Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is the process of using computers to exchange business documents between companies in place of traditional methods such as fax machines and the postal service. Specifically, EDI is the structured transmission of data between organizations by electronic means and is used to transfer electronic documents from one computer system to another. A company with whom documents are exchanged is called a "Trading Partner"

In EDI, the standard method of processing of received messages is by computer only. Processing of a received message only requires human intervention for error conditions, quality review, or for exception situations.

Generally speaking, EDI is considered to be a technical representation of a business conversation between two entities, either internal or external. Although a common perception is that "EDI" includes the entire electronic data interchange process including transmission, message flow, document format, and software used to interpret the documents, EDI really describes the rigorously standardized format of electronic documents.

EDI standards are designed to be independent of communication and software technologies and EDI documents can be transmitted using virtually any method agreed to by the trading partners.

Value Added Networks (VANs)

In the most basic form, a value added network (VAN) acts as a post office for EDI transmissions. They receive transactions, examine the 'from' and the 'to' information, and route the transaction to the final recipient. VANs provide a number of additional services such as re-transmitting documents, providing third party audit information, acting as a gateway for different transmission methods, and handling telecommunications support. Because of the value added services provided by VANs, corporations frequently use a VAN even when both trading partners are using Internet-based protocols.

Benefits of EDI

EDI lowers costs by significantly reducing human interaction and eliminating costs of paper and physical file storage. Even when paper documents are maintained in parallel with EDI exchange, electronic exchange and the use of data from that exchange reduces the management costs including sorting, distributing, organizing, and searching paper documents.

EDI and similar technologies allow a company to take advantage of the benefits of storing and manipulating data electronically without the cost of manual entry. Another advantage of EDI is a significant reduction in errors including costly shipping and billing errors. Another advantage of EDI over paper documents is the speed in which the trading partner receives and incorporates the information into their system thus greatly reducing cycle times. For this reason, EDI can be an important component of just-in-time production systems and when used for submitting invoices, can greatly reduce the time to payment.

CyOp's services combine the best features of open source software with the best features of Software as a Service (SaaS), enabling organizations to effectively own, control, and further develop and modify as needed, their own EDI software applications without the large expenses of hardware acquisition & maintenance, software licensing, data center facilities or an IT staff.

The CyOp team has extensive experience in enterprise computing and has successfully implemented dozens of Small Business EDI solutions resulting in increased revenues and growth for our clients.

By leveraging BOTS open source EDI software with CyOp planning, implementation and support services, even a smaller businesses can afford an enterprise-class EDI solution.

For more information on CyOp's open source EDI solutions, please contact us or signup for a FREE Business Process Assessment.