to as "trading partners.”9The problem was it took management a long time to realize that partnership had to extend much further than just agreeing to trade electronic versions of paper documents. By breaking down the barriers between vendors and customers, another order of increase in speed and flexibility could be introduced.“The true value of EDI comes when business can begin to trade or share information. The scenario of EDI performance painted a picture where commonly used paper documents were replaced by electronic versions of the same documents. Purchase orders, shipment notifications, invoicing, and accounts payable began to participate in the process.”9The business of preparing the electronic documents is easily the most demanding part of setting up EDI in any business. The varieties of methods available to generate the electronic documents are as different as there are businesses and applications, which include…transcribing data, enhancing existing applications, and purchasing softwareThe Kroger Company has several hundred suppliers, and the chance of getting them all to agree upon the Kroger’s definition of a purchase order format was not going happen, “particularly if since those suppliers are also dealing with hundreds of other customers. This would require a unique set of rules for each partnership. The resulting chaos would quickly drive customers and suppliers alike to return to paper forms regardless of the benefits or savings.” 7 The solution has been found in the evolution over the last two decades of a comprehensive set of national and international standards. “These standards, typically developed by specific industry or business groups, have provided commonly agreed upon formats for use in virtually every type of business communication.”3These standards provide a structured way of organizing information in a "transaction" format with definitions for the format an...
