Overview
- What Does EDI Capable Mean in a Classic Sense?
- Define being EDI capable in 3 steps
- Classic EDI capability comes in 3 steps
- EDI Capable
- Become an EDI Capable Organization
EDI capability means the very smooth and easy exchange of electronic business documents in an agreed format with your EDI trading partners. To become EDI capable there are two options, either running an EDI solution on-premises in an own or 3rdparty data center or buy the EDI capability as an EDI cloud service.
What Does EDI Capable Mean in a Classic Sense?
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) plays an important role in the integration of external B2B systems and trading partners for the purpose of streamlined business communication without paper. EDI capability is typically expected in industries with a highly automated supply chain management and/or exchange of standardized business documents like offer, order, dispatch, invoice or inventory report. The exchange of messages between companies takes place along established business document standards typical for a certain industry and/or geography.
Define being EDI capable in 3 steps
The ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems do not understand theEDI message standardsnatively. Thus structured data needs to come from the ERP of the sender in an internal format and must then be converted into the message standard before it can be sent to the receiver via the agreed communication protocol.
Classic EDI capability comes in 3 steps
1
Connection to ERP - Receive messages in internal format from the ERP system
2
Conversion - Transfer messages from the internal format to the message standard
3
Communication - Technical dispatch via the agreed communication protocol
EDI Capable
Be EDI Capable Means Connecting the ERP
The ERP Connector connects theEDI solutionwith the ERP system so that messages can be automatically transferred between the ERP system and the EDI software. The EDI solution needs to provide a broad selection of ERP connectors so any ERP system found can be connected easily.
Be EDI Capable Means the Use of Standard Data Formats
The EDI converter converts data (messages) from the ERP system into standardized EDI messages. An enterprise must be ready to send and receive electronic standard formats such asANSI X12, EANCOM,EDIFACT, EDIFICE, ebXML, GALIA, HIPAA, ODETTE, RosettaNet,Tradacoms, VDA, XBRL. The EDI solution must support all these standards.
Be EDI Capable Means the Use of Standard Communication Protocols
The communication adapter establishes a connection between sender and receiver and securely transmits the previously converted message to the business partner once the connection has been established. The exchange of data can take place via either an indirect connection over aValue Added Network (VAN)or a direct connection based onAS2,OFTP2or similar. The EDI solution must support all the typical communication protocols.
WhitepaperWhat Does EDI Capable Come From?
Any reasonable EDI solution today can do all of the above and combines these capabilities with a flexible BPEL Workflow Engine. After all EDI has been connecting trading partners and automating Supply Chain Management (SCM) for more than 40 years.
Particularly in supply chain-oriented industries, EDI sets the standard for exchanging information from system to system in electronic format with neither the need for paper nor manual processes. With EDI the data is exchanged in a structured form which, over time, has led to several EDI messaging standards in various industries and regions. EDI continues to dominate supply chain processes for the automotive, logistics, CPG and retail, manufacturingand utilities industries.
