07 January 2012
Electronic Data Interchange, or EDI, is not a new technology and in fact has been around since the late 1960s. While EDI has benefited enormously from advances in technology, eg the introduction of the internet, EDI is not technology dependant. There are preferred ways to implement EDI in a company, but there are many approaches to choose from. The approach chosen should be driven by a company’s business needs, not a particular implementation or technology.
In its simplest form, EDI is the computer to computer exchange, between two companies, of standard business documents in electronic format. There are two key elements in basic EDI. First, electronic documents replace paper based ones. Second, the exchange of documents takes place in a standardised format. Using these two basic concepts, any business can enter the world of EDI and begin taking advantage of the speed and economy of electronic commerce, or e-Commerce.
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