EDI

The process of converting information to and from EDI standard formats.

A program used to convert information from flat file to EDI format, or from EDI format to flat file.

The acknowledgment that a total transmission was received with no error detected.

A collection of one or more functional groups. Also known as an Interchange.

The Uniform Code Council. The organization that oversees the standards for product identification and related electronic communications. The UCC oversaw the Universal Product Code (UPC) in the United States – now superseded by GTINs – as well as Uniform Communication Standards (UCS) for EDI in the grocery industry and Warehouse Information Network Standards (WINS) in…

A subset of the ANSI X12 EDI standard.

Universal Description, Discovery, and Integration. It is an XML-based registry for businesses worldwide to list themselves on the internet.

The United Nations Center for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business. It supports activities dedicated to improving the ability of business, trade and administrative organizations to exchange products and services effectively.

An entity, either an individual or a company, who utilizes a computer or system of standards for a specific purpose like EDI.

An organization of individuals and/or companies who come together to deal with the needs of those who wish to employ a technique or technology in a unified manner. User groups are discussion organizations.

The process of determining that compliance standards have been met by a particular document in an EDI transmission.

Often abbreviated as VAN and today called an EDI Network Services Provider, a third-party entity which handles the electronic exchange of information between subscribers to its services. Services provided by VANs include electronic mailboxing of EDI transmissions, protocol and speed conversion, and EDI record keeping for audit tracking.

See Value-Added Network.

A file with segments containing data elements that can vary between minimum and maximum requirements, but which have no set fixed length. A data element delimiter is required to mark the end of the element and a segment delimiter character is needed to mark the end of the segment.

German EDI data standard in the automotive industry.

A system of inventory replenishment in which the vendor accepts responsibility for maintaining customer’s inventory levels of the vendor’s products by monitoring POS and inventory information sent by the customer. This is usually automated through EDI to achieve as smooth a flow of replenishment as possible.

Identifies the publication of the standard being used for the generation or the interpretation of data in the X12 standard format.

Voluntary Inter-industry Commerce Solutions Association – A not-for-profit association with a mission to take a global leadership role in the development of business guidelines and specifications; facilitating implementation through education and measurement, resulting in the improvement of the retail supply chain efficiency and effectiveness, which meet or exceed customer and consumer expectations. GS1 US is…

Virtual Private Network.

The usual abbreviation for the World Wide Web Consortium.

A standard means of interoperating between different software applications, running on a variety of platforms and/or frameworks, over the Internet.

An open industry organization chartered to promote Web Services interoperability across platforms, operating systems, and programming languages. The organization works across the industry and standards organizations to respond to customer needs by providing guidance, best practices, and resources for developing Web Services solutions.

A generic term for the transmitting of structured business messages over the internet. This may include solutions such as a log on to a portal and inputting commercial transactional information into a form on a website using an internet browser. This method requires an element of manual intervention.

Warehouse Information Network Standards. A set of EDI standards for warehousing and distribution. WINS is a subset of the ANSI X12 national standard.

the body that defines standards (such as HTTP) for the internet.

Web Services description language.

Network protocol, still widely used.

Early email system popular in Europe.

Directory services standard of the CCITT.

The usual abbreviation for Extensible Markup Language – an open standard for describing data defined by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C).