EDI Standards

Different EDI Standards

EDI incorporates standard layouts for all business documents. However, there are different standards available. The decision as to which standard to adopt is usually determined by what is already in general use within your business sector and by mutual agreement with your trading partner.

There are four main technical standards:

1 UN/EDIFACT - the main standard supported by the UN
2 ANSI X12 - common in USA, Canada and Australia
3 TRADACOMS - predominantly used in the UK
4 ODETTE - developed in the UK for the motor industry.

Each standards body publishes definitions of the documents, which may be exchanged electronically. An EDI message represents common business documents and its definition specifies the content and sequence of the data to be included.