EDI VAN (Value-Added Network) is a critical component of the global EDI ecosystem, enabling seamless and secure data exchange to accelerate supply chains.
For anyone involved in EDI, understanding VAN and its role in facilitating efficient document exchanges is essential.
This guide aims to provide valuable insights into the workings of EDI VAN and highlights how Boomi can simplify integration with EDI VAN.
✅What is EDI VAN?
A VAN mailbox functions much like an email inbox, allowing you to send and receive messages—in this case, EDI transactions—between your trading partners. To exchange EDI documents via a VAN, you need to set up a mailbox with a VAN service provider. Some of the prominent VAN providers are OpenText, IBM Sterling, Loren Data ECGRID, SPS Commerce, True Commerce etc.
You and your trading partner can either use the same VAN provider or different ones. If different VAN providers are used, a VAN interconnect must be established to facilitate the exchange of documents between the two networks.
✅How VAN helps in EDI Exchange?
VANs help simplify the effort involved in setting up and managing trading partner connections.
VANs are often used by companies with complex supply chains, large numbers of trading partners, or when direct connections would be cumbersome to manage. Such organizations simply establish a single connection to their VAN, which then takes responsibility for securely routing transactions to the appropriate trading partners. This reduces the complexity and overhead of managing multiple direct connections, as the VAN handles all coordination, protocol compatibility, and message delivery, freeing up internal resources to focus on core business operations.
✅EDI Document Flow over Value Added Network
To understand EDI document flow over VAN, you need to understand the different entities of a VAN Mailbox and its relationships.
👉🏾Mailbox
Mailbox number or Mailbox Id
A mailbox is a unique identifier assigned by the VAN provider when provisioning it for your account upon purchase.
👉🏾Address
An EDI address in the context of a VAN is the combination of EDI Qualifier and ID which together can be linked to a specific mailbox. More than one EDI addresses can be linked to a single mailbox.
An EDI address is typically represented as Qualifier: ID.
ZZ:ACME & 12:9169865311 are examples of EDI address. “ZZ” & “12” are the Qualifiers and “ACME” & “9169865311” are the IDs.
👉🏾Trading Partnerships Or Trading Relationships
The trading relationship indicates with whom you have active relationship. It lists your EDI address and the EDI address of the trading partners to whom you have VAN connection established. It also shows the Trading Partners VAN/Service provider.
👉🏾VAN Interconnect
A VAN interconnect is an inter-network between VAN providers to route EDI documents based on their EDI addresses. The trading partners can be on different VAN networks, but they can still exchange documents using VAN interconnect.
In this scenario, the retailer has their mailbox in IBM Sterling VAN, and the supplier's mailbox is in OpenText VAN. To exchange documents across these different networks, both parties need to set up an interconnect within their respective VANs. This interconnect can typically be established through a self-service option within the VAN's platform or by requesting assistance from the VAN administrator.
👉🏾Connection between VAN provider and your EDI server
EDI data received in your VAN mailbox needs to be sent to your ERP system, which may be hosted on-premises within your company’s network or as a SaaS solution in the cloud.
The process involves receiving EDI data from the VAN, translating it into your ERP’s required format, and then exporting it to the ERP. Likewise, data from your ERP must be sent to the VAN for routing to the appropriate trading partner. For this, an EDI processing software like Boomi is essential to facilitate document exchange between your VAN and ERP system.
Most VAN providers can connect to your EDI server via AS2 or SFTP. Some offer self-service options for establishing a connection, while others may require you to contact their support team for setup assistance.
👉🏾Transactions search
The VAN portal provides transaction search option to filter based on trading partner, document type, Control numbers and transaction status. You can also view and download the raw EDI.
Please see the swim lane diagram below where how a Purchase Order from a Retailer’s ERP becomes a Sales Order in Supplier’s ERP using EDI and VAN.
✅Boomi simplifies document exchange with your EDI VAN and ERP
In the era of cloud and SaaS, your EDI server should seamlessly connect with both traditional on-premise ERPs and modern SaaS applications like NetSuite, Acumatica, and Sage Intacct. An iPaaS solution like Boomi provides a robust toolkit to facilitate smooth EDI document exchanges between ERPs and VANsAS2/SFTP/API Protocol Support. Given below are top five reasons how Boomi simplifies document exchange with your EDI VAN
1. Boomi supports multiple communication methods, including AS2, SFTP, and API. Depending on your business needs, you can select the most suitable method to establish a secure connection with your VAN provider.
2. Boomi has easy to use UI for building translation maps enabling ‘any-to-any’ data conversions. It supports a variety of formats, including XML, JSON, EDI, and flat files, making data mapping and transformation straightforward and efficient.
3. Boomi provides a wide range of pre-built connectors, with access to over 300,000 endpoints, including major ERP systems. For less common or custom applications, Boomi also offers versatile technology connectors such as HTTP, DB, REST, SOAP etc for seamless integration across diverse systems.
4. Boomi offers Boomi Atom Cloud as a runtime environment if your integration pipeline is publicly accessible. This zero-footprint integration solution is fully managed and maintained by Boomi, freeing you from the burden of infrastructure maintenance.
5. Boomi offer Subscription-based pricing based on the features and number of connectors. Companies simply pay for the features they need and number of applications/Trading partners they connect with and can stay on budget.
Should you have anything more to add, please write in comments.
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