The Wikipedia definition is right on. The key words are 'standard' and
'structure'.
Each EDI document represents a structured message that has been developed and
adopted as a standard by the industries represented in the standards body (i.e.
DISA or EDIFACT). This standards were developed to facilitate data exchange and
processing, so companies would not have to waste time agreeing on data formats
every time they decided to exchange an e-document and then implement cumbersome
programs to process each document..
Furthermore, the structure also helps to automate the process beacuse it
includes some business rules as well as codes to ensure validation and
compliance.
Finally, the structure includes grouping and enveloping of messages so that
they can be transmitted, forwarded, traced and processed with minimal human
intervetion.
I don't see how you could achieve any of the above with any other form of
e-document wheter pre/post Excel, flat files or even un-standardized XML.
Prehaps that could explain the conclusion of the wikipedia definition that
was not posted earlier:
"Despite being relatively unheralded, in this era of technologies such as XML
web services, the Internet and the World Wide Web, EDI is still the data format
used by the vast majority of electronic commerce transactions in the world."
Cheers,
Ricardo
---------------------------------
Never miss a thing. Make Yahoo your homepage.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
...
Please use the following Message Identifiers as your subject prefix: <SALES>,
<JOBS>, <LIST>, <TECH>, <MISC>, <EVENT>, <OFF-TOPIC>
Job postings are welcome, but for job postings or requests for work: <JOBS> IS
REQUIRED in the subject line as a prefix.
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EDI-L/
<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional
<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EDI-L/join
(Yahoo! ID required)
<*> To change settings via email:
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
