Is EDI a Growing Industry? EDI is expected to grow with business-to-business e-commerce overall, a sector that was growing quickly in the early 2000s. In 2000 alone, business-to-business sales were estimated to be $3.3 trillion, with forecasts predicting an increase to $5.2 trillion by 2004, according to Corporate EFT Report. The Gartner Group forecast sales in this sector to be even higher, reaching $7.29 trillion by 2004. The use of EDI also is expected to grow along with international trade agreements like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). According to Corporate EFT Report, in the early 2000s the lines between EDI and other Internet channels—including hybrid EDI/Internet electronic trading networks, Internet e-marketplaces, extranets, Internet company-to-company links, and private emarkets—were beginning to blur, and companies were relying on a variety of channels to conduct business with suppliers, depending on the nature of their business goals. In a Planet IT article, David Yockelson provided a similar snapshot of EDI in the early 2000s, as well as a glimpse at the road ahead: "VANs haven't gone away, but the demands of businesses and their trading partners have changed dramatically. Internet-based transport, broader and more robust sets of information and real-time connectivity are just a few of the items that have been appended to the connectivity wish lists of most companies. Moreover, the basic language of data movement has suddenly become XML, despite the presence of decades-old EDI standards. VANs aren't dead. EDI isn't going away any time soon. And XML, while incredibly exciting as an application and data-neutralizing standard, is in its infancy."
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