History of EDI

• 
• 

Details

Category: ALE / EDI / B2B

Published on Tuesday, 24 July 2007 23:48

Written by Kevin Wilson

Hits: 9815

EDI technologies have evolved as a data carrier replacing the paper document. It is not a new concept or a new practice. EDI has existed for more than 2 decades in Europe and North America.
Early electronic interchanges used proprietary formats agreed upon between two trading partners requiring new programs each time a new partner was added to the existing system. Lateron some industry groups began a cooperative effort to develop industry EDI standards for purchasing, transportation, and financial applications. Many of these standards supported only intra-industry trading, which led to a large number of EDI formats.
In 1979, the Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) X12 was formed to develop a generic EDI standard. In 1993, Version 3, Release 4 contained 192 standards. There are over 100 additional standards in development. In the U.S., the most commonly used standard is ANSI X12, coordinated by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). While in Europe, it is the Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce, and Transportation (EDIFACT) standard. SAP maps it message types by EDIFACT naming conventions.

• < Prev
• Next >