EDI subsytems are Gentran,Tibco
EDI Subsystems
Cross Application - Electronic Data Interchange Interface (CA-EDI)
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is a term used for the transfer of business messages
between two systems. There are many such messages, however, the most common are used to
support customers sending a purchase order message to a vendor, or vendors sending an
invoice message to a customer. In most cases, EDI replaces the transfer of paper copies of
these documents. There are many standards for these messages - in the United States, the
ANSI X.12 standard is most prevalent, in Europe, the UN/EDIFACT standard is used, or
industry-specific standards are used, for example, UCS in the grocery industry and
VDA/ODETTE in the automotive industry.
Built into R/3’s applications are interfaces to EDI messages. It is important to note that SAP
does not supply or sell EDI conversion/communication software (an EDI subsystem), but
provides an open, common interface to such systems (XA-EDI). EDI subsystems assume
responsibility for all EDI-oriented tasks:
Converting data
Message or interchange handling
Communication
Partner profile administration
Process monitoring
From the SAP side, the EDI interface is based on IDoc technology, which is independent of
EDI standards. All data is transferred in files between the R/3 System and the EDI subsystem.
Synchronous Remote Function Call (RFC) is implemented to define the time of transfer for a
file between the two systems. The following data can be transferred using the EDI interface:
Outbound IDocs
IDocs are transferred from the R/3 System to the EDI subsystem.
Inbound IDocs
IDocs are transferred from the EDI subsystem to the R/3 System.
Status report
The EDI subsystem sends a status report to the R/3 System on the progress of
the processing of the outbound IDoc
Certification of an EDI subsystem involves technical testing of the interface between the R/3
System and the EDI subsystem. The transfer of outbound IDocs, inbound IDocs and status
reports is tested.
The test is carried out using the UN/EDIFACT standard for EDI. The following messages may
be used:
Outbound purchase order (ORDERS)
Inbound order (ORDERS)
Outbound order confirmation (ORDRSP)
Inbound order acknowledgment
Bluesky
