EDI

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) refers to the
structured transmission of data between organizations
by electronic means. It is used to transfer electronic
documents from one computer system to another, i.e.
from one trading partner to another trading partner.
It also refers specifically to a family of standards
including the X12 series. EDI can be formally defined
as 'The transfer of structured data, by agreed message
standards, from one computer system to another without human intervention'. EDI is still the data format used by
the vast majority of electronic commerce transactions
in the world.

EDI is considered to be a technical representation
of a business conversation between two entities, either
internal or external. Note, there is a perception that
"EDI" constitutes the entire electronic data interchange paradigm, including the transmission, message flow,
document format, and software used to interpret the
documents. EDI is considered to describe the rigorously standardized format of electronic documents. EDI can
be transmitted using any methodology agreed to by
the sender and recipient.

EDI documents generally contain the same information
that would normally be found in a paper document used
for the same organizational function. It may have other information if the parties agree to include it. In some
cases, EDI will be used to create a new business
information flow (that was not a paper flow before).