EDI implementation and execution can be a complex process. Before undertaking an EDI project it is critical that your key stakeholders learn the basics so that you know what to look for in an EDI vendor, trading partner relationship and more. Explore a variety of EDI resources to receive a more holistic view of how electronic data interchange works, the top terms to know and what the potential cost will be. In this easy-to-follow EDI dictionary you can view the most commonly used EDI terms and concepts. Reference this guide when generating RFP questions or when viewing vendor websites. To learn more about EDI contact Datex solutions experts today at www.datexcorp.com , marketing@datexcorp.com or 800.933.2839 ext 243.

1. BASIC EDI
TERMINOLOGY:
TOP EDI
TERMS A-Z

2. • ANSI – American National Standards Institute – The national
standards body for the United States. ANSI, through its accredited
standards committees, keeps the standards for all applications of
technology and mechanics for U.S. Industry.
• Accredited Standards Committee X12 - The group authorized by the
American National Standards Institute to develop and maintain the
EDI Standards used primarily in the United States. (See also: ANSI;
ANSI ASC-X12; American National Standards Institute).
• Application Acknowledgement – A transaction set whose purpose is
to return a response to a transaction set that has been received and
processed in an application program. For example, the Purchase
Order Acknowledgment transaction is used to respond to the
Purchase Order transaction with content such as whether the
receiver can fulfill the order and if it can be done on time.

3. • Application Advice - A transaction set that accepts, rejects or
identifies errors in the content of any transaction set beyond normal
syntax checks.
• Application Interface Software - Software that imports and exports
data between in-house applications and the translation software.
• AS1 - a specification for EDI communications between two
businesses using e-mail protocols. The standard provides S/MIME
(Secure Multi-Purpose Internet Mail Extensions) and uses Simple
Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) to transmit data. An Internet
connection capable of sending and receiving e-mail, an EDItransfer
engine, and digital certificates are required for data exchange using
AS1. Almost any type of data can be transmitted.

4. • AS2 - has largely superseded AS1, it specifies how to connect, deliver,
validate and acknowledge data, and creates an envelope for a
message which is then sent securely over the Internet. An
implementation of AS2 involves two machines, a client and a server,
communicating with each other over the Internet using HTTP
protocol.
• AS3 - a communications method that uses FTP/S to send EDI
transactions over the Internet.
• AS4 - Offers secure B2B document exchange using web services.
AS4 was developed by the sub-committee of the OASISebXML.
• Attribute - A term used to describe a characteristic of an item. An
attribute would hold a value to describe a characteristic such as pack
height, length or width.

5. • Authentication - A mechanism that allows the receiver of an
electronic transmission to verify the sender and the integrity of the
content of the transmission through the use of an electronic “key” or
algorithm shared by the business partners. The algorithm is
sometimes referred to as an electronic or digital signature.
• Business Partner Agreement - contains the general contract terms
and conditions, participant roles (buyers, sellers), communication and
security protocols, and business processes (valid actions,
sequencing rules, etc.). Extensible Markup Language-based Business
Partner Agreement documents capture the essential information
upon which business partners must agree in order for their
applications and business processes to communicate.
• Compliance Checking - Checking process used to ensure that a
transmission complies with ANSI X12 syntax rules (US).

6. • Confirmation - A notification that the transmission has been received
by the intended receiver.
• Control Number - Also known as reference number. An identification
number used to distinguish a standard data element (data element
identifier) or a standard segment (segment identifier).
• Data Element - One or more data items, forming a unit or piece of
information as defined in the data dictionary of a system of EDI
Standards, and contained in an EDI message or transaction set. The
term “data element” is often abbreviated as “DE” followed
immediately by the data element number (i.e., data element 128
would be abbreviated as DE128) in some texts.
• Default Settings - Instructions to a computer, automatically
establishing standard configurations at the time of log on. They
eliminate the need to reconfigure at each sitting.

7. • Delimiters - Integral part of the transferred data stream, they consist
of two levels of separators and a terminator. Delimiters are specified
in the interchange header. From highest to lowest level, the
separators and terminator are:- segment terminator, data element
separator, and component element separator (used only in EDIFACT).
• DES - Data Encryption Standard. One of a number of standards for
securing data during transmission by encrypting it.
• Digital Signature - An electronic signature that can be used to
authenticate the identity of the sender of a message and via the
encrypted document digest, to ensure that the original content of the
data that has been sent is unchanged.
• Electronic Envelope - Electronic information that binds together a set
of transmitted documents sent from one sender to one receiver.
There are three types of envelopes, the ISA/IEA, or transmission
envelope, the GS/GE envelope, and the ST/SE envelope.

8. • Element - The smallest item of information in the standard.
• Element Reference Number - The number that identifies each
element from the segment diagram with its corresponding definition
in the data dictionary.
• FTP - (File Transfer Protocol) - used to transfer data from one
computer to another over the Internet, or through a network. FTP is a
commonly used protocol for exchanging files over any TCP/IP based
network to manipulate files on another computer on that network
regardless of which operating systems are involved.
• Evaluated Receipts Settlement - Method for initiating payment to a
supplier that replaces the invoice. Used primarily in the auto industry.
First the price is agreed upon by a blanket or other purchase order.
Next, a material release tells the supplier the quantity to deliver. An
advance ship notice confirms the quantity actually being delivered,
and payment is triggered upon receipt.

9. • eXtensible Markup Language - Extensible Markup Language is
designed to improve the functionality of the Web by providing more
flexible and adaptable information identification. It is called extensible
because it is not a fixed format like Hypertext Markup Language (a
single, predefined markup language).
• Flat File - A computer file where all the information is run togetherin
a single character string.
• FTP - File Transfer Protocol. A standard method of transmittingfiles
from one computer to another over the internet.
• Gateway - The interconnection between public or private networks,
enabling the transmission of documents in EDI format across
multiple networks.

10. • GPC - Global Product Classification: a standard way of categorizing
products that provides a way to link different company classification
systems and offers a common language for collaborative business
processes.
• GRN - Goods Received Note. A document raised by a customer
receiving goods to confirm what has been received, so that invoices
may be approved for payment.
• GTIN - Global Trade Item Number. A unique identifier foreach
product.
• Header - The specific segment that, in simplest terms, tells the
receiving computer where an individual EDI message starts.

11. • HTTP - HyperText Transfer Protocol. A protocol used to request and
transmit files, especially web pages and web page components, over
the internet or other computer network.
• Hub - often a large customer working with "spokes" that are its
suppliers. The hub partner normally establishes the requirements of
which EDI documents it sends and receives. The suppliers, or
vendors, are then required to implement an EDI solution in order to do
business with that particular trading partner.
• ISA/IEA - the outer envelope known as the Interchange Envelope. It
contains information on the number of transaction sets included,
identifies the sender and receiver, and provides date and time of the
transmission.

12. • Interchange Format - A specific data layout that defines a structured
business document. The interchange format specifies the sequence,
representation, and grouping of granular data elements, and may
describe each element in terms of data type, options, cardinality, size,
and valid values.
• Interchange Control Header - The data segment that indicates and
identifies the beginning of an interchange.
• Interchange Control Trailer - The data segment that indicates the end
of an interchange.
• JIT - Just In Time. A techniqueof managing inventory pioneered in
Japan, under which materials are delivered by suppliers to a
manufacturer as they are needed for production, rather than for
storage or inventory.

13. • Mailbox - A file storage area within a computer, usually one used by a
Network Service Provider, where information is placed until it can be
retrieved by the intended receiver.
• Mapping - the process of creating data element mappings between
two distinct data models; used as a first step for a wide variety of
data integration tasks. For example, a company that would like to
transmit and receive purchase orders and invoices with other
companies might use it to create data maps from a company's data
to standardized ANSI ASC X12 messages.
• Message Standards - The system of syntax, data elements,
segments and messages (transaction sets) with which EDI will be
conducted.

14. • NAK - A form of negative acknowledgment of an error detectionin
the transmission.
• Network Service Provider - A company that maintains a network and
offers its services and capabilities to others for a fee.
• ODBC - (Open Database Connectivity) - provides a standard software
API (application programming interface) method for using database
management systems, independent of programming languages,
database systems, and operating systems.
• OLE DB - (Object Linking and Embedding, Database) - an AP
interface designed by Microsoft for accessing different types of data
stores in a uniform manner. It separates the data store from the
application that needs access to it through a set of abstractions that
include the datasource, session, command and rowsets.

15. • Qualifier - Part of an EDIaddress.
• Receiver - The party to whom the EDI message or transaction set is
transmitted.
• Segment - A part of an EDI message or transaction set, made up of a
number of related data elements separated by a delimiter, conveying a
part of the business transaction being made.
• Segment Directory - A listing of the segments unique to the specific
system of EDI Standards being used, and usually part of the data
dictionary.
• Segment Tag - A composite data element, in which the first component
data element contains a code that uniquely identifies a segment as
specified in the relevant segment directory. Additional component data
elements can be conditionally used to indicate the hierarchical level and
nesting relationship in a message and the incidence of a segment’s
repetition [EDIFACT].

16. • ST/SE - these segments indicate the beginning and the end of a
singular transaction and are therefore referred to as the Transaction
envelope. They include information such as the number of segments
in the transaction set to ensure complete transmission
• Shipment Notification - An EDI transaction sent by the shipper of
material to the receiver advising that the shipment has been sent,
and providing details such as manifest, PO number, estimated time of
arrival, carrier, etc.
• Spoke - EDI term that refers to a business partner, usually a supplier
to a buyer company (known as a Hub).
• SSH - Secure Shell. A set of standards and an associated network
protocol that allows a secure channel to be established between a
local and remote computer.

17. • Syntax - The system for arranging data elements and segments
within an EDI message or transaction set, as dictated by the
Message or Transaction Set Standards being used.
• Tag - The unique identifier used with segment and data elements.
• TDCC - Transportation Data Coordinating Committee. This is the
original EDI organization for the United States. Through its efforts, the
first EDI Standards were developed, published, and maintained. It is
now EDIA, and has become the national EDI user group for the United
States.
• Trading Partner - a person or organization that has agreed to
exchange EDI business documents electronically. The sending or
receiving party involved in the exchange of EDI transmissions.

18. • Transaction Level Acknowledgment - Acknowledgment ofreceipt
and totality of data in a transmission of a functional group or
individual transaction set.
• Transaction Set - A block of information in EDI, making up a business
transaction or part of a business transaction. Outside North America,
this is normally called a message.
• Translation - conversion of businessapplication data to and from
another data format, such as a standard (ASC X12 for example)
using translation software and maps.
• Transmission Group - A collection of one or more functionalgroups.
Also known as an Interchange.

19. • VAN - (Value Added Network) A third party network that acts as an
intermediary between trading partners, and is responsible for routing,
storing and delivering EDI messages. VAN’s typically support multiple
data communications protocols and interconnect with other VAN’s to
allow for almost ubiquitous transmission capabilities between
trading partners.
• Version/Release - Identifies the publication of the standard being
used for the generation or the interpretation of data in the X12
standard format.
• Web-EDI - A generic term for the transmitting of structured business
messages over the internet. This may include solutions such as alog
on to a portal and inputting commercial transactional information
into a form on a website using an internet browser. This method
requires an element of manual intervention.

20. • WINS - Warehouse Information Network Standards. A set of EDI
standards for warehousing and distribution. WINS is a subset of the
ANSI X12 national standard.
• XML - (Extensible Markup Language) is a flexible way to create
common information formats and share both the format and the
data on the World Wide Web. XML can be used by any individual or
group of individuals or companies that wants to share information in
a consistent way.

21. Conclusion
• EDI implementation and execution can be a complex process. Before
beginning your EDI project learn the basics so that you know what to
look for in an EDI vendor, trading partner relationship and more.
• For more EDI terminology and resources visit these resource pages:
• EDI Basics
• Datex Corporation EDI
• Datex “Why Choose EDI”
Source: http://datatrans-inc.com/knowledgebase/category/Industry+Terminology
http://datatrans-inc.com/knowledgebase/category/Industry+Terminology
http://www.edi-center.com/edi-terms.htm

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