About Electronic Data Interchange

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) covers a set of data formats used to exchange formal business documents between companies.

These data formats have a long history of usage in the industry starting from the 1980s. EDI formats are standardized by various governing bodies. The two major formats are:

EDI X12 format, governed by the ANSI X12 standards body. EDI X12 is a data format used to exchange specific data between trading partners. The term trading partner may represent an organization, group of organizations, or some other entity. It is typically just an organization or company.
UN/EDIFACT format, governed by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE).

The governing bodies define formats for several types of business documents, such as a purchase order, invoice, insurance claim, and so on that are used across many vertical industries, such as supply chain, finance, transportation, and insurance. While EDI has a dominant place in B2B (business to business) communications, other formats based on XML are also in use today. B2B for Oracle Integration currently supports the EDI X12 and UN/EDIFACT formats.

Here's an example purchase order in the ANSI EDI X12 format.

ISA|00|          |00|          |01|111111T        |01|22222          |190312|0845|U|00401|000001894|0|T|~
GS|PO|0124578|ACME|20190312|084515|0123456|X|004010
ST|850|1234
BEG|00|NE|45030000000||20190312
CUR|2L|USD
REF|IT|999|Global Chips
REF|WO|P8923.5
REF|KY||Standard Terms and conditions will apply
FOB|PC|OR|ORIGIN FREIGHT COLLECT|02|FOB
ITD||3|||||10|||||P03R
DTM|002|20190329
TD5|B||05||Ground
N1|BT|Global Chips
N2|ACCOUNTS PAYABLE
N3|P.O. BOX 1111
N4|NEW YORK|NY|10001|US
PER|BD|JAMES SMITH|TE|1112223333|EM|jamess@globalchips.com
PO1|00001|1|EA|74.99|PE|BP|5566|VN|AB-1264
PID|F||||AB-1264 BRACKET ASSY WITH SPRING
PO1|00002|1|EA|25.00|PE|BP|7264|VN|DE-1834
PID|F||||DE-1834 GEAR BOX PACKAGE
CTT|2|2
AMT|TT|99.99
SE|22|1234
GE|1|0123456
IEA|1|000001894

Here's an example purchase order in the ANSI EDI UN/EDIFACT format.

UNB+UNOA:1+US::US+50138::THEM+140531:0305+001934++ORDERS'
UNH+1+ORDERS:91:2:UN'
BGM+220+A761902+4:20140530:102+9'
RFF+CT:EUA01349'
RFF+AAV::C'
TXT+THIS IS WHAT AN EDI MESSAGE WOULD LOOK LIKE... '
NAD+BY++OUR NAME PLC::::+++++EW4 34J'
CTA+PD'
COM+01752 253939:TE+01752 253939:FX+0:TL'
CTA+OC+:A.SURNAME'
COM+2407:EX'
CTA+TI+:B.BROWN'
COM+0:EX'
CTA+SU'
COM+0161 4297476:TE+01752 670633:FX'
UNT+15+1'
UNZ+1+001934'