EDI Standards

[Former Member]

Hi All,

Generally EDI has two standards EDIFACT and ANSI X12. what are the main differences between them and I need More details about them. So any one provide the study materials for both of the standards. Thanks in advance.

[Former Member]

Hi Vijay,

I am also working on the standard formats only.

The difference between the two are very simple.

Most the countries support EDIFACT, GENERALLY we follow like this for purchase order , Bill of Material, material master, Sales Order.

Example : ORDERS01 Purchasing/Sales

BOMMAT01 Master BOM - material

MATMAS01 Material Master

INV_ID01 Invoice .

Where as mostly Canada and Us follow EDI format, called ANSI ASC X12 Format.

For purchase order, sales order it will be 850 and 810. Where we call them as orders01 and inv_id01 in EDIFACT.

THE FILE FORMAT OF ASCX12 should be converted into EDIFACT, Which Should be done by the Third party tool.

If you need any further details, You can contact me, I can send, you ASC X12 format file.

Thanks

Manju

[Former Member]

Refer this link:

http://www.courses.vcu.edu/INFO465-gs/ansi_x_12.htm

Regards,

Ravi

[Former Member]

<b>Relationship between X12 and EDIFACT</b>

The current requirement for business to operate in an international marketplace has resulted in efforts to merge the X12 standard with the EDIFACT standard. As the book and serials industry, particularly publishers of scientific and technical materials, do business internationally, they are active in the initiative to develop international EDI standards. While the formats supported by these standards are similar in structure, there are significant differences that will need to be resolved.

As the ANSI X12 standards were already in use when work began to develop the EDIFACT standards, the format and structure of X12 messages were a useful model. As a result, X12 and EDIFACT messages share common structural characteristics:

• character-based encoding, with multiple levels of support for various encoding standards, e.g. telex, 7-bit ASCII

• tagged and delimited data structures

• a global set of data segments and a segment directory to define them.

• a global set of data elements and a data element directory to define them.

• a message of a predefined type consisting of a specific sequence of segments.

• implicit identification of data elements in a segment by location.

• an "interchange" consisting of either "functional groups" each of which contains one or more messages or one or more messages by themselves.

However, given that the existing European standards (UN/TDI) were also considered when developing the EDIFACT formats and structures, there are some differences between the two standards (Woods, 1989):

• EDIFACT uses composite data elements

• looping and nesting procedures are different

• 6 data elements types are defined in ANSI X12 while only three are defined in EDIFACT

• there is no provision in EDIFACT for optional fields

• EDIFACT allows for two levels of syntax.

The differences between the two standards are considered to be minor by the X12/North American EDIFACT secretariat. There is very little difference between the two syntaxes in the overall design of the transaction set/message. There are however some differences in the way segments and data elements are structured so that a message developed using X12 syntax cannot be deciphered by a system based on the EDIFACT syntax. Work is currently underway to align the two syntaxes so that software using the UN/EDIFACT formats will also be able to communicate with X12 based systems (Malhotra, 1991). Another solution is to develop a common data dictionary that could be used by software developers and system integrators (Olson, 1992). This approach would result in EDI software that supports both the EDIFACT and X12 data formats.

http://www.ifla.org/VI/5/reports/rep4/42.htm#chap2.4

http://www.ifla.org/VI/5/reports/rep4/rep4.htm

[Former Member]

Please have a look at below link:

http://www.erpgenie.com/sapedi/index.htm

I hope it helps.

Best Regards,

Vibha

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