What is EDI?
EDI (electronic data interchange) is the term used to describe the automated, electronic exchange of data and documents between business partners. EDI is a collective term for a multitude of bilateral processes, or processes with differing standards for the electronic transmission of communications.
IT systems guarantee that communications from the sender to the receiver are transmitted automatically. Humans only monitor these processes and intervene only when necessary. Agreements between communication partners can be very simple or very detailed and comprehensive in nature. In a simple agreement for example it could be just the messaging format and the end-point to which the information is sent that are defined. Very detailed and comprehensive agreements require fixed semantics and a format with a multitude of notifications, standardized code values and transmission protocols. In this respect there is a large number of differing standards.