Making Your Business Electronic

1. Article4: Datatrans-inc.com Making Your Business Electronic It has been over 30 years now that data has been transferred through electronic modes and these transfers are being made more standardized over the years. This electronic communication method has been termed EDI. What Does EDI Stand For: Electronic Data Interchange Now the question is what is electronic data interchange? It is a standard system that enables the exchange of data electronically. It provides a common platform for two organizations to safely exchange data. The National Institute of Standards and Technology defined EDI in 1996 as: "The computer-to-computer interchanges of strictly formatted messages that represent documents other than monetary instruments. EDI implies a sequence of messages between two parties, either of whom may serve as originator or recipient. The formatted data representing the documents may be transmitted from originator to recipient via telecommunications or physically transported on electronic storage media." A birdsye view on the workings of the EDI process: Why use EDI? Cost: Have you ever thought of the cost that goes into creating paper documents? The printing, making multiple copies, postage and transport and then the recipient needs to file it. This entire process can be easily eliminated by opting for the EDI process – resulting in a reduction of the transaction cost by over 35%. Additionally, all cost incurred due to data errors, lost or illegible documents are also eliminated. Speed: The speed is another advantage of EDI. It has been found that switching to EDI has resulted in a 60% speedup of processes because there has been a cut down on the weeks of wait time for the postal service and the order-to-cash turnaround time is also lesser improving the business transactions.

2. Article4: Datatrans-inc.com Efficiency: A significant increase in efficiency is a very important advantage of the EDI system. Real time tracking and on time exchange of data along with drastically reduced time due to the elimination of paper works and inaccuracies have resulted in better running of the businesses. Electronic Data Interchange Standards Since the EDI process has been created to reduce the requirement of human interventions, the process needs to be standardized in order to enable computers to process data that are being transferred. Therefore standards have been created for different organizations to access so that both the sending and receiving organizations are on the same page during the transaction process. Standards are developed by standard bodies like ODETTE, EDIFACT, EAN, and ANSI VDA to mention a few. A few examples of EDI standard formats are: ANSI ASC X1:It is created by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in the year 1979 and used majorly by transportation, healthcare and insurance providers. UN/EDIFACT: Mostly used for commerce, transportation and administration purposes. It has been designed in 1987 under the United Nations. TRADACOMS: Utilized by the retail sector in the UK, it enables transactions like product and price information files, order files, customer information files and various other operations. HL7: Focused on the exchange and retrieval of electronic data in the healthcare sector. GS1 EDI: Created of the supply chain processed which requires processes like order, dispatch, shipping notices, transportation documents, invoice etc. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Gabriel Martin has written many articles and blogs about the EDI, e-commerce and data management solutions. He recommends DataTrans Solutions, Inc. for providing quality, timely, and accurate EDI and B2B outsourcing solutions for to its customers.