Our ASC X12 EDI solutions enable standardized electronic data exchange, ensuring accurate, efficient communication with trading partners across industries.

Tag Archive for: ASC X12 EDI

EDI Integration of B2B E-commerce for Small Companies

Navigating B2B E-Commerce: A Small Company’s Guide to Seamless EDI Integration

More and more companies in the B2B vertical, are expanding their business to the web and doing more of what is called today B2B e-commerce. Those companies of all sizes are realizing the importance of automation and the value of exchanging EDI with their business partners, suppliers, and buyers.

For small companies in the B2B market, trading with large retailers such as Costco, Wal-Mart, Target or Home Depot is a great opportunity for their business. However, many small and medium-sized enterprises are missing out on this chance due to the fear of large retailers’ requirement to comply with their EDI rules.

In most cases, EDI is the de-facto protocol to communicate and exchange business documents between big-box retailers and their suppliers.

EDI is used to automate the process of exchanging business documents between trading partners. Essentially, it is the solution for B2B and is quite popular amongst retail, manufacturing, transportation, health care, and other industries. By automating documents exchange process, companies can benefit in many areas.

To those who do not know much about Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), it sounds quite complicated at first. There are different EDI standards, requirements, EDI formats, communication protocols such as AS2, sFTP, VAN, different documents / transactions (i.e. 850, 810, 846 856, etc.) which differ depending on company and industry.

EDI Integration projects seem daunting and expensive, which can explain why many smaller businesses still do not communicate with their trading partners through EDI. However, the key is to find the right EDI provider who can offer solutions and services that are simple, affordable and quick to onboard.

An EDI provider like EDI2XML offers 2 options for EDI integration projects:

Fully Managed EDI

This option is a “turn-key solution” where our team at EDI2XML, takes care of all the project: setup, configuration, testing, certification with your EDI partners …

Our monthly pricing packages are dynamic, they go up and down based on the volume and you are not locked in in any tier. Following is a diagram illustrating the flow of information with our EDI as a service offering.
EDI integration platform

By using our EDI Web Service, you can enhance efficiency, reduce errors, and improve collaboration with your trading partners.

EDI2XML Web Services

This option is meant for companies who got their own technical resources to work with REST API (call and consume HTTP Rest Web services); In such a scenario EDI2XML web services is the way to go for the following reasons:
  • Self-service solution,
  • Low cost,
  • Quick entry: you can be up and running in less than an hour, and it is proven; we provide everything to your developers to get started, a java client with its source code and instructions on how to work with it.
  • We offer the xml schemas (xsd) of the XML format our API expects, and all that you need to do is to format your data according to that format and you will be up and running.
  • We offer 15 days free trial, without any commitment.

Advantages of Using EDI
B2B edi Integration

Integrating Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) into B2B e-commerce can bring significant benefits to small companies. EDI allows for the automated exchange of business documents and data between trading partners, streamlining communication, reducing manual effort, and improving efficiency.

Integrating Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) into B2B e-commerce can bring significant benefits to small companies. EDI allows for the automated exchange of business documents and data between trading partners, streamlining communication, reducing manual effort, and improving efficiency.

With EDI, orders, invoices, and other business documents can be sent straight from your ERP management system to the EDI Provider, where they can process this XML file into EDI format and then sent to the Trading Partner.

Orders come in as EDI, get translated into XML format and then get sent straight to your ERP system (if integration was done). In most cases where integration to your ERP solution is done, no human intervention is even needed. This saves so much time and effort and finally allows your employees to get a lot more time on their hands for other important tasks, eliminating so much of the manual data entry.

When it comes to EDI, every case is different. It’s all about finding the right EDI provider that can help you with this process and ensure it’s simple and efficient as can be. Automating B2B processes with EDI can help companies stay profitable by letting them keep up with market changes and trends.

Look at EDI2XML, and book a free consultation with one of our EDI experts!
EDI price

ANSI ASC X12 Standards Overview

This post was updated to reflect current trends and information.

To exchange business documents and transactions between business partners via EDI (electronic data interchange), most companies in North America use the EDI ANSI ASC X12 Standards. This overview provides some basic information about the X12 standards for electronic data interchange (EDI).

What do ANSI, ASC, X12, and RSC mean?

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a non-profit organization that controls the development of standards for processes, services, and products in the United States. ANSI also synchronizes U.S. standards with international standards so that American products can be used all over the world.

X12 Overview

Chartered by the ANSI for over 40 years, X12 develops and maintains EDI standards and XML schemas that govern business processes around the world.
X12 is comprised of thousands of experts representing over 600 companies from various industries. X12 Membership is open to any organization, company, or even individual, who directly and materially affected by X12 activities.
To facilitate the exchange of business transactions, X12 members regularly optimize the EDI standard.
X12 consists of two committees:
– Accredited Standards Committee (ASC)
– Registered Standards Committee (RSC).

Useful: What is EDI? (A technical introduction to EDI)

Accredited Standards Committee ACS

Since 1979, the Accredited Standards Committee X12 (ASC) has been developing and maintaining the X12 standard, which can be represented as US national standards or UN / EDIFACT international electronic data interchange standards.

The ASC is composed of different subcommittees:
– X12C – Communications and Controls
– X12F – Finance
– X12I – Transportation
– X12J – Technical Assessment
– X12M – Supply Chain
– X12N – Insurance

Registered Standards Committee (RSC)

The RSC is responsible for the development and support of X12 work products for various industries but is not intended to be presented as US national standards.

What is EDI ANSI ASC X12 Standards?

The ANSI ASC X12 Standards is sometimes called the EDI ASC X12, ANSI X12, ASC X12, or simply the X12 Standard. X12 is a set of standards and rules that determine a specific syntax for structuring and transferring electronically business documents between partners. There are different types of business documents in EDI, which often are called “Transaction Sets”.

ASC X12 Transaction Set

The Transaction Set – is a single business document such as a Purchase Order, Invoice, Student Educational Record (Transcript), Healthcare claim, Ship Notice (ASN). There are hundreds of Transaction Sets available in the ANSI ASC X12 standards. Each set of transaction data is identified by a 3 digits code number:

ASC X12 Transaction Set

X12 Transaction Set Structure

Many X12 transaction sets have 3 parts. The segments that can be used in each of these parts in a particular document (such as an invoice) are listed in the related tables defined in the X12 standards document. For example:

X12 Transaction Set Structure

ASC X12 Segments and Sequence

The following Purchase Order example, shows which segments can be used in the transaction set and the desired sequence of segments:

ID            TITLE

ST           Transaction Set Header

BEG        Beginning Segment for Purchase Order

CUR       Currency

REF         Reference Identification

PER        Administrative Communications Contract

TAX        Tax Reference

FOB        F.O.B. Related Information

CTP        Pricing Information

PAM      Period Amount

CSH        Sales Requirements

TC2         Commodity

Beginning and Ending ASC X12 Transaction Sets:

• A transaction in an X12 document, always begins with the Transaction Set Header (ST) segment

• A transaction in an X12 document always ends with the Transaction Set Trailer (SE) segment

X12 Structure

If you want to learn more about the structure of EDI ANSI ASC X12, please read this article: EDI ANSI ASC X12 – Technical Overview

ANSI X12 EDI document types

Since a uniform standard of EDI (electronic data interchange) ANSI X12 was developed, a huge number of companies use it in its business-to-business (B2B) operations. Although ANSI X12 standard was developed to support companies in different types of industries in North America, these days, businesses worldwide are using X12 EDI standard.

As mentioned above, there is a huge amount of ANSI X12 document types available for use. ANSI X12 standard is used in finance, transportation, healthcare, insurance, government, supply chain and other industries for performing diverse operations. The example below shows some of those EDI documents:

Communications and Control:

  • EDI 864 Text Messages
  • EDI 997 Functional Acknowledgment
  • EDI 999 Implementation Acknowledgment
  • EDI 993 Secured Receipt or Acknowledgment

Finance:

  • EDI 130 Student Educational Record (Transcript)
  • EDI 262 Real Estate Information Report
  • EDI 810 Invoice
  • EDI 812 Credit/Debit Adjustment
  • EDI 131 Student Educational Record (Transcript) Acknowledgment
  • EDI 149 Notice of Tax Adjustment or Assessment
  • EDI 150 Tax Rate Notification
  • EDI 821 Financial Information Reporting

Transportation:

  • EDI 120 Vehicle Shipping Order
  • EDI 106 Motor Carrier Rate Proposal
  • EDI 419 Advance Car Disposition
  • EDI 216 Motor Carrier Shipment Pickup Notification
  • EDI 309 Customs Manifest

Supply Chain:

Insurance:

  • EDI 270 Health Care Eligibility/Benefit Inquiry
  • EDI 271 Health Care Eligibility/Benefit Response
  • EDI 111 Individual Insurance Policy and Client Information
  • 837 Health Care Claim

EDI Outsourcing

We support all EDI standards including ANSI(ASC) X12, EDIFACT, RosettaNet, HIPAA / X12. We provide a cloud-based, fully managed EDI integration solution under our program EDI2XML Managed Services which allows our clients to interact with their business partners without implementing a complex EDI infrastructure.

Our popular managed EDI integration service, is accessible and affordable to even small- and medium-sized businesses.

Book a FREE one-on-one EDI consultation session with our in-house experts.

Benefits of fully managed EDI service:

• Time: Reduced transaction processing time and improved customer service

• Cost: Improved inventory management and minimized use of paper and physical storage

• Quality: Enhanced business relationships with your business partners, and accuracy of information

• Profit: Reduce costs

• Efficiency: Increased productivity

EDI2XML Web Services (Rest API)

EDI2XML web services, our REST API to convert X12 to XML and vice versa meant for companies who got their own technical resources to work with REST API (call and consume HTTP Rest Web services).

Benefits of EDI2XML web service:

  • Self-service solution
  • Low cost
  • Quick entry: you can be up and running in less than an hour, and it is proven
  • We offer a 15 days free trial, without any commitment.

Contact us for more information and for pricing.