Electronic Data Integration (EDI) is a standard format for exchanging business data. EDI is the transfer of data between different companies using the internet.

Fig 1.

EDI in the general sense encompasses a wide range of standards and technology. A more specific meaning of EDI applies to the exchange of information between two organizations using ANSI X12 standard or the UN EDIFACT standard. (Fig. 1)

The direct and instinctive way to implement an EDI Web Service strategy is to replicate the existing legacy e-commerce infrastructure using XML based middleware. Although the objective is sound, replace the proprietary message structures and networks, the approach is flawed. This approach requires the implementer to incur the largest costs up front without receiving any benefit of e-commerce until those costs are completely swallowed.

The best approach is an indirect one by which immediate incremental success are realized by leveraging existing investments in legacy e-commerce.

Business Advantages

How can IZAR's EDI Web Service benefit your business?

Some of the benefits of utilizing an indirect approach are;

This is accomplished by bolting XML middleware directly on to the existing legacy middleware server. The middleware is producing a published data format which is going to make translation or mapping process considerably simpler. Plus the XML vendor gets a lot more software reuse early on because the existing legacy middleware software is a smaller set of applications than all of the legacy mainframes they connect to. This "Bolt-On" method is also much less intrusive to a company's IT department.

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