Synopsis
Archived report. This report was archived in February 2004 and has not been updated. Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) defines a standard form for the electronic exchange of trading documents, such as invoices or purchase and payment orders. It never became mainstream as the proprietary nature of the technology prevented this. The Internet and e-trading have taken over the ‘concept’ role of EDI. Most of the original proprietary services have since been linked to the Internet. The urgent need for security and standardisation has led to the development of Internet-EDI (XML).