QAD Pitch Report QAD EDI

QAD Pitch Report

QAD EDI

Introduction to EDI

… the transfer of structured data, by agreed messaging standards, from one computer system to another without human intervention.

… in its simplest form, a way for companies to transmit business documents electronically -- replacing the need for manual input or mountains of paper.

EDI - Definition

• An internationally recognized standard for formatting and exchanging information.

• Simple text files that use delimiters to separate the fields and records.

• Consists of the entire electronic data interchange paradigm including transmission, message flow, document format, and the software used to interpret the documents.

EDI - Standards

• Commonly used EDI Standards are – – The UN-recommended UN/EDIFACT [EDI For

Administration, Commerce, and Transport] dominantly used outside North America.

– The US Standard ANSI X12 [American National Standards Institute] predominantly used in North America.

– The ODETTE (Organization for Data Exchange by Tele-Transmission in Europe] standard used in majority of European Automotive Industry

• In addition to the above mentioned major EDI Standards, country-specific and industry-specific EDI Standards like VDA (Verband der Automobilindustrie) used primarily by German Automotive Industry are also used.

EDI – Terminologies

• Organizations that send or receive EDI document from each other are called ‘Trading Partners’.

• EDI Files transferred between Trading Partners are called ‘EDI Messages’.

• Trading Partners agree on the specific information to be transferred and the usage of the information in EDI Files. The detailed document providing the specifications of EDI Message usage between Trading Partners is called ‘Message Implementation Guidelines’ or ‘Message Implementation Specification’.

• The program or specification definition developed in EDI generation / translation software is called as ‘Mapping’.

EDI – Transmission modes

• Two commonly used modes of transmission are –– Send and Receive EDI Message through

a Value Added Network (VAN). – Transmit EDI Messages through Internet

using AS2 (Applicability Statement 2) Standard.

EDI – Value Added Networks (VAN)

• Hosted Service that acts as intermediary between trading partners sharing either standards based data or proprietary data having shared business processes.

• Traditionally used to transmit EDI Messages.• Can be used to transmit data formatted as XMS

and Binary also.• Apart from receiving, storing and forwarding data,

VAN can also used to – – Retransmit messages.– Add audit information to the messages.– Compress / Decompress messages.– Automatic error detections and corrections.

EDI – Internet / AS2 (Applicability Statement 2)

• Specification for transporting data securely and reliably over the Internet.

• Security is achieved by using digital certificates and encryption.

• Trading Partner sends EDI messages over internet to another trading partner.

• On receipt of the message, the receiving application sends the receipt acknowledgement called MDN (Message Disposition Notification) to sender.

• AS2 protocol is based on HTTP and SMIME.

EDI – Methodology

Sender Applications

EDI Message

Sender Application generates EDI Messages.

The EDI Message generated requires t transformation by

adding appropriate identifiers and control

structures as defined by the Message Implementation

Guidelines.

EDI – Methodology

Sender Applications

EDI Message

EDI Translation software transform the EDI Message into agreed EDI Format by

adding identifiers and control structure as defined by

Message Implementation Specifications. Transmits the

file to the Trading Partner using appropriate

communication protocol.

EDI Translation Software

EDI – Methodology

Sender Applications

EDI MessageEDI Translation Software

Internet/VAN

Message is transmitted through

Value Added Network (VAN) or Internet

EDI – Methodology

Sender Applications


Internet/VAN


EDI Translation Software of Receiver gets the EDI Message. Receiver’s

Translation software validates the Trading Partner Addresses

and Structure of the EDI Message Received. The

Translation software transforms the EDI file into

format that can loaded into the Receiver’s application.

EDI – Methodology

Sender Applications


Internet/VAN


EDI Message

Receiver Applications

EDI Message is loaded into the

Receiver’s Application.

EDI – Methodology

• ERP Applications cannot generate the EDI File exactly as per the Message Implementation Specifications. The actual specific transformations are programmed in EDI Translation Software like Gentran etc.

• The actual transformation instructions developed in EDI Translation Software are called Transformation or Integration Maps.

• ERP’s like QAD allows business created transformation maps to transform the documents from ERP into EDI Formats readable by EDI Translation Software.

EDI – QAD EDI ECommerce

QAD Documents like Order, Shipper etc

Implementation Definition in QAD

QAD Transformation Engine

QAD Document(QDOC)

Exchange Document

(XDOC)Exchange Definition in

QAD

QAD SNF File





QAD Document(QDOC)

Exchange Document


QAD

QAD SNF File

QAD EDI Ecommerce is Table-based. For each Standard QAD

Documents like Order, ASN, Invoice etc Implementation Definition Setup

can be done in QAD as per Sender’s EDI Implementation

Specifications.





QAD Document(QDOC)

Exchange Document


QAD

QAD SNF File

QAD Documents will loaded or unloaded in tables based on Implementation Definition

setup.





QAD Document(QDOC)

Exchange Document


QAD

QAD SNF File

QAD provides Standards Neutral Format (SNF) or XML-formatted

messages. The SNF/XML Formatted EDI files will be

processed through EDI Translation System to transform/transfer to

Trading Partners.





QAD Document(QDOC)

Exchange Document


QAD

QAD SNF File

QAD SNF / XML Format message format is maintained in Exchange Definition Setup. The Exchange Definition is setup based on the Receiver’s EDI Implementation

Specification.





QAD Document(QDOC)

Exchange Document


QAD

QAD SNF File

Exchange Document will be imported or exported in

tables based on Exchange Definition setup.





QAD Document(QDOC)

Exchange Document


QAD

QAD SNF File

QAD Transformation Engine through QAD Transformation Maps will transform QDOC to

XDOC or un-transform XDOC to QDOC.

EDI – QAD EDI Ecommerce Outbound

QADQAD Document

(QDOC)

QAD Transformation

Engine

Exchange Doc(XDOC)

QAD SNF File

Purchase Order from QAD will be converted into QDOC Tables in QAD based on Implementation Definition. This process is called

‘unloading’.

Data elements from Unloaded Purchased Order is transformed

as per the Outbound File requirements based on

Exchange Definition. This process is called ‘Transformation’.

Transformed data elements are exported into normal flat file or as XML-formatted files. This

process is called ‘Export’.

EDI – QAD EDI Ecommerce Inbound

QADQAD Document

(QDOC)

QAD Transformation

Engine

Exchange Doc(XDOC)

QAD SNF File

QAD document data elements from QDOC are converted into

QAD Document like Sales Order or Customer Schedule based on

the QAD Gateway program specific for each QAD

Document. This process is called “Loading”.

Data elements from Imported XDOC is transformed into QAD’s

QDOC as per the Implementation Definition. This

process is called ‘Un-transformation’.

Flat file is read and the contents are imported into QAD XDOC Tables based on Exchange

Definition. This process is called ‘Import’.

QAD Trading Partner Library

• QAD Ecommerce is entirely table-based. • Trading Partner Setups, Implementation Definition,

Exchange Definition and Transformation Definition are stored in QAD Tables.

• All EDI setups in QAD can be downloaded into Text Files. These Text Files can be loaded into any QAD Instance to replicate the setups and definitions. This is called as ‘Trading Partner Library’.

• For any new message specifications, the trading partner setup, definitions and transformation map can be done offsite and stored as Trading Partner Libraries.

Chicken Soup for renovating EDI

• A typical EDI system contains – – A conversion utility program for

importing and exporting EDI-transmitted Data from the company database.

– An EDI translation package for converting raw EDI into and out of an intermediate flat-file format.

– Communications software to interact with VAN.






Any change in EDI specification or standard will lead to program change. Utility programs are not easily

amenable to message specification changes. Exporting or importing EDI data in multiple standards will be

cumbersome.






Better method is to keep the maintain EDI format to be imported / exported as Data and use common EDI engine program to import or export EDI Data. This functionality is supported any ERP with Enterprise

Integration features.






Maintaining intermediate file format for each EDI Message Implementation (having different Standard

and Version of EDI) is difficult to manage.






Maintain one intermediate file format for one document. For example, one intermediate file format for Invoice

irrespective of EDI Standard or version. This will improve portability and maintainability of the EDI System

immensely. Intermediate file to raw message is handled by EDI Translators.






Most of the modern day EDI translators and VAN communication software can work with ERP. This part of

EDI should be easy to handle.






In nut shell, - Replace program-based EDI-data import / export from your business systems with table-based.- Standardize the intermediate flat-file format based on business documents.- Do more than just transformation to raw EDI format from intermediate flat-file format using EDI Translators.

To be continued …