About EDI Standards

ANSI X12 (American National Standards Institute)

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) was founded in 1918 as the national coordinator for standards in the United States. National standards are developed primarily by trade, technical, professional, consumer, and labor organizations. ANSI itself does not develop standards. It approves a standard only when it has verified evidence presented by a standards developer that those affected by the standard have reached substantial agreement (consensus) on its provisions.

In 1979, ANSI chartered Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) X12 to develop uniform standards for electronic interchange of business transactions. Its aim is to structure standards so that computer programs can translate data to and from internal formats without extensive reprogramming. In this way, the efficiencies of a standard interchange format minimize the difficulties and expenses associated with attempting to meet varying formats imposed by different organizations.

X12 standards assign number codes to various transactions.

EDIFACT

EDIFACT (Electronic Data Interchange for Accounting, Commerce, and Technology) is the United Nations standard-setting body for electronic commerce. EDIFACT comprises a set of internationally agreed upon standards, directories, and guidelines for the electronic interchange of structured data, and in particular those related to trade in goods and services between independent, computerized information systems. These standards are more commonly used outside the United States. Transaction types are generally given word, or character, labels.

Your Vendor or Customer

In practice, many large customers or vendors define their own standards. Because SyteLine exports to a flat-ASCII file from which flexible maps to all standards can be done in a straightforward way, the system can be compatible with a wide range of trading partner requirements.