Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is Data Exchange, Translation and Integration of Business Documents between two companies using a Standard EDI data format. An EDI process will allow Company “A” to Exchange, Translate and Integrate business documents from its system internal data format into Company “B” system internal data format.
Business documents are any documents that are typically exchanged between businesses. The most common ones are Purchase Orders, Invoices, Ship Notices, but there are many others specific to various industries.
To exchange business documents between companies, an EDI Standard format is required. The EDI Standard format describes the data, what each piece of information represents and in what format (e.g. integer, text, decimal, date formats).
Most common EDI standards are ANSI X12 and EDIFACT. For each standard, there are many versions (e g X12 4010, X12 5010, D97A, etc.).
Businesses typically use an EDI translator – either as in-house software or via an EDI service provider – to translate the EDI format so the data can be used by their internal applications and enable full integration of such business documents.
The benefits of a properly implemented, fully integrated EDI system can be seen throughout the operations of the business in a number ways:
The Modern API
Over the years, what an “API” is has often described any sort of generic connectivity interface to an application. More recently, however, the modern API has taken on some characteristics that make them extraordinarily valuable and useful:
Web Services
a complete web service is any service that −