File command used to send EDI data and/or a ??STAT commandto Sterling B2B CollaborationNetwork.

File command you send to Sterling B2B CollaborationNetwork torequest the current status of batches in a designated mailslot.

Report created by Sterling B2B CollaborationNetwork thatlists the statuses and processing date and time of batches currentlyonline in the specified mailslot. This report includes the statusof batches you sent and received.

File command you send to Sterling B2B CollaborationNetwork toretrieve documents from a mailslot.

File command you send to Sterling B2B CollaborationNetwork torequest an On-Demand Mailslot Status Report (060) showing recent mailslotactivity.

The way in which two computers are connected to send and receivedata. Examples of access methods are leased-line frame-relay direct-dialand VPN connections. Also called transport method.

Advanced Communications Function. A product line for IBM? SNA programs suchas ACF/VTAM? and ACF/NCP.

Automated Export System. Electronic export documents supportedby the IBM Sterling U.S. Customsgateway service.

Automated Manifest System. Electronic import and export documentssupported by the Sterling U.S. Customs service.

Communications standard that uses the asynchronous protocolto transfer EDI. The health care industry commonly uses the ANSI Clearstandard to transfer data such as supply orders. ANSI (American NationalStandards Institute) is a standard that is known more commonly todayas ASC X12 and is maintained by the ASC (American Standards Committee).

An ANSI standard for EDI transactions.

Advanced Network Exchange. A set of standards and a privateIP-based physical network defined by the Automotive Industry ActionGroup and administered by a private company SAIC. Sterling B2B CollaborationNetwork providesan interconnect to ANX.

Hosted applications that provide specific industry and businessfunctionality (for example Sterling Data SynchronizationManager).

Applicability Statement 1. A secure Internet messaging standarddevised by the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) for exchangingdocuments over the Internet (EDI-INT). AS1 is an application protocolthat uses SMIME public key cryptography and SMTP as a transport mechanism.Both the sender and receiver require an AS1 system.

Applicability Statement 2. A secure Internet messaging standarddevised by the IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) for exchangingdocuments over the Internet (EDI-INT). AS2 is an application protocolthat uses SMIME public key cryptography and HTTP or HTTPS as a transportmechanism.

American Standard Code for Information Interchange. A binarycode used to represent data characters. ASCII and EBCDIC are the twomost widely used codes.

Communications protocol used to transmit one byte of informationat a time at irregular time intervals. A start bit (one character)precedes the byte (eight characters) of information and a stop bit(one character) follows the byte. Sometimes a parity (checking) bitis included in the transmission to ensure data integrity. The sendingand receiving computers do not have to be synchronized.

Files that are attached to an e-mail message.

Connection process in which one computer modem contacts anothercomputer modem and establishes a connection. Once the autodial featurehas been set up no human interaction is needed to make the connection.

Series of one or more dialing tries Sterling B2B CollaborationNetwork makesto connect to a telephone or modem number to deliver data.

Report created by Sterling B2B CollaborationNetwork tonotify you of a failed autodial attempt to deliver your EDI data.The Autodial Failure Report (031) is also generated when a fax cannotbe transmitted successfully to the receiver.

Control group consisting of one or more interchanges one e-mailmessage or one network report that is assigned a batch number. Typicallyall interchanges sent in one transmission are considered one batch.

Calendar month starting with the first day of the month andcontinuing through the last day of the month.

Data that is sent in a type of file that contains binary numbers(a series of 1s and 0s) or a machine-readable computer program.

Communications protocol used to synchronize data and to sendand receive data at controlled rates.

Digital certificate issued by a certificate authority (CA)for verifying trusted certificates. A CA certificate contains a publickey corresponding to the private key which the CA owns to sign certificatesit issues.

Now ITU. An international organization that sets communicationsstandards.

A digital certificate is like an electronic credit card thatestablishes the user's credentials when doing business or othertransactions on the Web. Certificates are either self-issued (calledself-signed) or issued by a certificate authority. A certificate containsthe user's name a serial number expiration dates a copy ofthe certificate holder's public key (used for encrypting messagesand digital signatures) and the digital signature of the certificate-issuingauthority so that a recipient can verify that the certificate is real.Some digital certificates conform to a standard X.509. Digital certificatescan be kept in registries so authenticating users can look up otherusers' public keys.

A company that is responsible for verifying and processingcertificate requests and for issuing and managing digital certificates.

Set of rules defining how two computers communicate. Two computerscommunicating using the same protocol is like two people talking toeach other using the same language.

Process of sending and receiving data between two computersconnected by a communications line. A communications session beginswhen the connection is established and ends when the connection isbroken.

Report containing information that you can use to track yourEDI data through its life cycle.

Process of changing parts of an EDI message from one formatto another format. For example Sterling B2B CollaborationNetwork canchange the segment terminator character to another character usedby a business partner.

Report that Sterling B2B CollaborationNetwork createsto summarize the processing activity of a mailslot for data sentreceived or retrieved on the previous day (the day before the reportwas created). It also reports any data processed before the previousday but not yet retrieved.

Smallest unit of EDI data. Examples of data elements are asender ID and a receiver ID.

Placed before each data element in a segment to mark the beginningof that data element. Without data element separators an EDI translatordoes not know where one variable-length data element ends and anotherbegins.

Report style that is machine-readable by computer software.Information in the data format sections is for technical staff suchas software developers.

Division of a mailbox that contains data sent to you by yourtrading partners. The data mailslot ID ends with D unless you changeit. Depending on your mailbox setup you can have certain documentsdelivered to specified data mailslots.

Set of translation instructions showing the relationship betweenthe data elements in an EDI standard and the equivalent fields ina fixed-length format. Data maps are used for in-network translationsof private formats or human-readable print formats.

Process of resending data from a mailslot.

Process of restoring data removed from a mailslot.

Interface that monitors the connection between the modem andthe telephone circuit. DSR is used to notify you of line drops.

A communications device typically a computer that is thesource or destination of signals in a network.

Document obtained from a certificate authority (CA) that enablesusers to identify themselves to a Web browser e-mail reader or secureserver. The digital certificate contains the user's public keyidentity information and one or more digital signatures.

Process of using a modem to connect two computers or a computerand a network over a regular telephone line.

See Data Set Ready (DSR).

See Data Terminating Equipment(DTE).

Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code. A binary codeused to represent data characters. EBCDIC and ASCII are the two mostwidely used codes.

Electronic commerce. The electronic transfer of business documentsfrom company to company.

See Electronic Data Interchange(EDI).

An EDI ID is the unique identification string of alphanumericcharacters used to distinguish one user from all other users in anEDI network. Within EDI transmissions the EDI ID is used with a qualifierto identify a business to its business partners. The ID-qualifierpair must be unique on Sterling B2B CollaborationNetwork andremains the same whether it corresponds to the sender or the receiverof a transmission. A business chooses its EDI ID and qualifier pairand shares it with its business partners. An EDI ID is sometimes referredto as a sender/receiver ID.

An exchange of EDI data between a sender and receiver. A singletransmission of EDI data may include many sections of data each taggedfor a different receiver and representing one interchange. Howevereach interchange may contain multiple messaging envelopes and multipleEDI documents for that receiver.

Format for EDI documents that specify what information goeswhere within an EDI document. Your industry or trading partners determinewhich EDI standard you must use. When information is missing or inthe wrong place the EDI document may not be processed correctly.

Electronic Data Interchange for Administration Commerce andTransport. EDIFACT was one of the first information standards createdfor e-business transactions.

See Sterling e-Invoicing.

Autodial method in which Sterling B2B CollaborationNetwork deliversdata after a specified time period has expired. Delivery is not attemptedif your mailslot is empty.

A method of transferring electronic data in a predefined formatfrom one computer application to another over a communications link.Often used to refer to a series of uniform formats or standards thathave been developed to create electronic versions of traditional businessdocuments. Over time a number of standards have evolved many ofthem specific to certain industries or to certain geographic regionssuch as Europe or North America. Each standard specifies the typesof information included the order of information and the tags (orcodes) that are embedded in the information to identify differentsections.

Report created by Sterling B2B CollaborationNetwork listingthe itemized charges for the previous month's services the processingfor the entire mailbox and the sum total due to IBM.

EDI envelopes are like paper envelopes that enclose paper documents.EDI envelopes consist of a header segment a trailer segment andEDI data.

Exchange services enable users to exchange business documentselectronically and allow users to communicate securely with anyonein any way regardless of protocol application format and preferredcommunication method.

Based on Greenwich mean time (GMT) and includes expanded fieldinformation useful for certain EDI standards such as UN/EDIFACT. Thedata format of this version contains 133 bytes of data.

First in first out processing. Because Sterling B2B CollaborationNetwork processesall data immediately it is possible for smaller files or EDI Interchangesto be processed and delivered before larger files that may come intothe system first but take longer to process. FIFO processing handlesdata in the order in which it is sent.

Instructions you send to Sterling B2B CollaborationNetwork tostart end or control a specific operation or task.

An application protocol that runs over TCP/IP and providesthe simplest way to exchange files between computers on the Internet.Both the sender and the receiver require an FTP system.

Type of data element or segment with a specific number of characters.For example a company name data element might have a fixed lengthof thirty-five characters.

File structure in which the data has a constant number of characters.For example the State data element contains two characters. A dataelement can contain filler characters to make it fixed length. Forexample a three-character Country Code is followed by two blanksto make a fixed-length country code data element of five characters.

Data communications technology that lets you transmit dataat high speeds.

Transaction set sent by the receiver that tells the senderthe EDI was received. Functional acknowledgments are used in the ANSIX12 standard. Functional acknowledgments are never acknowledged themselves.

One or more transaction sets of the same type transmitted fromone sender to one receiver. For example a functional group can bea set of five purchase orders. A functional group is enclosed in afunctional group envelope.

Surrounds a functional group and is made up of a functionalgroup header and trailer segment pair. When data is transmitted thefunctional group envelope signals a change in the transaction settype sender or receiver.

Two-character code that represents the document or messagetype.

Greenwich Mean Time. The standard time now called CoordinatedUniversal Time (UTC). See UTC.

Also called envelope conversion service. Conversion of EDIenvelopes (interchange and functional group) from one type to anothertype within the same standard. Both the header and trailer segmentsare converted without changing the body of the data.

First EDI data segment in an envelope. The header segment containsa control number data element that identifies the envelope.

IBM providesand operates your electronic commerce hardware software and applicationand other support. Hardware is maintained on IBM property.

Hypertext Markup Language. The document format used on theWorld Wide Web. Web pages are created with HTML tags or codes embeddedin the text. These codes define the page layout fonts graphic elementsand links to other documents.

Hypertext Transport Protocol. The communication protocol usedto connect to servers on the World Wide Web. Its primary functionis to establish a connection with a Web server and transmit HTML webpagesto the client server.

Also called HTTP over SSL. A Web protocol that uses SSL asa sublayer for HTTP for added security. If security is a concernHTTPS should be used.

Microsoft InternetInformation Server. Web server software that runs under Windows NT and supports SSL security protocol.

Autodial method in which Sterling B2B CollaborationNetwork deliversthe data as soon as it is received in your mailslot.

One-character code that represents a data standard or industry.

International communications standard used to send voice videoand data over digital phone lines at high speeds.

Performs data translation and flat-file conversions. Includesfax services.

All data sent from one sender to one receiver in a single datatransmission. A sender can include multiple interchanges in a singletransmission each to a different customer.

Encloses an interchange. An interchange header segment andinterchange trailer segment pair form the interchange envelope. Ina data transmission each new interchange envelope signals a changein the sender and/or receiver.

Process of connecting one network or VAN such as Sterling B2B CollaborationNetworkto another network or VAN for the purpose of sending and receivingdata.

Document the receiving EDI network sends to the sending EDInetwork stating that the mailbag envelope was received. An interconnectacknowledgment is sent in a different mailbag envelope than the oneit is acknowledging and is never acknowledged itself.

See Transmission Control Protocol/InternetProtocol (TCP/IP.

Internet Service Provider. A business that sells a telecommunicationsconnection to the Internet.

Formerly CCITT. An international organization that sets communicationsstandards.

Time period that starts when the sender EDI system createsthe EDI document and ends when the receiver EDI system passes theEDI document to the receiver business applications.

Measurement of the rate that data is transmitted over a communicationsline. Line speed is usually measured in bits per second (bps) or kilobytesper second (Kbps).

EDI envelope that encloses interchanges interconnect acknowledgmentsor both for sending to another EDI network through an interconnect.The envelope identifies the interconnect mailbag sender and receivernetworks and provides data control information. Using this methodinterconnecting EDI networks can exchange logon and password information.

Electronic storage place for EDI data e-mail and networkreports. Sterling B2B CollaborationNetwork usesa five-character mailbox ID assigned by Customer Support to identifyeach mailbox. A mailbox is usually divided into at least two mailslotsbut can contain many more.

Division of a mailbox that can contain types of documents.For example one mailslot may contain purchase orders whereas anotherone may contain invoices. You can use a different mailslot for eachof your business partners functional group types standards