Basics of EDI (Electronic Data Interchange)

here are many EDI document standards but what do they all mean and where are they used?

1) ANSI ASC X12

In 1979, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) chartered the Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) X12 to develop uniform standards for inter-industry electronic exchange of business transactions, namely electronic data interchange.

810 e Invoice
812 * Credit/Debit Adjustment
820 * Payment Order/Remittance Advice

830         Planning Schedule with Release Capability
850 e Purchase Order
856         Ship Notice/Manifest
862         Shipping Schedule
860 e Purchase Order Change Request

Beginning Message
Purchase Order------------------ 850 BEG Segment
Price/Sales Catalog------------ 832 BCT Segment
Ship Notice----------------------- 856 BSN Segment
Invoice--------------------------BIG Segment


2) EANCOM

This standard was originally conceived in 1987 by the EAN General Assembly and was to be developed on the then emerging international UN/EDIFACT standard. The EANCOM messages, maintained by GS1, are more detailed in nature compared to the TRADACOMS message set. EANCOM was originally developed for the retail sector and has subsequently grown to become the most widely used UN/EDIFACT subset and is now found in a variety of other industry sectors such as healthcare, construction and publishing.

3) UN/EDIFACT

United Nations/Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport is the international standard that was developed by the United Nations. The work of maintenance and further development of this standard is done through the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT) under the UN Economic Commission for Europe.

APERAK Application error and acknowledgement message
DELFOR Delivery schedule message
DELJIT         Delivery just in time message
DESADV      Dispatch advice message
ORDERS Purchase order message
DIRDEB        Direct debit message
CREADV      Credit advice message
INVOIC         Invoice message
INVRPT         Inventory report message


Beginning of Message

241 = Delivery schedule
270 = Delivery note
351 = Despatch advice
380 = Commercial invoice
388 = Tax invoice
632 = Goods receipt

4) ODETTE

The Organization for Data Exchange by Tele Transmission in Europe is a group that represents the interests of the automotive industry in Europe. They are the equivalent of the Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) in North America. ODETTE has been responsible for developing communications standards such as OFTP and OFTP2.0, constant improvement processes such as Materials Management Operations Guideline / Logistics Evaluation (MMOG/LE) and automotive-specific document standards.

DELINS               Delivery Forecast / Delivery
CALDEL JIT      Delivery
AVIEXP             Dispatch Advice
INVOIC             Invoice
ORDERR Purchase Order
ORDCHG Order Change




5) VDA

This organization develops standards and best practices to serve the needs of companies within the German automotive industry. The VDA has developed over thirty messages to meet the need of companies such as VW, Audi, Bosch, Continental and Daimler AG.

4987     Dispatch Advice
4984     DELFOR
4905 Call off
4906    Invoice
4913    Delivery Note
4915 Detailed Call Off (JIT)
4925    Purchase Order

EDI Message Standards – an Overview

Introduction

EDI message standards are useful for electronically exchanging structured data between business partners. Various organizations such as UN, ANSI, DIN or VDA define the EDI message standards. The most commonly used format is the UN/EDIFACT message (United Nations rules for Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport). Related to this format, a number of variations exist (usually defined by an industry, e.g. EANCOM). These dialects are usually referred to as subsets.

Other important message formats are ANSI.X12 (The American National Standards Institute Accredited Standards Committee X12). This standard is mainly used in North America, ODETTE (Standard of the European Automotive Industry) and VDA (Format of the Association of the German Automotive Industry). The TRADACOMS standard is the predecessor of EDIFACT in the UK. HIPPA (Law on Control and Safety of Medical Insurance) was specifically developed for the compliance of activities in health authorities and for legislation purposes.

UN/EDIFACT	The most comprehensive and worldwide most common standard is coming from the United Nations (UN/ECE).
EDIFICE	Implementation guidelines for EDIFACT messages in the European high-tech industry.
ANSI X.12	Standard mainly used in North America.
VDA	Standard of the German automotive industry.
EANCOM	Standard of the European retail industry.
ODETTE	Standard of the European automotive industry.
GALIA	Automotive standard especially in France, very similar to Odette.
ebXML	Open standard from OASIS and CEFACT.
XBRL	For the preparation of financial reports in electronic form.
RosettaNet	A non-profit consortium of more than 500 companies, mainly from the electronics industry. The goal is the development and implementation of open eBusiness standards and services in the industry.
TRADACOMS	Standard of the UK retail industry.
HIPAA	Standard of the North American healthcare industry.

EDI message types according to various standards

All of the above standards have created corresponding message types for the respective business process:

Figure 2: Comparison of EDI message types according to various standards

EDIFACT (Worldwide Standard)	ODETTE (European Standard)	VDA (German Standard)	ANSI X.12 (North America Standard)	TRADACOMS (UK Standard)	Business Transaction
DELFOR	DELINS	VDA 4905	830	~	delivery forecast
INVOICE	INVOICE	VDA 4906	810	INVFIL	invoice message
REMADV	REMADV	VDA 4907	820	SRMHDR	remittance advice
CREADV	CREDIT	VDA 4908	~	CREHDR	credit entry
DESADV	AVIEXP	VDA 4913	856	DELHDR	despatch advise message
INVRPT	STOACT	VDA 4913-EDL	846	SNPSTS	inventory reports
RECADV	STOACT	VDA 4913-EDL	846	~	receipt advise
SLSRPT	STOACT	VDA 4913-EDL	846	~	outgoing advise
ORDERS	ORDERR	VDA 4915	850	ORDHDR	purchase order message
DELJIT	DELINS (CALL-OF)	VDA 4915	862	~	JIT delivery
DELJIT	SYNCRO	VDA 4916	866	~	JIT
DELJIT	CALDEL	VDA 4916	866	~	JIT direct delivery call
IFTMIN	TRINAD	VDA 4920	858	~	instructions of transport

EDI message standards: industry, regional or global importance

Why have different message standards established themselves at all? This is primarily due to their ability to cover business processes in specific industries or regions particularly well. The following overview illustrates this:

With today’s rapidly changing requirements flexibility is a key business requirement. Thus the B2B integration platform is use needs to be able to work with all these EDI Message Standards, Types and output formats seamlessly.