What is EDIFACT and EANCOM?

EDIFACT

UN/EDIFACT is used worldwide and is the most widely-used standard for EDI. EDIFACT is administered by the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UN/ECE www.unece.org), and is regularly updated to take account of new business message types and changes in trade regulations. The abbreviation UN/EDIFACT stands for United Nations Electronic Data Interchange for Administration, Commerce and Transport.

EDIFACT effectively provides rules in the form of directories and guidelines to allow the standardisation of data being exchanged between organisations, and covers over 100 different message types.

EANCOM

EANCOM is the international EDI standard used by the EAN organisations, based on UN/EDIFACT and was published in 1990. EANCOM is based around the EAN identification system, which defines unique identifying codes for products and locations (these are often used for bar-coding products as well). The messages have been developed to simplify the communication between companies (particularly across international borders), and are more detailed than the earlier national standards such as TRADACOMS.

Originally designed primarily for the retail sector, EANCOM has grown to become the most widely used UN/EDIFACT subset, and is now found in a variety of other industries including health, building supplies, transport, electronics, and publishing.

Freeway's EDI Software

Freeway's software is already VAN (Value Added Networks) enabled and supports both TRADACOMS and the newer EDIFACT and EANCOM standards.

For more information on the EDI EDIFACT and EANCOM standards and how our range of Spectrum EDI software can help you, call Freeway on 01772 646000.