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|

Introduction to Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
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Introduction to
Electronic Data Interchange
EDI industry
links
EDI (Electronic Data
Interchange) is simply the means to communicate between
companies from one computer to another. For many years companies
have been using computers to send business documents instead of
mailing paper documents (i.e. most of our pay checks are
directly deposited into our bank accounts). This transfer of
funds is accomplished by the use of an electronic file being
sent form your company to your bank). The problem was that the
all efforts employed proprietary or unique formats. The absence
of a standard format led to the condition where computers could
not longer "talk" to one another without a great deal of effort
by programmers. For example, Supplier X could recognize an
electronic Purchase Order from Retailer A but not from Retailer
B.
In 1979 the American
National Standards Institute (ANSI) formed the Accredited
Standards Committee (ASC) X12 to rectify this situation. This
committee was to standardize the format of electronic documents
to allow for easy movement of information between computers.
From this humble beginning has led to the establishment of
standards for over 400 business documents.
In the late 1980's
there was a drive to standardize file formats in the rest of the
world. This drive resulted in the UN/EDIFACT standard being
adopted. For most transactions outside of North America, the
UN/EDIFACT standards are used.
Overview of a
"typical" EDI Transaction vs. a Traditional Transaction:
A typical EDI
transaction involves the following processes (this example is
using a Purchase Order being created by a retailer and the
vendor receiving the Purchase Order and sending an
Acknowledgement document back to the retailer):
EDI Transaction
Pre-EDI Transaction
Purchase Order is entered into
your Purchase
Order system.
Purchase Order is entered into
your Purchase
Order system.
Purchase Order is reformatted
into an interim flat file that the TradeLink EDI
Management Software can read.
A
Purchase Order
is printed and signed by your buyer.
TradeLink EDI Management Software will import the
interim flat file, verify the contents of the file,
combine the file together in an EDI Envelope and send
the file to your Trading Partner (either directly or
through a network).
The
Purchase Order
is Mailed, Faxed, Phoned or handed in
person to your Trading Partner.
Your Trading Partners EDI Software interprets the EDI
Purchase Order
and the file is electronically
entered into their Order Management Software.
A clerk receives the
Purchase Order, tries to
interpret it and then enter it into their Order
Management Software. (if the transaction is lost in the
mail, the Purchase
Order never gets entered into
their Order Management Software.
Your Trading Partner's EDI Software Package verifies
that it has received the
Purchase Order by sending back
a Functional Acknowledgement
Comment: Let's gets
something straight, EDI is not some incredibly difficult
process. All it is doing is taking something that is already
existing (in our example the issuance of a Purchase Order and
changing the method of transfer from paper-based to
electronically based).
The use of EDI allows
for the following benefits:
Reduced manual
data entry
Reduced postage
and handling costs
Reduced labor
processing costs
Reduced order
cycle
Increased
customer service
Improved
accuracy of data
Reduced lead
times
Reduced paper
handling
Reduced
inventory carrying costs
EDI Document
Standards
EDI was originally
designed to formalize the electronic transfer of information
from one trading partner to another. This idea is not new,
companies have been transferring information via mail, and
phone, in-person or using proprietary electronic formats for
years.
Industry groups
pushed the standardization of business documents into electronic
format. Individual companies realized that they were sending
similar documents to their trading partners. It is this fact
that spurred companies in the same industry to meet to create
formalized EDI standards. In many cases the standards that were
developed met the needs of that group of companies. Over time
each committee added various codes and documents to meet their
industries needs. Each committee designed slightly different
formats for their "flavor" of EDI.
By the late 1980's
these industry-based committees realized that to increase the
use of EDI throughout the whole of industry, these committee's
standards would have to be amalgamated. By 1994, all industry
committee's EDI standards were to be incorporated in one North
American standard. This was accomplished but what resulted
wasn't a rationalization of the standard it was simply an
accumulated of all of the industry committee's EDI standards.
The North American Standard (ANSI) has over 400 documents
defined.
It is important to
note that no one wanted to eliminate any transactions from the
standard as companies had developed their interfaces to
match the various documents. In addition that umbrella
organization (ANSI) have kept all of the committee (it seems
to have a lot to do with everyone in the Committee wants to go
to Washington D.C. to drink). In any case it is important to
note that in the rest of the world there are 40 transactions
defined (the rest of the World uses a standard called
UN/EDIFACT that was created much later that the North American
standards), whereas in North America there are over 400
transactions. In fact there are 9 different Invoices (all
slightly different) and 10 different Purchase Orders. The
Key thing to note when people refer to EDI, what "flavor" of EDI
is used will be important.
(Its also worth noting that TradeLink EDI has the ability to
handle any "flavor" of EDI and the majority of old Proprietary
standards without an issue.)
EDI Envelopes:
EDI is really just
taking existing business practices and putting them into an
electronic format. An EDI Envelope is analogous to a Paper
Envelope.
Lets now review our
completed EDI Envelope and compare it to our paper document:
Paper Envelope
EDI Envelope (ISA, BG or UNB)
Mailing Address
Receiver ID
Return Address
Sender ID
Control Number (not on a Paper Envelope)
Paper Group Envelope
EDI Group Envelope (GS or
UNG)
What documents are in the Envelope
What is in the EDI Group Envelope
Your vendors name (just in case the small envelope for
the Invoices gets lost)
Receiver ID
Your companies name (just in case main envelope gets
separated).
Sender ID
Group Control Number
Paper Set Envelope
EDI Set Envelope (ST or UNx)
Control Number
Invoice Beginning Information, (has all of the data on
different lines in any format you want)
Invoice Beginning Segment(s) (with data elements in a
standardized format)
Invoice Detail Information (all free form text)
Invoice Detail Segment(s) (available in standardized
format so that your trading partner can import it
without re-keying)
Invoice Summary Information (all free form text)
Invoice Summary Segment(s) (all information is available
in standardized format.
EDI Set Trailer (SE or UNx)
Set Control Number
Number of Segments in this Set
EDI Group Trailer (GE or
UNx)
Number of Sets in this Group
EDI Group Control Number
EDI Envelope Trailer (ISA,
BE or UNx)
Number of Groups in this Envelope
EDI Envelope Control Number
The key is
to realize that the structure of EDI is to mimic paper
processes. In addition, the transferring of EDI data is
standardized so that computer to computer exchange of data can
be accomplished.
EDI Envelope (generic)
(basic comment to make it easier to
understand):
ISA (or
BG or UNA)
(address
information, header control info.)
GS (UNG)
(type of files,
group control information)
ST
(specific set
starting info)
Segments
(like EDI
information)
Elements
(specific pieces of
data)
Segments
(like EDI information)
Elements
(specific pieces of data)
Segments
(like EDI information)
Elements
(specific pieces of data)
Segments
(like EDI information)
Elements
(specific pieces of data)
SE
(specific set ending
info)
ST
(specific set
starting info)
Segments
(like EDI information)
Elements
(specific pieces of data)
Segments
(like EDI information)
Elements
(specific pieces of data)
Segments
(like EDI information)
Elements
(specific pieces of data)
Segments
(like EDI information)
Elements
(specific pieces of data)
SE
(specific set ending
info)
GE (or UNx)
(number of files,
group control information)
IEA (or EG or UNZ)
(number of groups,
trailer control info)
Now lets review the
structure of an EDI transmission. To ensure that information is
not lost in the electronic Mailbox, an EDI Batch Envelope is
created. This EDI Batch Envelope is similar to a courier
envelope. If you were to courier important documents to a
trading partner, you require certain pieces of information on
the outside of the courier envelope. On the courier you enter:
The name of who
it is to go to,
their address,
their unique
telephone number
your name
your address
and your phone
number.
This is required by
the Courier Company to ensure that the documents are sent to the
correct person. In EDI, the same approach is used. Instead of a
name, address and phone number, you specify:
An Unique
Identification for your company
An Unique
Identification for your Trading Partner
This information
allows the information to electronically be mailed to your
Trading Partner. In addition there are control numbers sent with
the EDI Batch Envelope to ensure that the complete information
is received by your trading partner (this is similar to gluing
the courier envelope shut to ensure that none of your documents
are lost in the mail).
The following is a
representation of this envelope structure:
Courier Envelope
EDI Batch Envelope
Mailing Address
Receiver ID
Return Address
Sender ID
Control Number (not on a Paper Envelope)
Glued Envelope
EDI Envelope Trailer
Number of Groups Sent
Control Numbers
There are many types
of EDI Envelopes but they all contain the same type of
information carried on a Paper Envelope. The main piece of
additional information kept on an EDI Envelope is a control
number. This control number ensures that if the EDI Envelope was
lost or somehow ripped up, that there would be a record of
the envelope. The structure of EDI always has checks and
balances to ensure that information are not "Lost in the Mail".
A further check that EDI uses is a trailer record that keeps a
record of the number of documents in the EDI Envelope and the
control number (to ensure that all documents sent were received
by your trading partner. It's very important that if your
company sends out an Invoice that your Trading Partner receives
that Invoice or you don't get paid !!!!).
Group
Envelope
A group envelope is
a method to Group documents together. For example, when a number
of business documents are to be couriered together, a clerk will
group the Invoices together and then group the Monthly Sales
Records together etc. This allows your trading partner to send:
Invoices to
their internal accounting department and
Send Monthly
Sales Records to the Sales tracking department.
In EDI, the
Electronic Invoices are grouped together and the Electronic
Sales Records are grouped together. This allows your trading
partner to send:
EDI Invoices to
their Accounting Application;
EDI Electronic
Sales Records to their Sales Tracking Application.
Lets review the
structure of the Courier Envelope with Invoices vs. the EDI
Envelope:
Paper Envelope
EDI Envelope
Mailing Address
Receiver ID
Return Address
Sender ID
Control Number (not on a Paper Envelope)
Paper Group Envelope
EDI Group Envelope
What documents are in the Envelope
An identifier
Your vendors name (just in case the small envelope for
the Invoices gets lost)
Sender Application ID
Your companies name (just in case main envelope gets
separated).
Receiver Application ID
Group Control Number
EDI Group Trailer
Number of Invoices
EDI Group Control Number
EDI Envelope Trailer
Number of Groups
EDI Envelope Control Number
There are two types
of EDI Envelopes but they both contain the same type of
information carried on a Paper Envelope. The main piece of
additional information kept on an EDI Group Envelope is a
control number. This control number ensures that if the EDI
Group Envelope was lost or somehow ripped up, that there would
be a record of the envelope. The structure of EDI always has
checks and balances to ensure that information is not "Lost
in the Mail".
Set/Message
Structure
A set envelope is
just how each Invoice is structured. In our paper example an
Invoice has a statement that this is an Invoice, an Invoice
number and then the actual invoice. With EDI, the same concepts
are kept except that of course there is an extra control number
just in case the document is lost or mangled. Let's review the
structure of the Envelope now:
Paper Envelope
EDI Envelope (ISA, BG or
UNB)
Mailing Address
Receiver ID
Return Address
Sender ID
Control Number (not on a Paper Envelope)
Paper Group Envelope
EDI Group Envelope (GS or
UNG)
What documents are in the Envelope
What is in the EDI Group Envelope
Your vendors name (just in case the small envelope for
the Invoices gets lost)
Receiver ID
Your companies name (just in case main envelope gets
separated).
Sender ID
Group Control Number
Paper Set Envelope
EDI Set/Message Envelope (ST
or UNH)
Control Number
Invoice Beginning Information, (has all of the data on
different lines in any format you want)
Invoice Beginning Segment(s) (with data elements in a
standardized format)
Invoice Detail Information (all free form text)
Invoice Detail Segment(s) (available in standardized
format so that your trading partner can import it
without re-keying)
Invoice Summary Information (all free form text)
Invoice Summary Segment(s) (all information is available
in standardized format.
EDI Set/Message Trailer (SE
or UNT)
Set Control Number
Number of Segments in this Set
EDI Group Trailer (GE or
UNE)
Number of Sets in this Group
EDI Group Control Number
EDI Envelope Trailer (ISA,
BE or UNZ)
Number of Groups in this Envelope
EDI Envelope Control Number
Within a Paper
Invoice, there is Header, Detail and Summary level information.
In an Electronic Invoice, the information is grouped into data
elements and these are grouped into Data segments. A data
element is just like a piece of the Invoice. The Invoice Date
would be one element, the Invoice Number would be another. The
elements, which normally go together on a paper document, are
also grouped in an EDI Document. For example the Terms of Sale
are all grouped on an Invoice as say:
1 % 10 Net 30
Within EDI, Terms of
Sale information is grouped into one Segment. This segment
contains the same information. The difference is that the
information is structured to ensure that a person is not
required to translate it.
EDI Partnerships
Now that we all know
the concept of EDI, lets look at reality. The following is a
standard checklist when starting any EDI program. Lets do a
quick review of it (if you are EDI experienced or already has
been working on this, ignore the checklist and go to EDI
THE EASY WAY):
The following is a
generalized list of major points for consideration when
undertaking an EDI project:
1. Obtain
commitment from all areas of management
Involvement from all
impacted departments is essential. Each department should be
included in the analysis, testing and implementation to validate
the testing and to ensure that the resulting system meets the
objectives. I know that you have already obtained this but it is
good to emphasize it again.
2. Establish a
plan
Develop a work plan,
which identifies the tasks required and provides initial time
estimates. This plan should also provide a direction of what
type of documents you wish to trade.
3. Establish a
Project team
The team should
establish a responsibility list for each identified task. The
deliverables from each task should be defined. The team
should consist of representatives from all affected areas.
4. Establish EDI
Business Contacts
These people are
essential when working with other companies to ensure that the
business needs are met.
5. Establish EDI
Technical Contacts
These people will
work in concert with the EDI Business Contacts and your Trading
Partners to ensure that the stated process flows as expected.
6. Review
Internal Systems and Business Procedures
A through current
system analysis should be done. The present process that creates
the business documents and the flow of the documents should be
recorded. The next step is to determine how EDI should be
integrated into existing systems.
7. Conduct a
Trading Partner Survey
This survey will
provide you with a listing of your potential trading partners:
EDI Experience
and knowledge
Network
providers
Documents traded
or planned
Degree of
integration of EDI into their applications.
This point is
critical if possible you want to start your EDI program with a
trading partner who has as much as experience as possible with
EDI, documents that you are sending and have a commitment to
continued working with you in the future. (Its is similar to
your first kiss, make sure you aren't kissing a toad.)
8. Decide on EDI
Translation Software
If you have chosen
TradeLink, this is a fully featured EDI Management System.
9. Review data
contained in the documents to be exchanged
A review of the data
to be transmitted and received is essential to ensure that
integration will proceed normally.
10. Decide on a
Network Provider
Suppliers of these
services have standard contracts and commercial price lists. The
timing of this decision should be made early as it will
influence many of the future decisions that you will make. As
there are various services available from Network providers it
is important to determine what services are to be purchased.
11. Code and Test
Interface to in-house systems
The maximum benefit
of EDI is derived from integration of information so that
information can flow directly in/out of in-house systems without
human intervention. TradeLink has many tools to help you with
this interface.
12.
Implementation of your Translation software
If you have already
installed TradeLink, in the next few days you will be
configuring it to send and receive data to/from your
pilot-trading partner.
13. Implement and
test the network connection with the translation software
This process will
test the connection to the network provider from the translation
software's scripts.
14. Conduct
system testing with the "pilot" Vendor
The purpose of this
is to verify the sending and receiving of transmissions from
your "pilot" vendor. This allows data to be processed to
determine if any changes are necessary. Extensive testing should
be done prior to implementation. Most company's conduct parallel
testing with EDI and paper documents until they are sure that
the information received meets their needs.
15. Decide on a
production cutover date
Develop a signoff
document that includes all the participants in the project.
16.
Implementation
It is recommended
that you collect data during the first few months to use to
access what savings/costs your company is experiencing. This
information is useful for your management and future
trading partners.
17. Post
Implementation Review
Review the results
after six months to determine if the planned benefits/costs meet
the actual benefits/costs.
EDI
THE EASY WAY
Now that we have
looked the theoretical models of EDI, lets look at the way to
make it easy:
1. When choosing
a pilot-trading partner try to pick one with the following
"perfect" profile:
a) experienced in
the use of EDI
It is critical to
make your job easier to pick a vendor who has gone through the
issues of EDI before. EDI is tough enough without having to
worry about your trading partner's learning curve.
b) experienced in
the documents that you want to trade
Your job becomes
much easier if a trading partner has already traded the
documents that you want to trade.
c) a trading
partner that you will "do business with" in the future
EDI is a long term
relationship, do not pick trading partners that you do not have
a long-term relationship with or will be "doing business with"
in the future. Try to get a firm commitment from management on
both sides (you and your trading partner) to do this pilot. Your
trading partner's technical contact may have many priorities, it
is important to have commitment from management if it is
required to solve "issues" in the future.
d) a trading
partner who is willing to work with you on the EDI pilot and
realize that you are just starting out
This may sound silly
but it is important to realize that the "pilot" process will
have issues that you didn't anticipate. Be honest with your
trading partner about your expertise. In most cases your lack of
experience will work in your favor as your trading partner will
give you the benefit of the doubt.
e) use the same
Network Provider that you use
It is easiest to
track "lost" transactions to go through the same network. It's
not critical, but it will help in case of problems.
The bottom line is
to try to get as "perfect" a vendor as possible. It is all
trade-offs. Experience has taught the KISS (Keep It Simple
Stupid) is critical.
2. Don't
re-invent the wheel.
When you are
deciding on what data to send and receive, use existing sources.
If you have been mandated by a major customer to do EDI, 9 times
out of 10 they are going to give you their implementation guide.
Depending on your relationship with that partner you may or may
not change the information exchanged. If you are controlling
what is to be sent, Do Not Re-Invent the Wheel. The best
implementations of EDI have used existing implementation
guidelines and slightly modified them for their use. If in your
industry most people use one standard and follow an
implementation guideline use it. If you don't you may force your
poor trading partner to create a new interface just for
you. If you want to find implementation guidelines, try your
trading partners, contact local EDI Users groups, the ANSI X12
committee have published guidelines their numbering the United
States is 1-800-334-4912 or Internationally 1 - 216 - 974
- 7650. In addition if you belong to industry groups they may
have implementation guidelines.
3. Decide on your
Network ID's and Mailbox numbers as soon as possible.
Make sure that your
Network communications set-ups are understood. If you do not
understand the network requirements ask the network to explain
it to you. There is no shame in asking the experts.
4. Once you have
implemented your "pilot" transaction, decide if you want to
horizontally integrate or vertically integrate EDI.
When you
horizontally integrate EDI, you add documents with a limited
number of pilot vendors. In vertical integration you are trying
to expand the use of one or two "key" documents. If one customer
is 90 % of your business it would be advantageous to add as many
documents as you can with that customer. If you have a multitude
of partners, the advantage swings to integrating a few documents
with a lot of partners.
5. 80/20 Rule
As a rule of thumb
in business 80 % of your business is done with 20 % of your
customers. Try to focus in on the big win for your business.
6. Never Argue or
Complain and ALWAYS document.
As EDI is cross
organizational, you will have the occasional problems, always
consult the experts, know what the problem, document it and keep
everyone informed. If you have a network problem, call the
network first and explain in a rational way what the problem is
and what you know. If you know nothing, explain that, people
will always help you out if they feel you are trying. No one has
ever solved a problem by arguing !
7. EDI is not
rocket science.
As you go through
the process, you will find that once you have a little
experience in EDI, the problems will become routine. At one
major retailer, they found that the first trading partner
of a pilot takes up to 10 times longer than subsequent vendors.
It will get easier. It is very important to learn the basics and
then EDI becomes a snap.
For more information
about SoftCare, TradeLink EDI Management System,
and the SoftCare Solutions Group please contact us at:
Web:
www.softcare.com
Tel : 1-888-SoftCare
(604) 983-8083
email:
info@softcare.com
Customer Case Studies
Retailer
London Drugs
Manufacturing
Listo
Products
Premium Brands
Howell Metals
Whitney Design
Accent Home Products
Distribution
Bartle & Gibson
Logistics
Tennessee
Commercial
Warehouse
Healthcare
Employers Direct Health
Financial Services
Credit
Union Central of
British Columbia
Public Utilities
BC Hydro
Glossary of Terms:
* EDI -
Electronic Data Interchange. The transfer of "standardized" data
between Trading Partners.
* EDI Envelope
(Interchange Batch). An EDI Envelope consists of EDI documents
(commonly refereed to as either Transaction sets or Messages)
grouped together. The EDI Envelope contains information used to
identify the sender and receiver of the transmission as well as
control numbers and other information required to audit the
transfer of information between the sender and receiver.
* Functional
Group. This is a sub-set of the EDI Envelope. It was
designed to cause related transaction sets (i.e. All Invoices)
to be bundled together for transmission.
* Segment -
is a group of related data elements.
* Transaction Set
- is a standard coded representation of a single business
document (in UN/EDIFACT this is called a Message).
* Element -
is a single piece of information (i.e. a Purchase Order Number).
* Trading Partner
- is simply an entity that you do business with.
* VAN - Value
Added Network. Typically a Valued Added Network is used to store
messages to and from you to your trading partner (In TradeLink
you typically use Communications Scripts to send/receive to/from
the VAN).
A VAN :
Allows you to
send a receive documents according to your own schedule,
without worrying about when you should dial into a Trading
Partners computer.
Allows you to
dial a local number rather than long distance (since most
VAN have local numbers in larger cities).
Provides
built-in security since a Trading Partner never has direct
access to your computer system.
Provides for
activity and audit log reports.
Committees
TDCC -
Transportation Industries Committee. This is the first
formalized EDI standard.
WINS -
Warehouse Industry Committee.
UCS - Grocery
Industry Committee. It is interesting to note that the TDCC,
WINS and UCS standard even developed their own EDI envelope
standard different from the ASC.
ANSI X12
cross industry group. Although they have all amalgamated into
one standard there are many Translators and applications that
are still geared to only accepting this standard only. As luck
would have it you can chose TradeLink which can accept and
create all major EDI Envelope standards.
VICS - Retail
Industry Sub-Committee. This sub-committee tries to develop a
sub-set of the EDI standards for implementation within the
Retail industry. This committee was developed to work within the
Cross Industry standard (ASC ANSI X12) and create implementation
sub-set for the retail industry. This type of sub-committee has
become much more prevalent as EDI has matured. This type of
sub-committee has also been started in the Metals, Chemicals,
Automotive and various industries.
ASC ANSI X12
Amalgamation of
committees occurred under the umbrella of ASC ANSI X12. This
group is used to be the keeper of the standard (within North
America). There is a move towards amalgamation with
UN/EDIFACT but that it still a ways away. It is very important
to remember that although all of the committees are now under
ANSI X12, there are thousands of companies, which are still
using old standards. The main reason for the use of the old
standards is that an official version change may not add
anything functionality that a company needs. Why change the
standard (and possibly all of your trading partner's files) when
there is no benefit for them? Companies wrote their applications
based on the old standards and didn't see the need to make
changes.
UN/EDIFACT
UN/EDIFACT is an EDI
Standard created in the late 1980's to standardize EDI in the
rest of the world. Although the format is different, the concept
of a standardized set of files is the same. This committee
has had less "empire building" so that there are only 40
transactions defined for it. The governments of Canada and US
have started the use of this standard (in particular for customs
documents).
EDI Software
EDI Software can be
broken down into two basic categories:
Simple EDI
Translators which validate EDI Mailbags received from
external trading partners, separate the Mailbag into individual
business documents and exported in the translators format as a
flat file. For outbound documents, a flat file is validated by
the translator, combined into appropriate EDI Mailbags for each
trading partner. Simple translators may or may not contain
integrated communications software or mapping tools to integrate
the movement of business documents into a company’s back-end
applications.
Full featured
business document brokers which centrally manages
Multi-Enterprise (B2B) interactions between a company and its
external business partners. They are used to consolidate and
centralize data, and business processes used to translate,
validate, integrate, and exchange business documents within an
organizations trading community no matter what the format.
For more
information,
click here.
EDI Communications
"I would like to move all of our EDI
business documents, which represent 90% of our business, from
our reliable EDI VAN for communications to communicating these
business documents using the Internet?" In 1999, if an MIS
Director had gone to his executive with such a proposal, he
would have been laughed at or more likely fired. In the year
2007, many large EDI Hubs such as Wal-Mart, Hyundai, Covisint,
GMAC Lowes, Meijers, Michaels, Food Lion, Kohls, Winn-Dixie etc.
have switched from VAN communications to using the Internet for
the transmission of business critical documents. "Internet EDI
transaction volume has been increasing steadily during the past
six quarters at a 50%-60% growth rate," said Carl Lehmann, vice
president of technology research services at META Group.
For more
information,
click here.
EDI Integration
SoftCare’s uses a methodology for
document integration that has been designed based on hundreds of
EDI implementations over the past 18 years. The steps include:
Step One – Define and
Register Source, Target and Cross Reference File Formats
required for the integration.
Step Two – Create and
register the XSLT Transformations which convert the source file
to the appropriate target file format.
Step Three – Create and Test
Conversions (Maps). This step defines where the source files
reside, where the target file should be placed and which
transformation(s) should be executed to complete the conversion
of source files to target files. Once created and registered,
the conversions are tested prior to being implemented in a
production environment.
Step Four – Register the
conversion as a task within a business process and schedule the
automatic processing of the business process.
For a detailed presentation on EDI
integration,
click here.
Why Web Services for
Integration
Business customers today
have more choices than ever. Using new technologies such as the
Internet, they can research, negotiate, and switch suppliers
from anywhere in the world in an instant. As a result,
businesses must continuously anticipate customer needs and
provide solutions to quickly seize new opportunities. Companies
need a comprehensive understanding of the market needs as well
as their business processes drive sales, product delivery, and
ultimately customer service.
For more
information,
click
here.
Why Service-Oriented
Architecture (SOA)?
Organizations that can
combine its IT applications with their business goals will
achieve a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Using a
Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) through open standards
allows an organization to achieve this by driving compatibility
across the application infrastructure.
For more
information,
click
here.
INDUSTRY LINKS
EDI Standards -
Data Interchange Standards Association
OASIS
e-Business Standards
XML and Web
Services Standards
ebXML - The
Electronic Business XML Standard
US DOD Federal Government e- Business and EDI Standards
HIPAA -
Healthcare Industry Standard
HL7 - Healthcare
Industry Standard
NACHA - The
Electronic Payments Association
ANSI X9B
Sub-Committee of Financial Industry Standards
Canadian Payment
Association
UCCNET - Retail
Supply Chain e- business standards
EPC Global
RFID Electonic Product Code (EPS)Standards
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