Elecronic Data Interchange (edi)

This will become an essential part of trading in the future. It is a form of computer-to-computer data interchange. In effect it is another type of electronic mail. The essential aspect of EDI is that the transfer of data between computers is structured. Data is encoded and decoded by specific recognized formats. The electronic transfer of a purchase order, for example, can be made between the computers of two different organizations.

Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) allows the computer systems of retailers and suppliers to communicate with the minimum of human intervention. A purchase of goods can feed its way back to the manufacturer’s production scheduling system automatically. The sale at a store of a washing machine will automatically actuate an order to the production line for another machine to be sent.

EDI in principle works in a similar way to ordinary postal services. Orders are sent, received, recorded and acknowledged, then goods are dispatched with an invoice.

The difference is that with EDI the documents involved are exchanged electronically instead of on pieces of paper through a postal box. The benefits are speed and accuracy (if the original information is entered properly, there is no room for human error). Some estimates of cost savings have been made for changing to EDI and these can amount to 75 per cent saving on the equivalent paper cost. In addition, cash flow can be improved because invoices are sent out accurately and on time. Automatic acknowledgement is made so that there should no longer be the problem of invoices that in the past were lost or mislaid.

When whole industries move towards paperless trading and cross industry boundaries, and payments are made electronically, the real benefits of EDI will emerge.

Other communication systems

Private Branch Exchange (PBX) systems can be used as a data terminal.Handsets enable work stations to link with each other (for conferencing) or to central data processors and printing equipment. They could be linked to public and private telephone networks. A program for example, stored in a PBX could automatically redirect calls, call back a number engaged, direct calls to selected numbers, or allow several people to take part in a conversation.

Voice synthesis facilities enable a customer, via a touch-tone telephone, to key in a request to a bank for the cash balance position to date and a voice-synthesized answer is given.

Videophone. A standard size push-button telephone has added to it a colour screen which can be raised to allow a person to be seen by means of a built in videocamera. Both parties have to raise their screen and press a video on/off button in order to see each other. Calls cost the same as conventional calls.

A video-telephonic international network could provide for viewing new products, evaluating engineering designs and perhaps interviewing for jobs.

Assignments

I. Match the following English and Ukrainian words and phrases:

to key in	касова готівка
to feed back	економія витрат
high definition copy	система виробничого планування
to actuate an order	класти не на місце
production scheduling system	копія високої чіткості
cost saving	повертатися (до джерела)
to mislay (mislaid)	приводити в дію замовлення
cash balance	уводити з клавіатури

II. Suggest the Ukrainian equivalent of the phrases below:

purchase order; cash flow; to cross industry boundaries; to redirect calls; to call back a number engaged; touchtone telephone; pushbutton telephone; built-in videocamera; handset.

III. Answer the questions:

1. Compare sound and video-conferencing.

2. What are simplex and duplex transmission?

3. What do you understand by the term EDI? What are the advantages of EDI?

4. What do the newest fax machines allow to do?

5. What is PBX?

6. What functions can a videophone perform?