EANCOM® PART I : EANCOM® & EDIFACT
The implementation of an EDI project involves many detailed steps. These steps, along with helpful advice, are documented in an EAN International publication called 'An Introduction to EDI'. In addition to the basic EDI introduction, EAN International has published more detailed documents introducing scenarios for each EANCOM® message and guidelines on how they should interact. Currently available in this series are the documents ‘An Introduction to EANCOM® in Trade and Transport’ and ‘An Introduction to EANCOM® in Trade and Finance’.
These publications, which are all available from all EAN Member Organisations, are ideal documents to explain EDI and EANCOM® in simple to understand language and may be used and understood by people at all levels in your company.
The EANCOM® manual is distributed via the EAN Member Organisations. Interested companies should contact their local Member Organisation to obtain additional copies of the documentation and further information.
It is important that EANCOM® users are properly identified so that they can be informed on a continuous basis about the evolution of the standard and get all relevant documentation.
A condition for a successful implementation of EDI is the stability of the standard used, including the syntax, the messages, the data elements and codes definition. The shortest period between two versions of EANCOM® messages has been set to two years.
User companies are asked to migrate from one version to the new one as soon as possible and not later than one year after the publication of a new version.
As it is unlikely that all trading partners will migrate to the next version at the same time, users should be able to handle concurrently two versions of the same messages, i.e. the latest and preceding versions.
The EANCOM® codes list will be issued annually and will contain codes added as a result of successful change requests.
When implementing EANCOM®, user companies might find that some business requirements are not met. They might wish to enhance the standard and draft proposals for new codes, data elements, segments or messages, covering their genuine requirements. These requirements must be stated clearly and supported by coherent business reasons to support the acceptance of the requested change.
It should be noted that change requests to EANCOM® will only be considered when made against the current published version (no maintenance of previous versions).
For detailed procedures, consult the "EANCOM® Maintenance Support Structure and Process" document, valid at the time of the change(s).
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