Standard EDIFACT (Electronic Data Interchange For Administration, Commerce and Transport) was developed under the auspices of the United Nations. Today it is the overarching standard for transmission of electronic documents. Documents created with EDIFACT recommendations have data fields that represent the various components of information.
Linked data segments form a set of these segments creates a message, which is equivalent to a paper document. The message has appropriate header and footer ( its easier to find). This form is valid in all documents in the EDIFACT standard, both the trade and traffic or financial.
Communication by the EDIFACT standard consists of several stages. In first one, someone prepare the document, then file with the data is translated into a format appropriate for EDIFACT. After this treatment, the document is sent to the outbox and then in order to get to the recipient’s inbox. When it will be already there, all these activities are accomplished in reverse order. Finally, the recipient receives a set of information for him. As you can see the communication process in this system is quite simple and has advantages like cost reduction and time savings.
Tags: EDI, edifact, Electroni Data Interchange, software