EDIFACT

Examples of EDI Transaction Types on the Network EDI Transaction Standard Code Description ANSI 511 Requisition ANSI 810 Invoice ANSI 850 Purchase Order ANSI 856 Shipping Notice ANSI 888 Item Maintenance EDIFACT INVOIC Invoice EDIFACT REMADV Remittance Advice EDIFACT ORDCHG Purchase Order Change EDIFACT SLSFCT Sales Forecast EDIFACT PRODAT Product Data Message Table 2.

EDI is built on a foundation of standard translation protocols (such as X12 and EDIFACT) that are governed by a third party--the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

ETrade customers download a free data portal client over the Web that supports data transformation for XML, X12, EDIFACT, HTML and Excel and is compatible with major VANs, including AT&T, GETS, Harbinger, Sterling Commerce and TranSettlements.

NEON has incorporated PaperFree technology into its e-Business product suite to manage high-volume data transformation for clients using EDI including X12 and EDIFACT, and XML.

Its purpose is to preserve and extend the EDI infrastructure, by leveraging semantics and structure of EDI standards such as X12 and EDIFACT. Some concepts and constructs needed in these "vertical" specifications apply to all business domains and are expressed in a common way across vendors to enable CBL-based e-commerce.

The process uses standardized forms of documents transferred between users; the form and format of the documents may be defined by vendor specifications, International Telecommunications Union (ITU) standards, the ANSI X.12 standard, or the United Nations EDIFACT standard.

A striking characteristic of X.12 and EDIFACT is their bloated ontology.

Organizations such as the 'Standards Promotion & Application Group' (SPAG), the 'Corporation for Open Systems' (COS), the 'Asia Oceania Workshop' (AOW), the 'Cooperation for Open Systems Interconnection Networking in Europe' (COSINE), the 'World Federation of MAP/TOP Users' (MAP/TOP), the 'Electronic Document Interchange Group' (EDIFACT), the 'European Workshop for Open Systems' (EWOS), or the 'Internet Society' (Isoc) entered the scene.

At present the more used international public standard is EDIFACT (Electronic Data Interchange for Administration Commerce and Transport), but many other standards exist that are used in particular sectors, for example ODETTE (Organization for Data Exchange by Tele Transmission in Europe) in the automobile sector or CEFIC (European Council of the Chemical Industry Federation) in the chemical sector.

The use of computer programs to handle import/export documentation is now widespread as well as the growing use of EDIFACT for the electronic interchange of data.

An important adaptation of EDI is EDIFACT, which has been endorsed by the U.S.