EDI in foreign trade: Case studies in utilisation

At this time UN/EDIFACT is best suited to companies with "tied" customers, e.g. MNCs and their subsidiaries and companies who conduct a very high proportion of their overseas business with a small number of customers. Such EDI utilisation has been found to be most effective in the transport function where the UN/EDIFACT messages are most developed. SMEs are reluctant to invest in traditional EDI at the moment mainly because of the number of participants involved in a single export/import process and the fact that it does not offer complete compatibility with paper-based systems. Additionally, the layout keys described by UN/EDIFACT messages do not follow existing designs for paper-based systems: the SITPRO/ADEEP project is addressing this issue. Training issues are also involved. All types of companies are making increasing use of so-called Web-based EDI via the Internet, particularly as a sales tool.