GS1 EDI
Celebrating 35 Years of EANCOM: reflecting on the journey and looking ahead
As we celebrate the 35th anniversary of EANCOM, we take a moment to reflect on the remarkable journey that brought us here and look forward to the promising future that lies ahead. The origins of EDI can be traced back to a time long before the invention of computers, to 1948 in Berlin. During the Berlin Airlift, U.S. Army Master Sergeant Edward A. Guilbert and his fellow logistics officers developed a standard manifest system to be transmitted via telex, radio-teletype, or telephone. This system allowed them to efficiently track and manage thousands of tons of cargo daily, ensuring the delivery of 2.3 million tons of goods to West Berlin over a year. Guilbert’s innovative structured shipping manifests laid the groundwork for what would eventually become EDI.
Fast forward to June 1989, a significant milestone in the history of EDI as EANCOM was born. As the first global standard to follow the GTIN (Global Trade Item Number) standard, EANCOM has continually evolved to meet the changing needs of global commerce. The adoption of EANCOM has steadily increased since its inception, providing a robust framework for machine-to-machine digital exchanges and the unique identification of entities within supply chain processes.
Today, EANCOM remains one of the most widely adopted GS1 standards, utilised by hundreds of thousands of users across various industries, including manufacturing, automotive, healthcare, and retail. Each year, billions of EANCOM messages are exchanged, facilitating fast, efficient, and secure business processes. As we look to the future, EANCOM continues to stand as a reliable and indispensable platform for B2B communications, poised to remain at the forefront of digital data exchange for decades to come.
EDI is the backbone of digitalization in Germany, and EANCOM provides a competitive advantage for the retail sector and beyond. For our community and the Member Organizations, having an active group of EDI experts organized by GS1 Global Office is crucial for developing global EDI standards. I am proud to host our EANCOM Community in Germany, bringing all major players on board!
Roman Strand, Senior Manager, Master Data & Data Exchange
GS1 Germany
GS1 EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) provides global standards for electronic business messaging that allow automation of business transactions commonly occurring across the entire supply chain.
It covers master data alignment, order and delivery and financial settlement management, as well as transport and warehouse management. The main business partners in scope for this are retailers, manufacturers, material suppliers and logistic service providers.
While, in the market, the need for digitisation of business data is increasing more and more, the technological evolution may require the players to extend and modify their EDI implementations with frequency, in response to new legal or business requirements.
In order to facilitate these implementations, reducing ambiguities in the content of transactional messages and in the use and definition of the business terms, GS1 has developed a new methodology, based on a semantic approach, aiming at facilitating the support of new syntaxes, technologies and requirements emerging from the market.
GS1 has currently four sets of complementary EDI standards:
They are being implemented in parallel by different users, although XML is better adapted to exchange information using the internet-based technologies.
Who is using GS1 EDI standards?
The GS1 Global Office runs the annual survey aimed at assessing the state of the EDI community worldwide. It measures the implementation of the EDI standards in countries where there are GS1 Member Organisations.
You can find a full report with detailed results below:
Implementation of GS1 EDI standards in 2020 – Full report with detailed results
As the lead of EDI for Nestlé Germany and Austria, EDI has been the backbone for all our external electronic business processes for nearly 30 years. Regardless of whether Order to cash (O2C), Warehousing or even upstream, all processes are covered with EDI using EANCOM and the agreed standards. Therefore, we are heavily involved in several working and project groups at GS1 Germany. For Nestlé, EDI is not indispensable anymore.
Michael Moise, Data & Analytics | Lead ECR/EDI Management
Nestlé Germany
Did you know that in 2020
- GS1 EANCOM standards were implemented by almost 126,000 companies
- GS1 XML standards were implemented by almost 47,000 companies
- The three most used messages are: Order; Invoice; & Despatch Advice (also known as Advanced Ship Notice)
- API, JSON and JSON-LD technologies are implemented or under investigation in more than ten countries around the world
Standards
Standard Business Document Header (SBDH)
Guidelines
GS1 Pharmaceutical Clinical Trial Electronic Messaging Standard Implementation Guideline
AS4 - A new tools for the B2B toolbox
GS1 Newcomers to AS2 Implementation Guide
AS2 Disaster Recovery Implementation Guide
EDIINT AS1 and AS2 Transport Communication Guidelines
GS1 Third Party Data Exchange in Healthcare Implementation Guide
GS1 Logistics Interoperability Model Application Standard
How to apply GS1 keys in UBL messages Guideline
Use of GS1 keys in GS1 EDI messages Guideline
GS1 XML Transport Instruction and Response Implementation Guide
GS1 EANCOM Transport Instruction Implementation Guide
GS1 Application Standard for usage of ISO/IEC 6523 International Code Designator (ICD) 0209
Methodology Documents
GS1 EDI Code List Maintenance Policy
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