ediblockchain example

The ediblockchain example is an example of using traditional EDI with blockchain. The example is using EDIFACT EDI documents, but the block chain concept is not limited to EDIFACT or EDI documents.

With traditional EDI, participants are using multiple forms of data with their business processes for example:
  • Legacy in-house applications
  • ERP systems like SAP
  • Public EDI standards like EDIFACT, X12, RAIL, HIPAA
  • XML and JSON data
  • Spreadsheets, email, and fax

Participants do business with their partners and handle these different forms of data multiple ways using transformation tools (ITX), vans, peer-to-peer connections, and portals.

They have some very complex maintenance and configuration with all these forms of data and they have tried to keep audit trails and business partner relationships along with maintenance of all this configuration and routing using as few tools as possible. Some Participants have moved some of the complex processing to a Service and so their transformations across all the forms of data is in one location.

This traditional EDI is 30+ years old and with these business processes, there are still gaps. It is difficult to share data with non-edi participants. Some participants are not known or not trusted. They want to expand their business relationships, but the configuration can be a complicated task. Some participants have manual data entry to handle email, fax and non-program readable data prone to errors. The audit trail is compromised or incomplete with some business processes required to keep the information for a designated period.