Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is a companion product that you can use to set up an electronic trading relationship with your customers and vendors. EDI enables your company to conduct routine business transactions through an automatic computer-to-computer exchange of business documents. You have the ability to send and receive documents electronically in a standardized ANSI X12 format, communicating through a third-party dial-up network. For example, you can use EDI to submit a purchase order to a vendor. They, in turn, can use EDI to send you an order acknowledgement, shipping notice, and invoice.
Electronic processing of documents for purchasing, scheduling, and sales activity can provide dramatic savings of time and money through lower administrative costs. In addition, using the simplicity and speed of EDI enables you to strengthen customer relations, reduce inventories, and shorten sales cycles, resulting in improved business controls and greater efficiencies.
Value-added networks, also known as VANs, handle the exchange of data between trading partners. In addition to sending and receiving data, they are responsible for the messages and security requirements between EDI trading partners. They ensure that your transmissions are successful and that other businesses do not intercept your transmissions.
Trading partners submit transactions to their VAN. The VAN then processes and groups transactions before sending them to their final destination.
Your relationship with your VAN is like having a mailbox at the post office, with the following functions:
The Eclipse system places outgoing EDI transactions in the Outgoing EDI Status Queue. On a regular basis, your system initiates a network call to your VAN and transmits the outgoing items from the queue to your mailbox. The VAN checks your mailbox on a regular basis, picks up your outbound transactions, and distributes them to the designated destinations.
As the VAN receives incoming transactions sent to you, it places them in your mailbox. On a regular basis, your system initiates a network call to your VAN, picks up the inbound transactions from your mailbox, and processes them accordingly.
For each customer or vendor with whom you have an EDI relationship, you need to set up a trading partner profile. The system uses the information stored in the profiles to determine how to prepare data for transmission to and process data received from each trading partner.
EDI uses the standards set by the Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) X12. X12 transactions are divided into sets defined by numbers. For example, an 850 is a purchase order and an 810 is an invoice.
EDI uses an enveloping structure for electronically transmitting a series of diverse business transactions. EDI can transmit transaction sets of different types from one party to another in the same transmission by enveloping each type. A hierarchical structure of headers and trailers groups the data logically for easy interpretation by the receiver. EDI envelopes have the following characteristics:
An interchange envelope can contain multiple transactions for the same trading partner. The envelope begins with an Interchange Control Header (ISA) and ends with an Interchange Control Trailer (IEA).
Within the envelope, transactions are grouped by transaction type. For example, 810s are in one group and 850s are in another group. Each group begins with a Functional Group Header (GS) and ends with a Functional Group Trailer (GE).
The data in a document, such as an 810, is called a transaction set and begins with a Transaction Set Header (ST) and ends with a Transaction Set Trailer (SE).
Mappers are internal subroutines used to do one of the following:
Convert EDI transmissions into system transactions.
Convert system transactions and documents into EDI transmissions.
EDI is fully integrated with the Eclipse system and can be accessed from any terminal. For detailed example of mapping, login to the customer support web site (http://support.epicor.com). From the Documentation link, go to Downloads and EDI.
Refer to the following topics for information on setting up and using the EDI programs:
Click here for a printable version of the EDI documentation.