This chapter provides general information applicable to all the components in EDI Products 5.0.
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is the computer-to-computer exchange of business documents in a structured, predefined, and standard format. The main purpose of EDI is to automatically read and process information between trading partners by establishing a standard data format. As a result, traditional processing delays and errors caused by human intervention can be eliminated.
EDI can be used to transmit documents such as invoices, purchase orders, health care claims, remittance advice, status inquiries, receipts, shipping documents, and other standard business correspondence between organizations. EDI can also be used to transmit financial information and electronic payments, which is generally referred to as electronic funds transfer. The presence of EDI becomes more and more widespread in today’s market, especially with the growth of electronic commerce across the Internet. EDI improves the traditional way of exchanging information between trading partners, increasing productivity and efficiency.
