Businesses can develop their own EDI software. With this option, a company sends its business transactions to the service bureau which performs the EDI service at its location. Since the fees for this service are generally high, service bureaus are only recommended as a short-term solution. Businesses can purchase an EDI product. As with most software products, EDI products can differ greatly.
Some products provide communications functions.
Some products include forms generation and data entry capabilities. The host of options potentially present in an EDI product can make purchasing the right one a difficult task. By understanding the fundamentals of EDI software, however, one can perform an intelligent evaluation of commercial EDI products. The primary objective of this document is to assist the reader in determining which EDI product, among many candidate products, best meets the reader's requirements. To achieve this objective, the following chapters are provided.