An example of how EDI is used: The electronic procurement process

The electronic procurement process uses EDI for the purchasing and billing of goods and services. With electronic procurement, you exchange electronic purchase orders and invoices rather than traditional paper orders and bills.

The benefits of electronic procurement include increased speed and accuracy in the purchasing process. Because electronic purchase orders and invoices remove the need for repetitious data entry, companies prevent potential data entry mistakes and save labor costs. This section gives a broad description of how to plan for an implementation of electronic procurement. Using electronic procurement as an example, this section also serves to illustrate the types of considerations you should keep in mind when planning other types of EDI implementations.