The Urgent Case for Edi Standards1

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) provides a method for organisations to send and receive standardised business communications quickly, flexibly, cheaply and in a secure manner. It is EDI's document translation standards which distinguish it from other, similar technologies such as e-mail or tape-based file transfer and which enable EDI to offer a standardised internal integration option for utilising organisations. Unfortunately, not all EDI users take advantage of the benefits of standardisation "quick and dirty" proprietary solutions to document interchange may offer a short-term solution to a company' needs, but will ultimately limit (or even prevent) the integration of multiple EDI schemes. This paper summarises the background and development of EDI by means of data and document translation standards and points to the benefits to be obtained from the integration of multiple EDI schemes and multiple value-added networks (VANs). The paper then discusses the dangers inherent in short-term proprietary solutions to document and informaton interchange from both the organisational and national viewpoints and suggests some possible methods of avoiding these problems.