A Real World Definition


The first industry to put EDI into use was the railroad industry, and the first document used was the waybill. These waybill documents became very dirty as a shipment made is way to its destination.

Moving the waybills electronically would make the process of moving rail cards easier. This is a good example of where EDI worked very well.

Another industry that was in the forefront was the grocery industry, where frequent, repetitive and "dirty" documents were common.

Any document that is repetitive and relatively high in volume is a good candidate for EDI.