A

ANSI (American National Standards Institute) – The organization which coordinates the development and maintenance of industry based standards for multiple products and programs.

ANSI X12 – The subset of EDI standards developed, approved, and maintained by the ASC X12 Committee.

Application Software – A program that enables a computer to do a specific job, such as word processing or purchasing.

Application-to-Application – The ability to directly transfer data from a specific application located on one company’s computer to a specific application on another company’s computer.

ASN (Advance Ship Notice) – The 856 EDI transaction which provides notice to trading partners that products have been shipped. Some of the information included on this transaction is ship date, ship-to address, customer purchase order number, bill of lading number, carrier information, product codes, product weight, product quantity, etc.

Asynchronous Protocol – The movement of information from one device to another. Information is sent in digital format one character at a time, preceded by a start bit and followed by a stop bit. The sending device waits for a reply that the information has been received. After receiving the reply the next batch of information can be sent. Commonly referred to single stream, one way at a one time communication.

Authentication – A method by which it can be ensured that the sender and receiver of electronic messages are valid and authorized.

Automated Clearing House (ACH) – A banking industry mechanism used between banks for the exchanging of funds and information among trading partners.

B

Batch – A collection of information set up as tasks created at one time and scheduled to be processed at a later time.

Baud Rate – The rate in bits per second that data flows between computer devices.

Binary Number System – A number system based upon only two numbers, 0 and 1.

Bisynchronous Protocol – The movement of information from one device to another. Information is sent in digital format as blocks of characters allowing continuous transmitting of information. Commonly referred to as two-way communication.

Bug – Slang term to describe a flaw in the computer or an error in the program which causes the program to run incorrectly or not at all.

C

CAM (Computer-Aided Manufacturing) – A term used to describe software that allows a computer to direct machines that manufacture products.

Carbon Copy – Also called distribution list. A method by which one EDI document is sent to a VAN and is carbon copied or distributed to multiple recipients.

Character – A letter, number, or other symbol; a space is also considered a character in terms of computer storage.

CHIPS (Clearing House Inter-payment System) – A New York based clearinghouse for international wire transfers.

Communication ID – A number to be used by senders and receivers of EDI data to identify themselves to their EDI trading partner.

Communication Protocol – The method by which two computers coordinate their communications. BISYNC and MNP are two examples.

Communications Software – A written set of instructions in program format which enables a computer, modem, and telephone to work together to send data from one computer to another through normal telephone lines.

Compliance Checking – A checking process that is used to ensure that a transmission complies with ASC X12 or other standards syntax rules.

Compliance Monitoring – A check done by the VAN/Third-Party network or the translation software to ensure the data being exchanged is in the correct format for the standard being used.

Computer Language – A set or words, symbols, and commands that a computer can understand.

Conditional – Data element requirement designator indicating that the presence of a specified data element is dependent on the value or presence of other data elements in the segment.

Control Segments – Segments containing identifying characteristics for each part of a transmission (i.e. control headers/trailers, functional group headers/trailers, transaction set headers/trailers, etc.

Control Structure – The beginning and ending (header and trailer) segments for entities in electronic data interchange.

Cross-docking – The immediate movement of product received at a retailer warehouse from the supplier’s truck over to the retailer’s truck for store delivery.

CTIA (Computing Technology Industry Association) – An EDI industry group like EIDX and VICS.

D

Data Bank – The electronic storehouse within a computer system where information can be stored and accessed by other computers attached to that system.

Data Dictionary – The collection of the elements used within the existing standards upon which segments and transaction sets are built.

Data Element – Element which conveys actual values or text information such as amounts, quantities, descriptions, etc.

Data Processing – The use of computers to sort, add, delete, or otherwise rearrange information.

Data Segment – A grouping of pre-defined elements which when combined together make up a line of information usually referred to as a line item or record.

Data Segment Sequence – The sequence of data segments in a document or message. It may occur in any of the following three areas of the message:

Heading Area – a data segment occurring in this area refers to the entire message.

Detail Area – a data segment occurring in this area refers to the detail information only and will override any similar specification in the header area.

Summary Area – only segments containing total or control information may occur in the summary area e.g., invoice total, overall discount. A specific data segment type may occur in more than one area.

Debug – A term used to describe the process to locate and correct errors or defects within a program.

Delimiter – A special character used to separate fields of data.

DISA (Data Interchange Standards Association) – The secretariat of the ANSI ASC X12 committee.

Distributed Processing – Processing that is distributed among computers and terminals in an organization through a network, rather than being done entirely on a central computer.

Download – To transfer information electronically from a data bank or a computer to another computer.

DSD (Direct-Store-Delivery) – The practice of the supplier delivering goods directly to the store. There are specific standards under the UCC for DSD data.

DSTU (Draft Standard for Trial Use) – Once the subcommittees have reviewed and the X12 members have voted for the proposed changes to the standards, the standards are published and referred to as DSTU which means they are available for use.

DUNS Number – A nine-digit number assigned and maintained by Dun and Bradstreet to identify unique business establishments. DUNS numbers are assigned world-wide to include U.S., Canadian and international organizations.

E

EAN-128 – (UCC/EAN-128 Serial Shipping Container Code – A secondary package identification code which can include product serial number, lot/batch number, product dating, purchase order number, destination ‘ship-to’, package serial number, etc. Code varies according to the Application ID value within the code.

EC (Electronic Commerce) – the sharing of information via various electronic means such as EDI, E-Mail, Fax, FTP, SMTP, etc.

EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) – The transmitting of documents from one computer application to another computer application using a standardized format.

EDIA (Electronic Data Interchange Association) – The organization which wrote the original UCS and WINS standards.

EDICA (Electronic Data Interchange Council of Australia) – The organization which develops and maintains standards in Australia.

EDICC (Electronic Data Interchange Council of Canada) – The organization whcih develops and maintains standards in Canada.

EDIFACT (EDI for Administration, Commerce, and Transport) – The global formats for transmitting documents from one computer application to another computer application using a standardized format.

EFT (Electronic Funds Transfer) – The electronic payment or transfer of money between bank accounts.

EIDX (Electronic Industry Data Exchange) – EDI standards group under X12 for the electronics industry.

Electronic Envelope – An electronic envelope consists of codes that mark the boundaries of electronic documents. The electronic envelope contains the EDI documents and sender/receiver information.

Electronic Mailbox – An electronic data storage area on a computer used to store electronic mail sent from other computers. Only the company with the correct electronic key can take data out of the electronic mailbox.

Electronic Signature – A form of authentication that lets you identify and validate a transaction by means of an authorization code.

Element Separator – A special character used to separate elements within a segment.

E-Mail (Electronic Mail) – the free formatted sending and receiving of messages from one computer to another.

Enabling – The process of matching and then converting business application data to EDI standard formats.

Encryption – The encoding and scrambling of data. Data is encrypted at the sending end and de-encrypted at the receiving end through the use of an algorithm and a key. Used for security purposes.

F

File – A collection of related records or fields in a data base which can make up a business type document.

FA (Functional Acknowledgement) – The 997 EDI transaction set used to indicate the receipt of another transaction set.

Flat File – Sometimes referred to as interface file, is designed to hold EDI data prior to and following translation and/or transmission to and from a trading partner.

Front-End Processor – A communications computer associated with a host computer. It can perform line control, message handling, code conversion, and functions such as control of special purpose terminals.

Functional Group – A related group of EDI transaction sets belonging to the same type of documents, such as purchase orders.

Functional Group Header – A control segment that identifies the beginning of a group of like documents.

Functional Group Trailer – A control segment that identifies the ending of a group of like documents.

G

GE (Functional Group Trailer) – The ending control segment for the Functional Group.

Generation – The translation from EDI to application format.

GS (Functional Group Header) – The beginning control segment for the Functional Group.

H

Host-to-Host – An EDI set up where the host sender communicates directly with the host receiving computer.

Hub – Usually a company with at least 1,000 EDI trading partners.

I

ICS (Interchange Control Header) – The beginning control segment for the Interchange Envelope.

Image Processing – The process by which a printed document is scanned and its contents are kept on disk and are easily retrievable for future access.

Implementation Guide – A document distributed by a company ready to do EDI. The document should include everything that a trading partner will need to know to do EDI with the company. The document should include a description of the company’s EDI strategy, the company’s EDI timeline, a list of the EDI transactions being targeted by the company, a technical specification of what segments and elements are being used within a transaction, and a description of how the company wants trading partners to test transmissions with them. A legal contract called a Trading Partner Agreement may also be included.

Industry Guideline – A subset of a national standard. An industry may reduce a national standard down to the elements and segments that are of interest to that industry.

Interchange Control – The envelope data of an EDI transmission. For example, the bundle around a group of purchase orders, or the address of the trading partner.

Interconnect - (See Gateway/Network Interconnect).

Interface – The connection between items of equipment and/or software.

Interface Software – User application software that extracts data from business application files and makes it available to the translation software. Interface software also performs edits and checks on EDI data prior to application integration.

Interpretation – The translation from EDI to the application format.

L

M

Mandatory – Data element or segment requirement designator, which indicates the presence of a specified data element or segment that is required.

Mapping – The translation of data to or from EDI translation software. The data from a business application is being translated to an EDI standard format.

Message – The business information piece of an EDI transmission. For example, the purchase orders, or the invoices, or shipping information.

Modem – A hardware device that enables computers to communicate with each other via telephone by translating computer input into audio tones and then translating the tones back into computer signals.

O

P

Proprietary Standards – The sets of standards developed by individual companies to support their internal systems which can only be used by trading partners who support that particular standard.

Public Standards – The sets of standards developed for wide-based industry use which allows trading partners to support one standard rather than multiple proprietary standards of individual companies.

Q

R

S

Segment – A group of related elements/composite elements in a prescribed order with an identifier; Tag is the equivalent of segment in EDIFACT.

Segment Terminator – A special character used to indicate the end of a segment.

ST ( Transaction Set Header) – The beginning control segment designating start of Detail data segments.

Standards – A set of guidelines to follow to interchange data with other companies. The guidelines are a set of instruction on how electronic business transactions should be structured and what pieces of information should be included in the transactions.

Sub-element Separator – A special character used to separate the elements within a compound element.

Syntax – The grammar of rules which define structure of the EDI standards (i.e. the use of loops, qualifiers). Syntax rules are published in ANSI X.12.6.

T

Trading Partner – The term referring to a business partner, either customer or supplier, with whom a company does business with using EDI.

Trading Partner Agreement – A legal contract spelling out the terms and conditions for doing business electronically. These terms and conditions take the place of the terms and conditions that were present when the two companies were exchanging paper documents, such as a purchase order.

Trailer – The segment of elements in an EDI standard transaction which indicates the end of a segment or end of a data file.

Transaction Set – The term used to describe approved EDI documents which are used between trading partners.

Translator – A software that converts data between EDI format and application format (either direction).iLogistix uses the Premenos Software for EDI translation.

U

UCS (Uniform Communication Standard) – An electronic data interchange standard used by the grocery industry and the other retail-oriented industry sectors.

UN/ECE (United Nations/European Commission of Europe) – The organization responsible for the EDIFACT standard.

UN/EDIFACT - United Nations EDI for Administration, Commerce, and Transport

UPC (Universal Product Code) – A series of bars and numbers, issued by the UCC, printed on packages that can be read by an optical scanner. This information can then be translated and used within a program.

UPC Vendor Number – A five-digit code issued by the UCC which identifies the vendor.

V

VAN Interconnect – The capability for the VANs to send data to other VANs. This capability allows a company to choose a preferred VAN for their use in conducting business electronically, while still providing the company with the capability to communicate with trading partners using other VANs.

VICS (Voluntary Inter-industry Communication Standard Committee) – A group dedicated to the adoption of bar coding and EDI in the department store/mass merchandise industries.

VICS EDI – An electronic data interchange standard used by the general merchandise retailing industries.

W

X

X.25 – An international communication standard for packet switching, communication protocol used in the X.400 environment.

X.400 – An international standard for message transmission.

X.435 – A standard for message transmission plus EDI data.

X.500 – Addressing directory containing the names and characteristics of electronic messaging receivers. It is used to facilitate the delivery messages using X.400 and X.435 standards.