Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) standards help computer applications make and fulfill requests of one another. Companies, for instance, can automatically order materials from their suppliers by having their applications issue and respond to order requests written to an EDI standard. What's critical about EDI is that both parties in an EDI conversation use the same standard for their messages.

Various Standards

EDI should be thought of first as a notion, or an approach to passing messages. Separate EDI standards exist, for instance, to accommodate the differences between asking for an X-ray and asking to purchase a case of toothpaste.

Commercial Transactions

If your business in America buys goods by the truckload and distributes goods by the case, your computer systems might communicate using the X12 EDI standard, endorsed by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). If your truckload was a shipping container coming from Cairo, the international standard UN/EDIFACT EDI might be a better choice.

Healthcare Transactions

If you were developing computer systems for a clinic, and your system was intended to pass MRI images to affiliated computer systems, you might use the HL7 EDI standard, also accredited by ANSI. The International Association of Industrial Accident Boards and Commissions (IAIABC) developed EDI standards specific to Worker's Compensation information.

It's a Conversation

EDI communications typically involve matched pairs of messages. Each transaction request or status message is acknowledged by the receiving system. This helps isolate problems, and keep progress status up-to-date for both parties.

Example:

Buyer Computer: Order 123A.1 - I'd like to order 100 boxes of latex gloves. Seller Computer: Order 123A.1 received Seller Computer: Order 123A.1 order accepted Buyer Computer: Order 123A.1 status acknowledged Seller Computer: Order 123A.1 shipping notification - Shipped 1/15/2010 Buyer Computer: Order 123A.1 status acknowledged

Frequency

Because the first EDI standards were being developed in the mid 1970's, well before the Internet, commercial-use EDI was designed for daily batches of requests, or for an intermittent stream of requests. Before the Internet was available, companies exchanged EDI messages by tape sent through the mail, or through nightly telephone conversations between computers.

Source:

National Institute of Standards & Technology: EDI Standard Publication

Government of Kansas: EDI Training Seminar

ASC X12: Announcement of Collaboration with IAIABC

More Information:

ASC X12: Frequently Asked Questions

Center for Disease Control & Prevention: HL7 Implementation Guide