Early in the middle of 60 s, parties such as airlines, shipping companies, and retail industries realized that, as fast processing of information is fundamental in order to remain competitive in the business world, large volumes of paper and expensive communication means should be minimized, in order to avoid delays, mistakes, inconsistencies and high costs in business operations, and a new way to achieve this had to be found. However, we have to realize what exactly is Electronic Data Interchange (EDI).
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is a set of standards used to exchange business information between computers, and carry out business transactions electronically. EDI is the “paperless” approach to various business processes such as inquiries, purchase orders, pricing, order status, scheduling, shipping, receiving, invoice payments, contracts, production data, marketing, sales and others. EDI works on any type of computer hardware, application system, and business process used.
The fundamentals of EDI lie on two aspects, namely software and electronic communication. Two of the most important things required to implement an EDI system are EDI software and the means for electronic communications. EDI software should have the following characteristics in order to meet various business needs. ^2 Easy to upgrade. EDI trading is constantly advancing; therefore it should be easy to upgrade in response to any change and enhancement that are about to occur.
The Essay on Business Intelligence and Data Warehousing as a Solution
As it is anticipated that there is a fundamental objective of the company to reduce costs, make informed decisions and consolidate information, there is urgent need to for resilient development of the business intelligence and data warehousing (Collier, 2012). The poor response by IT in the provision of strategic information indicates that the system is incapable of guiding the company to success. ...
^2 Multi-network connectivity. It must not restrict connections to major EDI networks. ^2 Multi-standard capability. Nowadays, trading partners need to exchange electronic documents of different standards. The software must accommodate this need.
^2 Allows printing. Some companies need a hard copy of incoming messages. This facility should be included in the software. ^2 Ease of mapping. It should provide user-friendly mapping processes, which are a necessity to large companies with many trading partners. For electronic communications, the company one of the two choices: use either direct transmission or use a VAN (Value Added Network).
In direct transmission the company will use either a dial-up connection or a dedicated line to connect directly to the computer of the partner. Direct transmission is simple, easy and less expensive than VANs. However, transmission errors are likely to occur.
