EDI Overview
What is EDI?
EDI is an acronym for Electronic Data Interchange. It is a paperless trade exchange that allows common business forms
such as purchase orders and invoices (transaction sets) to be transferred using electronic file standards. It replaces
mailing and faxing with computer to computer communications through VANs or Value Added Networks. A
combination of these two events briefly describes what EDI is about.
Why do EDI?
Most often the case a company is forced to do EDI, in order to continue to do business with a large supplier.
Moving a company to EDI requires knowledge and understanding of the EDI business methods and technology.
Once successfully up and running, it provides effective document handling with
minimal human intervention. Addition of more trading partners to the system only costs in setup time, not in day
to day operations. This is where EDI savings are realized, through fast response, error free and efficient handling
of accounting transactions.
EDI Standards:
VAN (Value Added Network)
A VAN is an independant company who provides a forward/storage system (mailbox), for EDI transmissions between trading partners. To visit the sites of some popular VAN's select here.
Translation Software
Software that translates the EDI document from an EDI standard to a flat ascii file so that it can be read or used by application software easily. For translators that have been tested with EDI-PAC select here.
|
