How to understand EDI requirements of trading partners

Many customers receive a message from their trading partner for the first time EDI When needed , Often confused , There are many professional terms I haven't seen , I want to push the project forward, but I have no way to start . So today's article will give you a brief understanding , Get the EDI After demand , How to extract key information , Thus, the follow-up work can be carried out smoothly .

As shown in the figure below , Whole EDI The demand is roughly divided into three parts , The first is the transmission mode , The transmission mode is divided into EDI Direct connection , for example AS2、SFTP、OFTP etc. , These are transport protocols , The transport protocol does not restrict file formats , Once this transmission channel is established , Data in any format can be transmitted through this channel , for example ： Text 、 Drawing 、 Even videos, etc . also VAN The way ,VAN It is a network service provided by a third-party operator , This means that all data needs to go through a third party , And there will be traffic costs , When you can choose , Try to choose EDI Direct connection .

The second part is the message standard , After the transmission protocol is confirmed , We need to confirm the message standard , image X12、EDIFACT、VDA、Json、XML These are common message standards .

The third part is the business message type , The transmission protocol and message standard confirm , So what content needs to be transmitted ？ This is what we call the service message type , Like an order 、 Delivery notice 、 Invoices, etc , Are common business types .

For ease of understanding , Take a simple example to compare EDI Several elements of transmission . Take two conversations for example , In what way / Tools to chat ？ For example, use wechat 、 still Skype、 Or mail , This is equivalent to EDI Transport protocol in .

The second is how to talk , Both parties need to agree on a language , In English or Chinese or French 、 Japanese wait . The person on the left said , Then let's use English , The man on the right said ：OK.

We know , Languages may not be interlinked , But they can all express 、 The role of communication . This is equivalent to the message standard , Both parties need to agree on a standard for communication . The third one is about what , What language to say after confirmation , Finally, the content of the chat , It's about physics , Or discuss history , Or talking about math , This is the content of communication . Analogy in EDI in , The content of the chat is the business message , And the content transmission is bidirectional , This means that both parties have already sent , There is also reception .

There are other information we need to pay attention to ：

The first is the sender / The receiving party ID（SenderID/ReceiverID）, This ID stay EDI It is used to indicate the identity of the sender or receiver of the file , This ID You can customize , Or it can be set according to the requirements of the trading partner . for example ZZ*KASOFTWARE.

The second is EDI Specification documents , Although most of what we use are standard EDI message , But every enterprise will be in the field 、 There are differences in business meaning and other details , therefore EDI The implementers need to make customized development according to this specification document , Specifications can be defined by either party to the transaction , At present , Most customers respond to the needs of overseas trading partners , So this specification file is provided by the trading partner .

The third is internal data synchronization , All the contents discussed above are external , When the data is received , How to synchronize data with the internal business system , This also needs to be confirmed , For example, without integration, you can use Excel、CSV、XML And so on , Or choose an intermediate database 、RESTAPI、Webservice And other integration methods .

If the other party only mentioned the need to establish EDI The connection of , But no other details were provided , What questions can we ask to confirm specific requirements ？ Here are the examples we provide ：

1.What kind of transfer protocol do we use？Such as AS2, OFTP(2.0), SFTP, etc. And could you please provide the details of settings for us? What is the transport protocol we use ？ for example AS2、OFTP、SFTP wait , Can you provide your configuration information ？

2.Which type of EDI standards do you prefer? Such as EDIFACT, X12, VDA, etc. We use EDI What is the standard ？ for example EDIFACT、X12、VDA wait

3.Which type of business message will be exchanged via EDI? Such as Order, Invoice, etc. What business data will we transmit ？ Such as the order 、 Invoices, etc

4.Could you please provide the implementation guidelines/specifications of the business message which will be exchanged between us? Can you provide your EDI Specification documents ？

Last , Let's look at two examples , Can you get the key EDI Demand information ？

Example 1： We would like to transfer IFTSTA and IFCSUM via AS2 with your side, could you confirm if you have EDI capability. We want to establish with you EDI Connect , Use AS2 To transmit IFTSTA and IFCSUM file , Can you help confirm whether your company has EDI Ability ？

Example 2： We would like to establish an EDI connection with your side, Orders, ASN and Invoice will be transferred via EDI, please help answer questions below: We want to establish with you EDI Connect , Transfer order 、 Delivery notice and invoice , Please help confirm the following questions ：

1.Transfer protocol preferred, and please provide the connection details of your side: Preferred transport protocol , And provide your connection information

• VAN
• SFTP
• AS2
• OFTP

2.EDI standard preferred:(EDIFACT or VDA)

The preferred EDI standard

3.Your sender ID

It must be through today's content , Everyone knows how to read EDI The demand has been preliminarily recognized , No matter which trading partner it connects with , As long as we can extract from the information provided by the other party ① Transfer protocol ② Message standard ③ The types of service messages transmitted are the key points , that EDI The requirements can be basically clear . If there is any uncertainty , Welcome to exchange .

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