A

ACH

Automated Clearing House.

ANSI

American National Standards Institute.

ANSI standard

A document published by ANSI that has been approved through the consensus process of public announcement and review. Each of these standards must have been developed by an ANSI committee and must be revisited by that committee within 5 years for update.

ANSI ASC X12

The Accredited Standards Committee X12 comprises government and industry members from North America who create EDI draft standards for submission to ANSI. ANSI ASC X12 will merge with EDIFACT beginning in 1997. Also known as ANSI X12 or ASC X12.

ANX 

Automotive Network Exchange

Application acknowledgement

A transaction set whose purpose is to return a response to a transaction set that has been received and processed in an application program. The purchase order acknowledgement is an example of an application acknowledgement. It is used to respond to the purchase order, presenting such things as whether the receiver can fulfill the order and if it can be done in time.

Application advice

A transaction set that documents errors in the content of any transaction set beyond the normal syntax checks.

ASC

Accredited Standards Committee.

Authentication

A mechanism which allows the receiver of an electronic transmission to verify the sender and the integrity of the content of the transmission through the use of an electronic key or algorithm which is shared by the trading partners. This is sometimes referred to as an electronic signature

B

C

CCITT

Consultative Committee on International Telegraphy and Telephony.

Ciphertext

Encrypted output of a cryptograph algorithm. Input to the decryption process.

Clear Text

Data in its original form. Input to the encryption process and output of the decryption process.

Compliance checking

A checking process that is used to ensure that a transmission complies with ANSI X12 or EDIFACT syntax rules.

D

Data element

The basic unit of information in the EDI standards containing a set of values that represents a singular fact. It may be a single-character code, a literal description, or a numeric value. Examples of a data element are: price, product code and product attribute such as size or color.

Data element separator

A unique character preceding each data element that is used to delimit data elements within a data segment.

Data element type

A data element may be one of six types: numeric, decimal, identifier, string, data or time.

Data Interchange Standards Association

The Secretariat and administrative arm of ANSI X12.

Data segment

A well-defined string of alternating data elements and data element separators. The electronic equivalent of a line item on a business form.

Decryption

A process of transforming ciphertext into clear text for security or privacy reasons.

Delimiters

These consist of two levels of separators and a terminator. The delimiters are an integral part of the transferred data stream. Delimiters are specified in the interchange header and may not be used in a data element value elsewhere in the interchange. From highest to lowest level, the separators and terminator are segment terminator, data element separator, and subelement separator.

Direct transmission

The exchange of data from the computer of the sending party directly to the computer of the receiving party. A third party value added service is not used in a direct transmission code.

DISA

See Data Interchange Standards Association.

E

EC

See Electronic Commerce.

EDI

Electronic Data Interchange. A format in which business data is represented using national or international standards. See also ANSI X12 and EDIFACT.

EDIA

Electronic Data Interchange Association. A nonprofit, public interest organisation designed to develop, foster and maintain a program of action to achieve coordination of data and information systems by the standardisation of descriptions and codes for intercompany computer-to-computer EDI for business transactions.

EDIFACT

Electronic Document Interchange For Administration, Commerce and Transportation. "UN" was added to EDIFACT to indicate messages are approved as United Nations international standards for EDI. Thirty-seven countries are currently implementing UN/EDIFACT. ANSI X12 will merge with EDIFACT beginning in 1997.

EDI translation

The conversion of application data to and from an EDI standard format.

EDI translator

The computer software used to perform the conversion of application data to and from an EDI standard format.

EFT

Electronic Funds Transfer.

Electronic Commerce

Transacting business via electronic means. This includes all forms of electronic media such as FAX, E-mail and EDI. Electronic Commerce is NOT restricted to EDI only.

E-mail

Electronic mail. Text messages sent from one person to another person, on the same or different computer systems. Systems at the same building or site may be connected together with a LAN, while systems at different sites are generally connected by a WAN.

Electronic envelope

Catch-all term for the electronic address, communications transport protocols, and control information. It is the electronic analogy of a paper envelope, i.e. a communications package.

Electronic mailbox

The place where EDI transmission is stored for pickup or delivery within third party service provider's system. Trading partners can also maintain mailboxes within their own domain.

Encryption

A process of transforming clear text into ciphertext for security or privacy reasons.

F

Facsimile machine

See FAX.

FAX

A scanner/printer combination that transmits text and graphics over telephone lines. It uses CCITT Group 3 data compression techniques. Small paper documents can be transmitted over long distances very quickly, but the information is not represented as structured data elements as in EDI.

Functional acknowledgement

A message or transaction set transmitted by the receiver of an EDI transaction to the sender, indicating receipt and syntactical acceptability of data transmitted according to an EDI standard. The functional acknowledgement allows the receiving party to report back to the sending party problems encountered by the syntax analyser as the data are interpreted. It is not intended to serve as an acknowledgement of data content.

Functional group

A group of one or more messages or transaction sets bounded by a functional group header segment and a functional group trailer segment. It is a collection of electronic document information for the same business application.

G

GENCOD

French retail industry standard.

H

I

ICI

Interorganizational Communications and Information Systems

Industry convention

A subset of EDI standards used by a specific industry.

Industry guideline

How the EDI environment uses conventions within an industry. It provides assistance on how to implement EDI standards.

IOIS

Interorganizational Information Systems

ISO

International organisation for standardisation.

ISP

Internet  Service Provider

J

JIT

Just in time (inventory).

K

L

LAN

Local Area Network. LANs are usually restricted to a building. See also Router and WAN.

M

Mapping

The process of identifying the relationship of the standard data elements to application software data elements.

Message

(USA) The entire data stream including the outer envelope. (International) The equivalent of transaction set in the USA.

N

O

ODETTE

European automotive industry standard.

Oracle Exchange

P

PAEB

The Pan American EDIFACT Board is separate from ANSI X12, and it serves as the coordinating body on EDI for national standards organisations of North, Central and South Americas.

Proprietary format

A data format specific to a company, industry or other limited group. Proprietary formats do not comply with EDI standards.

Q

R

Router

The bridge between two or more LANs or a LAN and a WAN.

S

Security

A process of system screening that denies access to unauthorised users and protects data from unauthorised uses. See also encryption.

SGML

Standard Generalized Markup Language, ISO standard 8879.

SPEC 2000

Airline industry standard for spare parts.

Syntax

The grammar or rules which define the structure of EDI standards.

T

TDCC

Transportation Data Coordinating Committee.

TPA

Trading Partner Agreement.

TRADACOMS

United Kingdom retail industry standard.

Trading partner

The sending and/or receiving party involved in the exchange of EDI transmissions.

Transaction set

(USA) The transaction set unambiguously defines, in the standard syntax, information of business or strategic significance. It consists of a transaction set header segment, one or more data segments in a specified order, and a transaction set trailer segment. (International) Known as a message in EDIFACT. It is the electronic equivalent of a business document or business form.

Translation

The act of accepting documents in other than standard format and translating them to the EDI standard.

U

UCS

Uniform Communications Standard for the grocery industry.

UN/EDIFACT

See EDIFACT.

UPC

Universal Product Code.

V

VAN

Value Added Network. These are usually third party service organisations.

VDA

German automotive industry standard.

VICS

Voluntary Inter-Industry Communication Standard for the retail industry.

VPN

Virtual Private Network

W

WAN

Wide Area Network. A WAN is usually used to connect LANs through Routers.

WINS

Warehouse Information Network Standard.

X

XML

See ANSI ASC X12.

Y

Z