| # Electronic Data Interchange Electronic data interchange (EDI) is used to exchange business documents between two systems. For example, you can send a purchase order to a supplier by means of EDI. The supplier then returns the order acknowledgement to you electronically. As a result, EDI eliminates the transfer of paper copies of business documents. Various external EDI standards of these business documents are defined to give rules to the related business processes, the business document structure, and the content. Each data segment and position is defined and standardized in a message format. Message formats can be listed according to the following external standards: UN/ EDIFACT, which is used in Europe. ANSI, which is used in the United States. SPEC2000 and AECMA, which are used in the aerospace and defense industry. VDA and Odette, which are used in the automotive industry. LN has its own internal standard, called BEMIS (Baan Electronic Message Interchange System). LN uses the BEMIS standard to generate and read messages. All external standards can be translated into the internal BEMIS standard or generated from BEMIS by an EDI translator, using standard EDI message formats that are supported by your business partners. The following figure illustrates the development of the various standards: Related topics An overview of BEMIS Implementing EDI Using external EDI Using internal EDI |