Electronic Data Interchange

Question 1

What is EDI?

Answer 1

It is a computer to computer exchange between two companies of standard business documents in electronic format.

Question 2

Forms of EDI and Forms of technical integration

Answer 2

1. Client access- client— application
2. Functional integration that is Electronic data interchange - application —- application
3. Data Synchronization that is replication data —- data

Question 3

Basic elements of EDI

Answer 3

1. Data Element - unitary pieces of information, eg tax amount, amount
2. Segment - logical grouping of information eg price
3. Messages - building up and collected several segments and then put them in a prescribed sequence. Can be interpreted which is the start and which is the end. eg invoice
4. Envelope - the messages are put in here to send to any machines which will know the format and interprete the type of document.

Question 4

Types of Envelop

Answer 4

1. Message Envelope - define the start and end of the specific document.
2. Functional Envelope - encloses specific transaction of the document
3. Interchange Envelope - encloses all functional group envelops

Question 5

6 Steps of EDI

Answer 5

1. Data Preparation
2. Outbound translation
3. Outbound communication
4. Inbound communication
5. Inbound Translation
6. Electronic document is processed

Question 6

Value Added Networks (VANs)

Answer 6

VANs are private networks that provide secure EDI information exchange between companies. It is also an intermediary company. It provides value added services.

Question 7

What are challenges in interoperability?

Answer 7

1. Content
2. Structure
3. Encoding
4. Semantics