EDI simply and fast explained in Comic style.

1. Hello! My name is Jan Westerbarkey.*
If you have a little time, I would like to
spend the next 7 minutes – you won’t need
more than that to read the following pages
– explaining a little something to you about
EDI and the benefits it can provide you with.
*Jan Westerbarkey is the Managing Director of the Westa Group, together with his twin brother, Peter.
Our customers come from various sectors and industries, and we therefore have a number of inspiring
comparisons and vivid examples of good business practice. This is why we strongly support the further
development of medium-sized businesses and the propagation of EDI, as well as the UN World EDI day.

2. I’m really convinced and excited about a Let me guess ...
process that could save time and money for The following is probably pretty much
medium-sized businesses in particular! the way that orders are processed at
your company at the moment:
And this works both in
ordering system and order
processing areas.
When a customer wants to place an order, he contacts you. Perhaps even several times and in various ways. We are dragged back to the data processing
Stone Age by such processing procedures.
This method of processing orders
and assignments is time-consuming
and, thus, also cost-intensive.

3. If you were to consider the production of a commodity to be like a long ... then it’s as if a fax or an
rope on which all of the respective sections are attached in a row, … e-mail cuts through this rope.
The rope has to be subsequently Then – as we know though experience – this
tied back together by hand. can be very, very annoying and unnecessary!
And this creates unnecessary knots
which can lead to errors. It doesn’t
happen often – but it can happen.
And when it does happen?
Totally unnecessary, because there is an electronic
ordering and processing system that has actually been
on the market for decades, and which could be applied
in practically every business sector world-wide!

4. This is EDI! Principally any type of form can be sent as an EDI message. For example:
offers orders credit items bills
dispatch complaints status requests change orders
notifications
EDI stands for “Electronic Data Integration” and
was developed in the eighties by the World Trade
Organisation. It is an arrangement for the electronic ... and several more.
transmission of business transactions. UNECE
When we perform a bank transfer via online banking systems, the invoice number date product code
“quasi grammar” of EDI is behind that transaction.
consignor consignee
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Because EDI provides an exchange of
formalised data, whereby it is predetermined
in which succession and which format certain
This language is understood all around the world! information appears.

5. The problem until 2006 was that the grammar was actually based on EDI And then myOpenFactory came
in various sectors – but no matter whether business transactions were along – and achieved, to all intents
performed with banks, automotive suppliers or sanitary wholesale traders and purposes, the standardisation
– each had their own dialect. of the standard!
And you can now use this to
your advantage!
But new data processing
equipment or a new system
is probably needed for this?
No! It is not!
All that is necessary is to ensure uniformity of article master data, so that one and
the same article number always refers to the same article. Then all that one needs
to do is to log on to myOpenFactory via a browser. Ready for action!

6. But that’s probably really expensive and
involves a high-maintenance factor?
No! It isn’t and it doesn’t!
No expensive software, no maintenance agreements, no charges for updates.
Only companies already using a merchandise information system will have to install a
printer driver one time, so that the electronic communication can thus be performed.
Therefore, myOpenFactory is pretty cheap for running business operations ...
... In fact it doesn’t get any cheaper! Because the data sets are sent in an encoded form No more communication costs
via the Internet and are, thus, practically free. involved in order processing.
No experts needed for
maintenance of the system …
... if that doesn’t provide saving potential for
money and time, I don’t know what will.

7. And? Are you curious?
You can find more information
under www.myopenfactory.de.
Please feel free to make the
most of this potential too!
It’s usually a good idea to read a reference book first in order to be able to delve deeper
and get a better grasp of a subject. If this is how you like to do things, I would like to
recommend „Effiziente Auftragsabwicklung mit myOpenFactory“ (Efficient Order Pro-
cessing with myOpenFactory) by Günther Schuh, released in 2007 by HANSER VERLAG.
It explains the main features of business news and information exchange based on
case studies. The chapters shine light on the application of myOpenFactory from both
suppliers’ and customers’ points of view, and the numerous tables and graphic
examples make the chapters very easy to understand.
Thus, it soon becomes apparent why “the lowest common denominator” is much more
And don‘t forget: The 12th of flexible in message standardisation than previous sectoral subsets.
November is UN World-EDI-day!