Your integration journey

EDIFACT is the abbreviation for “Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport”. This is a global set of rules defined by the UN for the inter-company electronic data exchange between two or more business partners via EDI.

In 1987, following the convergence of the UN and US/ANSI syntax proposals, the UN/EDIFACT Syntax Rules were approved as the ISO standard ISO 9735 by the International Organization for Standardization.

The EDIFACT standard provides:

• a set of syntax rules to structure data
• standard messages which allow multi-country and multi-industry exchange

The work of maintenance and further development of this standard is done through the United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT) under the UN Economic Commission for Europe, in the Finance Domain working group UN CEFACT TBG5.

EDI ANSI X12 is the abbreviation for Electronic Data Interchange, American National Standards Institute X12 and it was developed to govern the use of EDI exchange of information between businesses, mostly used in the USA and by U.S organizations worldwide, while the rest of the world uses mainly the EDIFACT standards.

It is a standard that was first available and ratified in 1981, although its origins go as far back as the 1960s.

There are hundreds of Transaction Sets available, each one of these being identified by a three digit code number.

OIOUBL is a Danish adaptation of the international standard UBL 2.0 from the standardization body OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) to Danish business requirements. The immediate benefits of using the OIOUBL documents are the standardization of the business documents for different uses. The UBL 2.0 standard is a flexible standard that supports most business needs, and because it is an international standard, documents can be used across borders. The benefits of using OIOUBL are the ability to build fully automated purchasing flow where the electronic documents can be validated and matched automatically, thus contributing to savings in the employee resources normally used for manual processing of business documents.

OIOXML is a project by the Danish government to develop a number of reusable data components serializable in various formats, although currently, the only method of serialization for OIOXML data is in the XML format. This project was undertaken so as to ease communication from, to and between Danish governmental instances. It was made as part of the Danish government’s transition to what they refer to as an eGovernment, in which communication between governmental instances, companies and the public should be paper-free. There has been some confusion as to what OIOXML is as the most prominent OIOXML format, the Danish Efaktura format which is a localization of UBL is also referred to as OIOXML by many governmental documents. It is currently a requirement for all invoices given to a Danish governmental organization to be in the Efaktura format.

BASDA, the Business Application Software Developers Association, represents more than 300 of the world’s leading applications software developers and is the acknowledged voice of the industry, recognised by the United Nations, the European Commission and the United Kingdom Government.

eBIS-XML is BASDA’s electronic business interchange standard in XML. The standard was first developed in 1999 and has been widely implemented since. eBIS-XML is the only standard to have demonstrated and deployed interoperable eCommerce between standard software packages.

The successful development of the BASDA interface is due to the XML technology through which it operates. The standard messages are designed in the form of ‘schemas’ which allow large corporate accounting systems, like SAP, to communicate with small business systems such as TAS Books.

It is very easy for software developers to enable their software for eBIS-XML and up to 100 software suppliers are already working on making their software capable of sending, receiving, reading and posting eBIS-XML messages.

cXML (commerce eXtensible Markup Language) is a protocol, created by Ariba in 1999, intended for communication of business documents between procurement applications, e-commerce hubs and suppliers. cXML is based on XML and provides formal XML schemas for standard business transactions, allowing programs to modify and validate documents without prior knowledge of their form.

The protocol does not include the full breadth of interactions some parties may wish to communicate. However, it can be expanded through the use of extrinsic elements and newly defined domains for various identifiers. This expansion is the limit of point-to-point configurations necessary for communication.

CSV stands for Comma-Separated Values or Character-Separated Values. With Character-Separated Value files any character, not just a comma, can be a delimiter for the data segments.

CSV files store data (numbers and text) within the file in a plain-text form, which means that the file can be opened in a variety of applications.

A CSV file can consist of any number of records, separated by line breaks, with each record consisting of various fields. The fields are separated by a designated character or string, most commonly a comma or a tab.

CSV files are a common message type as they are relatively simple and are widely supported by various systems and applications. CSV is often an alternative import/export format to the systems default file type.

TEAPPSXML is defined using XML syntax. This structured method was created by Tieto and based on XML technology, for presenting invoice message. TEAPPSXML has proven to be a contentually comprehensive method of providing a general invoice message description, suitable for all types of invoices. The needs of business processes, economic steering and economic administration are used as the starting point for the message description.

Finvoice, a publicly available and safe e-invoicing standard designed by Finnish banks, is defined using XML syntax. XML enables the invoice to be represented both in a form understood by the application and, using a browser, in a form corresponding to a paper invoice.

While many European countries already use electronic procurement to make tendering of public sector contracts simpler and more efficient, most of these solutions are implemented solely on a national or regional level, with limited access to other communities. Initiated in 2008, the Pan-European Public Procurement Online (PEPPOL) project has been developing and implementing the technology standards to align business processes for electronic procurement across all governments within Europe, aiming to expand market connectivity and interoperability between eProcurement communities.

PEPPOL enables access to its standards-based IT transport infrastructure through access points, and provides services for eProcurement with standardised electronic document formats (based on UBL and CEN/BII) PEPPOL’s vision is to enable businesses to communicate electronically with any European government institution in the procurement process, increasing efficiencies and reducing costs.

Through agreement on specifications for cross-border procurement processes, the European Commission’s pilot project PEPPOL has contributed to the development of a pan-European, standards-based IT infrastructure. PEPPOL has not replaced, but built upon, the existing strengths of national eProcurement systems by using information and communication technologies to enable them to connect with each other.

PEPPOL does not compete with IT service and solution providers. In fact, IT companies will be the key enablers of PEPPOL’s connectivity, offering new, value added services and solutions to their clients.

As an open standardised platform, PEPPOL’s infrastructure has been designed to interconnect existing networks and bridge individual eBusiness islands in Europe.

GS1 is an international non-profit association with member organizations in over 100 countries. GS1 is dedicated to the design and implementation of global standards and solutions to improve the efficiency and visibility of supply and demand chains globally and across sectors.

GS1 uses XML to create a set of standard messages for the GS1 EDI (Electronic Data Interchange).

A message is created using data from the ERP system. The structure and content of the message is defined in the GS1 XML standards (published as XML schemas)

The Open Applications Group Interface Specification (OAGIS) is a widely accepted standard within the supply chain domain which specifies a standard way of passing data in and out of applications using an XML format. Under the OAGIS standard, related information is bundled into a structure called a Business Object Document (BOD). There are over 120 BODs published.

The Open Applications Group is a non-profit consortium focusing on best practices and process-based XML content for eBusiness and Application Integration. Major vendors of ERP software and some large users of such software are among the members of OAGIS.

OAGI does not specify an implementation architecture (also called an implementation framework).

The XML Common Business Library (xCBL) is a set of XML building blocks and a document framework that allows the creation of robust, reusable, XML documents to facilitate global trading. It essentially serves one language that all participants in e-commerce can understand.

xCBL is the result of extensive collaboration between Commerce One®, and the leading XML standards bodies, e-commerce enterprises, and hardware and software vendors, as well as analysis of existing e-commerce standards.

SFTI, the joint project of the Swedish Association of Local Authorities and Regions (SKL), Financial Management Authority (ESV) and the government contracting authority specified Svefaktura which is a UBL subset.

It was developed with a focus on being simple and making the connection process between buyers and sellers as smooth as possible. Svefaktura can be used in all industries and is well suited for suppliers who do not have such large volumes but is also applicable for larger volumes. It can also be used more easily for cross-border trade.

The Norwegian government has set out public sector targets for e-procurement, in alignment with broader European initiatives. Within Norway, Difi (Agency for Public Management and eGovernment) is officially empowered to develop frameworks and tools for encouraging the adoption of e-Procurement in the public sector. This mandate is supported by legislation passed in 2012, which requires that Norwegian public sector entities must utilize electronic invoicing for all procurement activities.

Since the 1st of July 2011, it became mandatory for all central government entities to receive invoices electronically in a standard format; and from the 1st of July 2012 it became mandatory for central government entities to require their suppliers to invoice them electronically using the EHF format – a national implementation of the PEPPOL Business Interoperability Specifications (BIS) – recommending use of the PEPPOL Transport Infrastructure for business document exchange.

Norway’s e-procurement infrastructure is built around the pan-European PEPPOL standards and network, supplemented by specific national and EU-based systems. This approach helps ensure fast adoption though a high degree of compatibility with buyers’ and sellers’ existing enterprise management and procurement solutions.

Both buyers and sellers can choose to establish their own Access Point or to enter into an agreement with any of the service providers connected to the PEPPOL Transport Infrastructure in Norway, or throughout Europe.

The e2b Invoice format is developed by e2b Forum; a non-profit, user driven organisation run by a group of major Norwegian companies. The main scope of the format is to cover domestic Norwegian invoicing, but it may also be used for cross-border invoicing to a certain extent.

RosettaNet consists of a consortium of major computer, consumer electronics, semiconductor manufacturers, telecommunications and logistics companies working together to create and implement industry-wide, open e-business process standards. These standards form a common e-business language, aligning processes between supply chain partners on a global basis.

The RosettaNet document standard is based on XML and defines message guidelines, business processes interface and implementation frameworks for interactions between companies. Using RosettaNet Partner Interface Processes (PIPs), business partners of all sizes can connect electronically to process transactions and move information within their extended supply chains.

The Brazil tax authority, also known as SEFAZ, imposes a defined electronic standard format that all companies must adhere to closely. “Nota Fiscal Eletronica” (NF-e) is an XML file format officially recognized as the sole and only invoice document of record for tax compliance purposes.

Exchange of data and information by electronic means such as electronic timesheets and invoices is expanding substantially within the staffing industry. An increasing number of organizations are experiencing the benefits of rapid processing, a decrease in the number of errors and lower costs compared to traditional exchange of information on paper.

The Stichting Elektronische Transacties Uitzendbranche (foundation for electronic transactions in the staffing industry) or SETU, is developing and maintaining standards for exchange of electronic data in the staffing industry. Participants are involved in the process of standardization and are supported when implementing these standards in their organization.

IDoc, short for Intermediate Document, is a SAP document format for business transaction data transfers. Non SAP-systems can use IDocs as the standard interface (computing) for data transfer. IDoc is similar to XML in purpose, but differ in syntax. Both serve the purpose of data exchange and automation in computer systems, but the IDoc-Technology takes a different approach.

Tradacoms is an early standard for EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) primarily used in the UK retail sector. It was introduced in 1982 as an implementation of the UN/GTDI syntax, one of the precursors of EDIFACT, and was maintained and extended by the UK Article Numbering Association (now called GS1 UK).
The standard is obsolescent since development of it effectively ceased in 1995 in favour of the GS1 EDIEANCOM subsets. Despite this it has proved durable and the majority of the retail EDI traffic in the UK still uses it.

The Cross Industry Invoice (CII) is a technical specification that can be used to create message syntax which can be exchanged globally between trading partners. Its was developed in UN/CEFACT with input from many business organizations, such as GS1, EUROFER, CIDX, EDIFICE, AIAG/ODETTE/JAMA, GHX, UK e-Government, UK HM Customs & Excise, and EDS.

The Petroleum Industry Data Exchange (PIDX) is the American Petroleum Institute’s committee on global electronic business standards in the oil and gas industry. PIDX’s vision is to achieve petroleum industry and enterprise-wide integration of business processes through seamless electronic business communication. PIDX’s mission is to influence the architecture and facilitate implementation of effective standards and processes for electronic business communications within the petroleum industry community. In addition, PIDX seeks to leverage the inherent value in existing EDI standards as well as actively pursue the benefits of emerging e-Business technologies.