The electronic exchange of data
International
commercial transactions depend greatly on the acquisition of information and
documents for each operation. This "bulk breaking" of information
leads to losses in time and money, above all, in regard to current commercial
operations. Re-transcription errors can also be very expensive, notably with
regard to documentary credit (reservations on documents, missed deadlines,...)
To
improve this situation, more competitive companies strive to undertake the
transactions of their documents and data electronic by resorting to EDI
(Electronic Data Interchange) such as that which is undertaken in inter-banking
relations with the SWIFT network 
.
EDI
is an elaborate form of electronic communication between autonomated
organisations which does not require human intervention. Naturally, this
automatism is prepared carefully and cannot be justified for permanent business
affairs with quasi-daily messages. Remaining until there is little privilege
for large industrial groups, its use tends towards spreading SMEs across the
world, in one sense, partly because of pressure exercised by large order
dealers, and in another, thanks to the appearance of new communication
technology which needs to produce this system, secure, affordable and versatile
all at once.
To
find out more about EDI, consult the following sections :