An Empirical Study on EDI Diffusion in the Iranian Maritime Trade

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is commonly defined as an application-to-application transfer of business documents between computers using industry-defined standards which enable organizations to send and receive business communications more quickly, flexibly, cheaply, and with higher security than conventional communications. With improvements in the quality and affordability of data communications systems, EDI has become more attractive to all types of organizations. Given the global use of shipping documents, such as bills of lading and charterparties, this paper summarizes the background and development of EDI and the benefits obtained from its integration into Iranian shipping industry, with special focus on the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Line (IRISL) and Port and Maritime Organization of Iran (PMO) as the major Iranian shipping companies. Also, it proposes the usage of satellite on move system to facilitate the electrical communication, both ashore and aboard