine transactions, improving data accuracy, tranferring data faster, improving productivity, building tighter business relationships and in general, saving time and money.
What communication standards are used for EDI transactions?
The three primary standards used today for EDI are ANSI X.12 and UCS in North America and EDIFACT for the U.N. EDI translation software is used to convert data sent between business partners so that it is recognizable by each different computer system and application involved. XML is a growing and popular syntax language for characterizing EDI transactions.
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