By every indicator, EDI ... is taking the business community by storm". One might be tempted to imagine EDI revolutionising the industrial world as drastically as the assembly line production invented earlier this century. Indeed, EDI was described as "changing the way business is done" by some of its protagonists and was expected "to change our life" . However, behind the acronym EDI appears a trivial technique: the transfer of structured data by electronic means. The transfer became possible through the advances in telecommunications using physical links between computers at two different locations. At first glance, EDI allows for the substitution of paper messages through electronic information flows. In a finer-grained view, however, this simple substitution has the potential to radically alter traditional forms of doing business. Yet it does not do this merely through electronic transfer. Behind EDI lies a philosophy of informational integration which can turn out to be highly beneficial for all parties involved. The integration of electronic information sent by a trading partner into a company's own information systems forms the basis for the automation of much manual work and for more efficient business processes in and between companies.     «

By every indicator, EDI ... is taking the business community by storm". One might be tempted to imagine EDI revolutionising the industrial world as drastically as the assembly line production invented earlier this century. Indeed, EDI was described as "changing the way business is done" by some of its protagonists and was expected "to change our life" . However, behind the acronym EDI appears a trivial technique: the transfer of structured data by electronic means. The transfer became possible t...     »