Implementing AS2

Why implement AS2?

AS2 is a peer-to-peer protocol that requires an open Internet connection between two trading partners who have unique certification to ensure that it is secure. Messages are typically 'pushed' by the sender as opposed to VANs where information is held in a mailbox waiting to be downloaded by the recipient.

Pushing documents means they can be potentially delivered more quickly, and to ensure receipt, there is a Message Disposition Notification (MDN) accompanying every successful interchange, telling the sender a transmission has indeed made it to the recipients' system. Being able to check delivery all the way to the trading partner rather than just to an intermediary service provider can give much needed peace of mind, especially to organisations working to very tight order to delivery turnaround times. In addition, within the AS2 protocol there are options to encrypt data, providing further peace of mind that all interchanges are secure.

So in summary, AS2 can be viewed as a faster, more secure and more audited delivery mechanism than the VAN that it replaced.

There is another key attraction of AS2 - removing transaction costs. The VAN's have typically operated by charging for each unit of data sent or received (although in recent years the costs for services such as Inovisworks has come down considerably), whereas once AS2 has been successfully implemented there are no transaction costs, making the costs of transacting EDI far lower, particularly for worldwide organisations such as Walmart who have seen their VAN costs plummet since switching to AS2.

There are some costs involved, for example in ensuring you have an Internet connection and access through your firewall for AS2, indeed you will also need to install AS2 software with appropriate up-to-date digital certificates, however costs for these for a high-volume user when compared with equivalent EDI VAN costs.