EDI and Applications.

EDI (ELECTRONIC DATA INTERCHANGE)

Electronic data interchange (EDI) is an electronic communication method that provides standards for exchanging data via any electronic means. By adhering to the same standard, two different companies or organizations, even in two different countries, can electronically exchange documents (such as purchase orders, invoices, shipping notices, and many others). 
EDI has existed for more than 30 years, and there are many EDI standards (including X12, EDIFACT, ODETTE, etc.), some of which address the needs of specific industries or regions. It also refers specifically to a family of standards. 
In 1996, the National Institute of Standards and Technology defined electronic data interchange as "the computer-to-computer interchange of strictly formatted messages that represent documents other than monetary instruments. EDI implies a sequence of messages between two parties, either of whom may serve as originator or recipient. The formatted data representing the documents may be transmitted from originator to recipient via telecommunications or physically transported on electronic storage media." 

It distinguishes mere electronic communication or data exchange, specifying that "in EDI, the usual processing of received messages is by computer only. Human intervention in the processing of a received message is typically intended only for error conditions, for quality review, and for special situations. 

For example, the transmission of binary or textual data is not EDI as defined here unless the data are treated as one or more data elements of an EDI message and are not normally intended for human interpretation as part of online data processing. EDI can be formally defined as the transfer of structured data, by agreed message standards, from one computer system to another without human intervention.

EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) Document Exchange

BENEFITS - EDI

 1. COST SAVING
  • Expenses associated with paper, printing, reproduction, storage, filing, postage and document retrieval are all reduced or eliminated by EDI transactions, lowering transaction costs.
  • Errors due to illegible faxes, lost orders or incorrectly taken phone orders are eliminated, saving  staff valuable time from handling data disputes.

2. SPEED AND ACCURACY


  • EDI can speed up the business cycles by exchange transactions in minutes instead of the days or weeks of wait time from the postal service.
  • Improves data quality, by reduction in transactions with errors—eliminating errors from illegible handwriting, lost faxes/mail and keying and re-keying errors.
  • Using EDI can reduce the order-to-cash cycle time by more than 20%, improving business partner transactions and relationships

3. EFFICIENCY


  • Automating paper-based tasks allows the staff to concentrate on higher-value tasks and provides them with the tools to be more productive
  • Quick processing of accurate business documents leads to less re-working of orders, fewer stock outs and fewer cancelled orders
  • Automating the exchange of data between applications across a supply chain can ensure that business-critical data is sent on time and can be tracked in real time. Sellers benefit from improved cash flow and reduced order-to-cash cycles
  • Shortening the order processing and delivery times means that organizations can reduce their inventory levels

4. STRATEGIC BUSINESS LEVEL


  • Enables real-time visibility into transaction status. This in turn enables faster decision-making and improved responsiveness to changing customer and market demands, and allows businesses to adopt a demand-driven business model rather than a supply-driven one.
  • Shortens the lead times for product enhancements and new product delivery.
  • Streamlines your ability to enter new territories and markets. EDI provides a common business language that facilitates business partner onboarding anywhere in the world.
  • Promotes corporate social responsibility and sustainability by replacing paper-based processes with electronic alternatives. This will both save you money and reduce your CO2 emissions.
EDI APPLICATIONS

1.ORDER INTEGRATION



  • Creating, sending and follow-up of supply orders generated by the purchasing departments involves dedicating important technical and human resources to processing the orders to suppliers in the right time and format.
  • For suppliers, the interpretation and typifying of these orders in the internal management system entails a large amount of work to be done by the commercial and administration departments of the vendor companies.

2. MILITARY APPLICATIONS 
  • EDI adaptations have been being made in military system for the several years. EDI is used extensively in both the wholesale and retail supply operations within the Department of the Army and the Department of Defense. 
  • The wholesale supply operations for the Department of Defense is controlled by the Defense Logistics Agency and the Department of Army is controlled by the Army Material Command. 
  • All organizations within the Department of the Army receive the supplies through retail operations. The retail operation uses EDI through the Standard Army Retail Supply System (SARSS). 


3. BUSINESS SYSTEMS
  • Some of the good EDI/XML Translation Communication helps in effective communication like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) :Oracle 

4. GOVERNMENT APPLICATIONS 
  • USING EDI the first step is vendor registration. The registration is conducted electronically via EDI. Companies are required to register so that the Government knows who they are and will be able to accept bids from the company. 
  • The registration process provides the Government with necessary information for the Government to send EDI solicitation documents, such as request for quote documents.

5. EDI Vertical Applications

  • As an electronic data interchange system, EDI has inspired the development of discrete uses or vertical applications devised for specific industrial sectors. This led to the development of procedures and messages tailored to a specific need.
  • These developments are usually promoted by an organism or higher institution that takes on the role of arbiter to put together a set of key messages, standards and procedures adapted to the needs of a specific business grouping or activity sector.
 

EDI Specifications

Organizations that send or receive documents between 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 Message 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 Message 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.