The evolution EDI over the years

Summary: EDI is a 50-year-old protocol that started with dial-up modems, and then moved on to VANS. Further evolutions in the technology led to its continued growth and its popularity will continue to grow as it adopts modern technology.

Electronic data interchange (EDI) is over 50 years old as a protocol. It is the primary method through which suppliers and customers exchange business and financial information. The technology and standards have evolved over the last few years. Let’s take a look at some parts of that evolution:

The original age of EDI is the period before the early eighties. Communication was very basic, with companies using modems to dial each other and exchange information. It was during this period that standards like EDIFACT and ANSI X12 were created. Because of the slow transfer speeds, information exchange was done in batches, with larger files taking minutes per file.

After the original age of EDI, starting in the mid-eighties, we saw the growth of VANS and the proliferation of EDI into other verticals. It was during this decade that desktop computers and the internet became available to smaller organizations. These small and medium sized businesses could now afford to use enterprise level software and services like EDI.

The growth of VANS opened up EDI to many different types of organizations. With a VAN, there were so many more options in terms of communication, speeds, protocols, and security. The ability to buffer data, waiting until the trading partner was ready, and the ability to split payment for the exchange of data were two of the reasons for the continued growth of the technology.

EDI has come a long way and will continue to evolve taking advantage of all the new technology and protocols.