WHAT IS ELECTRONIC COMMERCE (THE EC PART OF EC/EDI)?
Electronic Commerce (EC) is the paperless exchange of business information using Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), Electronic Mail (E-Mail), computer bulletin boards, Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT), and other related technologies. All EC systems replace all or key parts of paper-based workflows with faster, cheaper, more efficient, and more reliable communications between machines. In today’s Defense Department procurement arena, however the most important EC technology to know about is Electronic Data Interchange, or EDI. Within two years, the DOD and other Federal agencies are expected to do 80 percent of the purchasing via computer networks using EC/EDI. WHAT IS ELECTRONIC DATA INTERCHANGE (EDI)? Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is the computer-to-computer exchange of business information by means of standardized transaction sets that have been developed and used over the years in the private sector. Through the use of EDI, transactions can be completed more cheaply and accuratel
