History of EDI
The History of EDI
Like many other early information technologies, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) was inspired by developments in military logistics. EDI was first introduced to supply chains back in the 1960s, when Ed Guilbert developed a form of electronic communication between shipment
supply chains in the US army. Although it took until the early 90s for EDI to find wide-spread supply chain integration, EDI was a critical facilitator of early globalization. Rather than relying on slow postal services, EDI enabled instant long-distance communication in an era before the internet.
The term EDI encompasses the entire electronic data interchange process, including the transmission, message flow, document format, and software used to interpret the documents. However, EDI standards describe the rigorous format of electronic documents, and the EDI
standards were designed, initially in the automotive industry, to be independent of any one type of communication and software technologies.
EDI documents generally contain the same information that would normally be found in a paper document used for the same organizational function. However, EDI is not confined to just business data related to trade but encompasses all fields such as medicine (e.g., patient records and laboratory results), transport (e.g., container and modal information), engineering, education, and construction, etc. In some cases, EDI will be used to create a new business information flow (that was not a paper flow before). This is the case with the Advanced Shipment Notification (ASN), which was designed to inform the receiver of a shipment, the goods to be received and how the goods are packaged.
Standard of EDI
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.
ANSI X12 was originally conceived to support companies across different industry sectors in North America. However, today, there are more than 300,000 companies worldwide using X12 EDI standards in daily business transactions. ASC X12 also contributes to UN/EDIFACT messages that are used widely outside of the United States.
There are many different EDI standards that are used in different industries and counties. For example, listed below are some of the standards used today:
XML and EDI
In 1996, a second approach was the creation of XML, a more flexible way not bound by the strict rules of data location. XML is not standard. It is a powerful language that gives a company a great deal of flexibility in defining and constructing documents. RosettaNet is a standard that uses the XML language. It was developed by a consortium of major computer consumer electronics, semiconductor manufacturers, and telecommunications and logistics companies. While XML is more flexible, it is still not widely used in most industries. At one point, it was forecasted that XML would replace EDI. However, many businesses have invested in EDI and found it efficient and works well, so there was no need to spend the money to reinvent the wheel. Therefore, EDI remains a mainstay of businesses, and there doesn’t seem to be much need for it to change in the foreseeable future.In 1996, a second approach was the creation of XML, a more flexible way not bound by the strict rules of data location. XML is not standard. It is a powerful language that gives a company a great deal of flexibility in defining and constructing documents. RosettaNet is a standard that uses the XML language. It was developed by a consortium of major computer consumer electronics, semiconductor manufacturers, and telecommunications and logistics companies. While XML is more flexible, it is still not widely used in most industries. At one point, it was forecasted that XML would replace EDI. However, many businesses have invested in EDI and found it efficient and works well, so there was no need to spend the money to reinvent the wheel. Therefore, EDI remains a mainstay of businesses, and there doesn’t seem to be much need for it to change in the foreseeable future.