The traditional method of communicating with other companies through the post has long gone and faster methods of faxes and e-mails are used for communications at present. The emails are the most used communication method at present. However, it require human effort to read these communications and precess them into the enterprise software systems. The disadvantage is manual effort wasted in reading the communications and processing them and it is prone to errors.
There is a huge scope for improving efficiency if we can automate the communications between companies. Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is a method used by companies to transfer data between them in a standardised format. The electronically transferred documents can be read by the EDI systems and processed without human effort.
Data between two computer systems can be exchanged by setting up peer-to-peer networks such as a direct EDI, through serial links, or through the internet. Other common EDI network arrangements between business partners include: EDI via Value-Added Network (VAN), File Transfer Protocol over VPN (FTP/VPN), Secure FTP, and Applicability Statement ver. 2 (AS2) and other secure internet protocols. As more trading partners use the Internet for transmission, standards have emerged. In 2002, the IETF published RFC 3335, offering a standardized, secure method of transferring EDI data via e-mail. On July 12, 2005, an IETF working group ratified RFC4130 for MIME-based HTTP EDIINT (a.k.a. AS2) transfers, and the IETF has prepared a similar RFC for FTP transfers (a.k.a. AS3). EDI via web services (a.k.a. AS4) has also been standardised by the OASIS standards body. While some EDI transmission has moved to these newer protocols, the providers of value-added networks remain active.
Some major sets of EDI standards:
The UN-recommended UN/EDIFACT is the only international standard and is predominant outside of North America.
The US standard ANSI ASC X12 (X12) is predominant in North America.
GS1 EDI set of standards developed the GS1 predominant in global supply chain
The TRADACOMS standard developed by the ANA (Article Number Association now known as GS1 UK) is predominant in the UK retail industry.
The ODETTE standard used within the European automotive industry
The VDA standard used within the European automotive industry mainly in Germany
HL7, a semantic interoperability standard used for healthcare data.
Edig@s (EDIGAS) is a standard dealing with commerce, transport (via pipeline or container) and storage of gas.
We have enabled our customers to adopt EDI quickly and efficiently. AMC Bridge is an Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) software solution that integrates Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) softwares with the SPEC2000 network. It converts the documents generated in ERP systems to SPEC2000 messages, transmits and receives the messages.
The software is a web based software that can be hosted on premises or on the cloud. It can run on commodity hardware if the concurrent users are less than 10.
The detailed specifications of AMC Bridge are given below.
SPEC2000 Messages Received
The software reads the messages received and parses the data and saves it into corresponding fields of the Enterprise Software (Eg. S1BOOKED to Sales Orders in ERP). The processing of the messages can be monitored based on the status of the messages shown in the page. The screen through which the received messages can be viewed is shown in the figure below.
SPEC2000 Messages Transmitted
All the messages transmitted with the status can be viewed using this screen. The messages are encoded from the data generated by the ERP software. However, the new enhancements that will be developed for the buyer can be used for entering the information required for generating the SPEC2000 messages. The message transmission page is shown in the figure below.
The messages as it is sent/ received can be viewed in its row form using the message details screen, the user can navigate to the page using the “Update” button. Using the “New” button the message in its row form can be created, it is not recommended as it is difficult to generate these messages as per the specification manually without errors.
A screenshot of the message details screen is given in the figure below.
S1BOOKED – Received Purchase Orders – Enhancement
R&D Dynamics Corporation requires a screen to view the POs received from the customer through SPEC2000 messages. This screen to be developed as an add-on to AMC Bridge. The screen to have two sections, a header showing the customer details and details section showing the PO lines with part details. Detailed design of the screen will be done as a part of development activity after approval of the proposal.
Further, the S1ORDEXC – PO acknowledgement to be sent on receipt of the PO and the order is verified.
S1SHIPPD – Shipping Notice – Enhancement
A screen to enter the details required for the Shipping note to the customer to be developed. The page will be used to generate and transmit SPEC2000 messages.
S1NVOICE – Invoice – Enhancement
A screen to enter the details required for the invoice to the customer to be developed. This page will be used to generate and transmit the SPEC2000 messages.
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