by Ray Atia, ratia@amosoft.com Since EDI started to get into more and more businesses and became popular around the world, there were many companies who started to offer EDI Software and EDI Solutions to the EDI Market place. In the part 20 years there was increase in the number EDI users and due to the entrance of these EDI Software and Solutions provider and due to the price reduction in EDI Software price and EDI Implementation and EDI Integration. EDI Company can be interpreted to two types of company
In this article I will focus on:
EDI Software comes in multiple configurations. First there is an EDI Software that act as windows software and does couple of things like mapping fields in EDI Transaction sets to a local database, then there are components that read EDI file format like X12, parse the file and create documents from it, then there is an EDI Validation engine that goes over the entire EDI document and check the relevancy of the data and make sure that the data in each field actually meets X12 requirements and standards, then the EDI mapping component based on the map created earlier, copy the data from the EDI file to a local database and vise versa. Even though the idea might sound simple, technically there is a lot to it. Because every X12 document is substantially different from each other and have its own set of rules for data validation, optional fields and mandatory fields, validating and EDI document is not an easy task and should be taken seriously following X12 rules and regulations regarding standards and version. A map created for one document can�t be used for a second document and a map created for document for a company can�t completely be used for another company due to the differences in the nature of business both companies are in. Companies should integrate EDI Software to save time and typing errors and by that they will save money as well. Today when most businesses uses some type of ERP software and the low prices of electronics and communication components, there is no reason not to integrate the EDI Software to their already existing ERP Software. Most ERP Software have an Import and Export menu options and let the user insert data from one software package to another using external text or excel files. This feature is powerful, easy to use and has a low price, however not the best EDI Solution. I would say it�s a good way to start, but if there is a high volume of EDI Transaction Sets, the best way to go is with one of EDI Services companies out there. Those services cost more but save you the need to import and export files that sometimes get corrupted and need manual, human intervention, while a full EDI Integration will make the EDI experience transparent to the user. |
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