Tuesday 4 November 2008

Electronic Data Interchange Needs Electronic Paper

There is probably a word for it. You know, when you are struggling to express an idea and try several times without being satisfied that you are getting your point across. Or indeed not sure what your point is. Then someone else hits the nail on the head. Then you feel the ping of recognition, the swell of confirmed pride and the annoying jealousy of "I wish I had said that".

I want EDI to be easier. Correction, I want EDI to be easy.

In a previous article I was poking fun at the format explosion and buzz word bingo that goes on in the EDI world. The idea that standards are good so we need more of them. The dis-ing of everything that has gone before as "legacy". The constant re-invention of the wheel without leaning the lessons of history.

As a throw-away remark I said in a future article I would announce a solution based on "Facsimile Technology". I knew what I was referring to but up until now I hadn't been able to express it clearly. Then I read it else where.

At The Register, Chris Mellor has an Article entitled "The latest EDI money saver? Paper invoices - Use humans, save money".

I suspect the title is being deliberately provocative. He describes a system where a Scanner is used with OCR to create "electronic copies" of invoices that are machine readable. This is not new and there are other scanner/OCR solution providers out there. If you can't get all your suppliers to send EDI invoices, it is a great way to deal with paper invoices.

The people selling this system explain their thinking...

EDI leaves IT departments perpetually recoding (changing standards, used in differing ways, new formats, different communication protocols).
No all-embracing EDI standard is going to emerge.
The number of paper invoices still being produced after all these years of EDI effort - is massive.

... so if EDI is a failure, accept it and learn to deal with the paper.


I don't want EDI to be a failure, yet I can't believe in a "paperless office". So lets study what paper has going for it.

Paper is ubiquitous, cheap and can be put to many uses.
It can be supplied by many sources and what differences exist (size, weight, color) don't cause tie in.
Organisations are already adapted to handle it.
Humans interface with it easily.


If we look at it the other way, as a sender of invoices. If we accept that some receivers will simply convert (map) the files to paper. Is there an electronic form that EDI enabled receivers can use, yet is just as good as paper for those that aren't enabled? To come close I believe the receiving user should be able to view a list of invoices in a computer folder, like any shared folder. A double click should instantly display the same image as the old paper format. Click print, and it prints. In the folder view, highlight several, Left click, select print, and several print.

HTML & PDF files do this. XML with style sheets come close. ODF & OOXML are related to XML. DOC is closed secret and proprietary.

The file types that don't do this are X12, Edifact, Eancom, Tradacom, Odette (sorry traditional EDI).

The file format is only part of the story. The delivery mechanism needs to be as universal as snail mail. Is there an electronic protocol that EDI enabled receivers can use, yet is just as good as snail mail for those that aren't enabled?

Email is close to this. However it is a bit like using post cards with no certainty of delivery.


In my view EDI needs to be so simple and fault tolerant, that it can be done with a laptop office productivity software. That may mean we have to make changes to our office productivity software. But we definitely need to make changes to our EDI.