EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) is a new method for business processing by computer. It adopts internationally recognized standard formats, exchanges and processes information on trade, transportation, insurance, banking and customs among relevant departments, companies and enterprises through computer communication networks, and completes all trade-centered business processes. Because EDI can completely replace the traditional paper document exchange, some people call it "paperless trade" or "electronic trade". With the rapid development of China's economy, various trade volumes are gradually increasing. In order to adapt to this situation, China will implement the "three gold" projects one after another, that is, the gold card, the golden bridge and the golden customs clearance project, among which the golden customs clearance project is established to adapt to the development of trade and speed up the customs clearance process.

1. Advantages of using EDI

1. Reduce paper consumption. According to the survey of the United Nations, for an import and export trade, the two sides need to exchange about 200 documents and forms, and the total cost that may be caused by paper, writing, printing and errors is about 7% of the price of the goods. According to statistics, after adopting EDI, General Motors of the United States can save the cost of each vehicle by 250 dollars, and can generate economic benefits of 65.438+0.25 billion dollars based on the annual production of 5 million vehicles.

2. It reduces a lot of repetitive work and improves work efficiency. Without EDI system, even highly computerized companies need to re-enter foreign data into their computers frequently. Investigation shows that as much as 70% of the data output by one computer needs to be input to other computers, which is time-consuming and error-prone.

3.EDI enables both parties to conduct transactions in a faster and more effective way, greatly simplifying the process of ordering or stocking, and enabling both parties to make full use of their human and material resources in time. After the application of EDI in DEC, the inventory cycle was shortened from 5 days to 3 days, and the cost of each order was reduced from 125 to 32 dollars. After the adoption of EDI trade network in Singapore, the customs formalities of trade were shortened from 3 ~ 4 days to 10 ~ 15 minutes.

4.EDI can improve the relationship between trade parties, manufacturers can accurately estimate the future demand for goods, freight forwarders can simplify a lot of export paperwork, merchants can improve the efficiency of inventory and greatly improve their competitiveness.

EDI technology is the natural development of e-mail technology. The application and development of e-mail has greatly improved people's office efficiency, and the desire to apply it to business has promoted the development of EDI technology.

Electronic data interchange and e-mail are both related and different. From the perspective of communication, EDI and e-mail have similarities, but there are also obvious differences. For example, e-mail connects people through the exchange network, so that people can exchange information quickly and accurately through the exchange network, while EDI connects two computer systems through the exchange network, for example, connecting the computer system of the clothing import and export company with the computer system of the customs, thus simplifying the customs declaration procedures. Therefore, EDI transmits business information between computers through a switching network. In addition, another big difference between e-mail and EDI is that the information stored and transmitted by e-mail is information between users (people), which can only be read by people without a certain format (of course, when you use e-mail, you'd better add the front address and the back information in the letter, otherwise the other party may have an opinion). EDI communication is different. The two sides of EDI communication are computers, which are essentially software on computers. Not everyone is smart in software, and they can understand any format. The communication between software needs to format the information content. Moreover, the content of EDI communication is mainly documents and reports in trade, which makes it possible to format information, which is another difference between EDI and e-mail.

For example, e-mail delivers ordinary letters, while EDI delivers documents and forms. However, no matter what content information is delivered, it is necessary to put the content to be delivered into an envelope, write the recipient's address, affix a stamp and put it in the mailbox. In other words, the communication process is the same.

EDI is not a simple data exchange system between users. EDI users need to send messages according to the international common message format, and the receiver also needs to process messages according to the international unified grammar rules, which will lead to the comprehensive EDI processing of other related systems. The whole process is completed automatically without manual intervention, which reduces errors and improves efficiency. For example, a factory uses EDI system to receive EDI orders from users through computer communication network. The factory's EDI system immediately checks whether the order meets the requirements, whether the factory receives the order, and then sends back confirmation information to the user. The EDI system of the factory checks the inventory according to the requirements of the purchase order, and issues EDI purchase orders to the manufacturers of related spare parts and supporting equipment when necessary; Booking vehicles, shipping spaces and containers from railway, maritime and aviation departments; Contact insurance companies and customs through EDI, handle insurance procedures and export procedures; Issue EDI invoices to users; Settle accounts with banks through electronic data interchange. The whole process from ordering and inspection to ordering parts, handling relevant procedures and issuing invoices is completed automatically by computer, which is fast and accurate.

Second, the application of electronic data interchange.

EDI is used in finance, insurance and commodity inspection.

EDI is used in finance, insurance, commodity inspection and other fields, which can realize the rapid circulation and reliable payment of foreign trade, reduce the time required for inter-bank transfer, increase the proportion of available funds, speed up the flow of funds, simplify procedures and reduce operating costs.

EDI is used for foreign trade, customs clearance and customs declaration.

EDI used in foreign trade can improve the competitiveness of users. When EDI is used in customs clearance and customs declaration, it can speed up the customs clearance of goods, improve the ability of foreign service, reduce the pressure of customs business, prevent human abuse, and realize customs clearance automation and paperless international trade.

Electronic data interchange for taxation.

The tax department can use EDI to develop an electronic tax declaration system to realize the automation of tax declaration, which is convenient and fast, and saves manpower and material resources.

EDI is used in manufacturing, transportation and warehousing.

Using EDI, the manufacturing industry can fully understand and meet the needs of customers, make supply plans, and achieve the purpose of reducing inventory and accelerating capital flow. Using EDI in the transportation industry can realize the electronic data transmission of freight documents, make full use of transportation equipment and posts, and provide customers with high-level and exhaustive services. For the warehousing industry, it can speed up the extraction and turnover of goods, alleviate the contradiction of tight storage space, and thus improve the utilization rate.

Thirdly, the user access mode of electronic data interchange.

User terminals can access EDI system through telephone network, CHINAPAC network, DDN network and CHINANET network.

Four. EDI standard system

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is by far the most mature and widely used e-commerce application system. Its fundamental feature lies in the internationalization of standards, and standardization is the key link to realize EDI. In the early days, EDI standards were only negotiated by two trading parties themselves. With the expansion of the scope of use, industry standards and national standards have emerged, and finally a unified international standard has been formed. The emergence of international standards has greatly promoted the development of EDI. With the introduction of various international standards of EDI and the maturity of open EDI conceptual model, the application field of EDI is not limited to international trade, but also widely used in administrative management, medical care, architecture, environmental protection and other fields. It can be seen that EDI standard is an important technical support for the wide application of EDI technology, and EDI standardization is an indispensable basic work in the development of EDI.

EDI standard system is a scientific and organic whole composed of standards with internal relations within the scope of EDI application. It consists of several subsystems, and there are internal relations among them, such as mutual restriction, interaction, interdependence and complementarity. According to the international standard system, the reality and future development of EDI application in China, China formulated the EDI standard system, with the general specification of EDI system standardization as the overall technical document. As a key scientific and technological project in the Eighth Five-Year Plan, this specification is the technical guide of EDI standardization in this period in China, and plays a leading and leading role.

According to this specification, EDI standard system is divided into seven parts: foundation, document, message, code, communication, security and management application. The general situation is as follows:

1.EDI basic standard system

It is mainly composed of UN/EDIFACT basic standard and open EDI basic standard, and is the core standard system of EDI. Among them, EDIFACT has seven basic standards, such as EDI terminology, EDIFACT application-level grammar rules, grammar rule implementation guide, message design guide and rules, trade data meta-directory, compound data meta-directory, segment directory and code table, which are adopted in China. The basic standards of open EDI are the most important and basic conditions to realize open EDI, including common standards in business, law, communication, security and information technology. ISO/IEC JTC 1 SC30 puts forward the conceptual model and reference model of open EDI, and provides the overall framework for coordinating and formulating existing and future open EDI standards, which will become the guide for future open EDI standardization. A large number of functional service standards and business operation standards will become international standards to guide the application of EDI in various fields.

2.EDI file standard system

EDI message standard comes from related businesses, and business processes are embodied by documents. The main goal of document standardization is to unify the data elements and paper format in documents, and the content is quite extensive. Its standard system includes document standards in management, trade, transportation, customs, banking, insurance, taxation and postal services.

3.EDI information standard system

EDI message standard is the structural embodiment of each specific application data, and all data are transmitted or received in the form of messages. EDI message standard is mainly embodied in UN standard message (UNSM). When 1987 was formally established, there were only a dozen messages. As of February 1999, version D.99A of UN/EDIFACT has contained 247 messages. Among them, UN standard message (UNSM) 178, draft message (MiD)50, invalid message 19, involving customs, banking, insurance, transportation, law, taxation, statistics, tourism, retail, medical care, manufacturing and many other fields.

4.EDI code standard system

In the data transmitted by EDI, except for company name, address, personal name and some free text content, almost all data are sent in the form of code. In order to make it easy for both sides to understand the content of the received information, the transmitted data is fixed in the form of code. Code standard is an indispensable part of EDI implementation. EDI code standard system includes management, trade, transportation, customs, banking, insurance, inspection and other aspects of code standards.

5.EDI communication standard system

Computer network communication is a necessary condition to realize EDI, and EDI communication standard is the basic guarantee for the smooth transmission of data sent or received by EDI. The EDI communication standard system includes ITU X.25, X.200/ISO 7498, X.400 series /ISO 1002 1, X.500 series, etc. Among them, the X.400 series /ISO 1002 1 standard is a set of international standards on electronic postal services. Although ISO is called MOTIS and ITU is called MHS, their technical contents are compatible and have a closer relationship with EDI.

6.EDI safety standard system

Because the data transmitted by EDI will involve trade secrets, amount, order quantity and so on. In order to prevent data from being tampered with or lost, it must be guaranteed by a series of security and confidentiality norms. The EDI security standard system includes EDI security specification, electronic signature specification, message authentication specification, key management specification, X.435 security service, X.509 authentication framework system, etc. In order to formulate the security standards of EDIFACT, the United Nations set up a joint UN /EDIFACT security working group at 199 1 to formulate relevant standards.

7.EDI management standard system

The EDI management standard system mainly involves review guidelines and rules related to EDI standard maintenance, including standard technical review guidelines, standard message and directory file writing rules, directory maintenance rules, message maintenance rules, technical review sheet format, directory and code writing principles, and EDIFACT standard version number and release number writing principles.

8.EDI application standard system

EDI application standard system mainly refers to the character set standard and other related standards used in the application process, including: seven-digit coded character set for information exchange and its expansion method; Chinese coded character set for information exchange; Universal multi-octet coded character set; Two sets and four sets of coded Chinese character sets for information interchange are added.

The framework of EDI standard system is not static, and it will be constantly updated and enriched with the development of EDI technology and the continuous improvement of EDI international standards.

Verb (abbreviation for verb) United Nations/Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport

United Nations Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport (UN/EDIFACT) is the mainstream standard of international EDI. At present, EDI international standards mainly refer to UN/EDIFACT standards and ISO standards. The UN/EDIFACT standard was formulated and published by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE), while the ISO standard was formulated and published by the International Organization for Standardization. Moreover, the two institutions have formed a good tacit understanding. Some UN/EDIFACT standards have been incorporated into ISO standards, and many UN/EDIFACT standards involve the application of ISO standards. UN/EDIFACT emphasizes current applications; And some ISO standards and research results to measure the future development. This chapter focuses on UN/EDIFACT.

As early as the early 1960s, under the leadership of UNCTAD, the Working Group on Trade Facilitation of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE/WP.4) set up two expert working groups: GE 1 and GE2, which were responsible for formulating UN/EDIFACT standards and handling trade procedures and documents respectively. In the early 1970s, the working group suggested that the United Nations Model Trade Documents (UNLK) should be used worldwide, and a series of standard codes, namely INCOTERM codes, were successively produced, which provided important rules for data exchange and laid the foundation for the establishment of EDI standards. 198 1 UN/ECE/WP.4 unified the trade data exchange guide (GTD 1) and ANSI X. 12 standards, coordinated the unified formulation of EDI standards, and formulated the United Nations administrative, commercial and transportation trade data exchange standards. At/kloc-0, EDIFACT is composed of a set of internationally recognized EDI standards, rules and guidelines, and its publication has been supported by all countries in the world, including the United States, which has gradually transitioned from the ANSI X. 12 standard to the use of EDIFACT. The emergence of EDIFACT laid the foundation for electronic messages to replace traditional paper documents, thus making it possible to use EDI across industries and borders.

There are nearly 200 EDIFACT standards and specifications published by UN/ECE, which can be roughly divided into basic categories, message categories, document categories, code categories and management categories.

Intransitive verb ANSI X. 12

At present, there are two main standards related to EDI message format: one is the international standard EDIFACT introduced in the last section, which is suitable for administration, commerce and transportation; The other is American national standard ANSI X. 12, which is applicable to all walks of life. EDIFACT standard is an international EDI standard recognized by the international community. More and more countries and regions support this standard, and many of them have transformed it into their own national standards. However, ANSI X. 12 is still very popular in North America because of its early development and application, so this section introduces it separately.

ANSIX. 12 was formerly the world's first EDI standard-TDCC standard, which was formulated by the American Data Coordination Committee (TDCC) with the support of the US Department of Defense in the 1960s. 1975, American National Standards Institute (ANSI) absorbed and improved the general documents of TDCC, and based on this, formulated the general standard-ANSI X.12 standard, which is applicable to all industries. 1980 X. 12 Appraisal Standards Committee was established, with 10 sub-committee to formulate corresponding trade document formats and standards for different industries and functions. This standard has been popularized in North America and is still in use in the United States.

ANSI X. 12 and EDIFACT have similar architectures. In EDIFACT system, certain electronic documents (such as orders and invoices) are called messages, while in ANSI X 12 system, they are called transaction sets. ANSI X. 12 has published more than 100 transaction set standards.

Seven. FEDI specification

Financial Electronic Data Interchange (FEDI) is the electronic exchange of payment, related payment information or financial related documents between banks and their business partners in a standard way. Because EDI plays an increasingly important role in payment activities and has an important impact on the banking industry, companies, enterprises, governments and financial institutions of different sizes are using financial EDI to make payments to minimize paper flow. At present, FEDI standard is strictly used for B2B transactions.

At present, FEDI has four standard payment methods, namely, cash concentration or payment (CCD) and cash concentration or payment with appendix. CCD+), enterprise trade exchange (CTX) and enterprise trade payment (CTP). These four formats enable trading partners to transmit payment and payment-related information electronically through their financial institutions in a standard format.