EDIFACT
UN/EDIFACT describes one of several international EDI standards, where EDI stands for electronic data interchange. EDIFACT is used across all industries as a format for the transmission of business data and is the abbreviation for “United Nations Electronic Data Interchange For Administration, Commerce and Transport”. The UN agency responsible for EDIFACT is the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business, which is affiliated with the Economic Commission for Europe, a European economic commission. EDIFACT is coordinated by the UN, making the format suitable for sending invoices and purchase orders across countries. It is particularly interesting for large companies, as it is suitable for exchanging large amounts of data, and installation and setup costs are relatively high.
EDIFACT as a data format
EDIFACT simply refers to a data format, independent of the method of data transmission. Messages in EDIFACT format can be exchanged via any medium that is suitable for transmitting electronic data. The type of transmission protocol is also irrelevant. Originally, EDIFACT was used with leased lines or value-added networks, but EDIFACT messages were also successfully transported via diskette or magnetic tape. Today, EDIFACT is also transmitted via the Internet, for example in the form of transmission protocols such as email and FTP. The application programs used for transmission are either capable of reading and creating EDIFACT themselves, or a converter is interposed to ensure conversion of the format.
Areas of use and alternatives
In order to use an EDI system, appropriate technical requirements must be met. In addition to the simplification of data exchange, the higher speed of data exchange has a high priority with EDI. However, in order to use a procedure such as EDIFACT, business transactions must be converted to the new transmission procedures accordingly, which can be associated with high costs. The installation costs for systems such as EDIFACT are also comparatively high. For smaller companies, systems such as EDIFACT are therefore often not attractive, so that alternative procedures are used that offer similar functions but are easier to implement. Possible alternatives to EDI are XML (eXtensible Markup Language) and Web EDI. XML ensures formalized data transmission without the high standards that EDI sets. Here, content and structure are considered separately. Web-EDI uses EDI structures, but they are made more accessible via web browsers. XML and Web-EDI exist roughly on an equal footing. Thus, the user can choose among different systems and select the one that suits him individually.
