Computer Networks

Tutorial #21

1. Can you think of any other forms of electronic commerce than those mentioned in today's lecture?

2. What is Electronic Data Interchange? How is it different to the Internet and Unix electronic mail facilities you have used?

3. Describe three (or more) advantages of using EDI compared to manual systems. Do any of these seem more important than others?

4. Describe the three key components of an EDI system. Are all three of these necessarily going to be required in every EDI implementation?

5. What is the significance of each of the X.12 and EDIFACT standards for EDI?

6. Comment on the EDIFACT message structure. Why is it regarded as somewhat old fashioned?

7. (Philosophical question) The emergence of the Internet has changed the way in which many businesses do their computer networking. Discuss the options for EDI in the Internet context. Are there likely to be cost benefits from using the Internet instead of a proprietory EDI service? What factors do you think are limiting the use of the Internet for EDI? What does the future hold?

Practical exercises:

• Follow some (or all!) of these EDI links from the lecture notes. Try and find some more information on the EDIFACT standards -- for example, can you discover more details of the EDIFACT message structure? What about ANSI X.12? More interesting: what can you discover about the XML/EDI project?

• What was ODA (mentioned in the first slide of the lecture) and why has it disappeared?

• Are you aware of any local businesses who use EDI on a regular basis? What have their experiences been? Is it worth the effort?