What it is
Electronic data interchange defines structured documents — purchase orders, invoices, advance shipping notices — in standards such as X12 and EDIFACT. The two partners agree which versions and fields they will use, and how the files move between them.
When a small distributor needs it
Mostly when a major customer or supplier requires it. Until then, the real problem is usually re-keying: the same order typed into several systems. The test for any integration is whether that re-keying stops, not which format the document arrives in.
The problem underneath
The worse re-keying is often internal, between the storefront, the warehouse and accounting. Oryx, a distribution platform we are building, serves a storefront, a dealer portal, a back office and a sales CRM from one application over a single ledger and permission model, so each audience reads the same records.
How we build it
EDI-style feeds sit alongside supplier catalogues, logistics and freight rating in our integration work, carried by routers with retries, idempotency and a failure digest that reaches a person.