EDI Converter for SAP

R/3 does not provide any tool to convert IDocs into international EDI format like ANSI X.12, EDIFACT or XML. This conversion needs to be done by an external add-on product which is Provided by a variety of companies who specialize in general EDI and e-commerce solutions.

R/3 does not provide conversion to EDI standard formats like X.12, EDIFACT or XML.Converters exist on UNIX and PC platforms.

Many converters are simple PC programs.

R/3 certification only guarantees that the converter complies to RFC technology and works fine with standard IDoc scenarios.

Real life situations require a flexible and easily adaptable converter program.

SAP R/3 has foregone implementing routines to convert IDocs into international EDI standard formats and forwards those requests to the numerous third party companies who specialize in commercial EDI and e-commerce solutions..

Nearly every standard organization defined an own EDI standard for their members. So there is X.12 by ANSI for the US, EDIFACT/UN adopted by the United Nations Organization UNO or XML as proposed by the internet research gurus of W3C.

But there is still more about it. All major industry companies define an additional file format standard for their EDI partners. Even if they adhere officially to one of the big standards, they yet issue interpretation guidelines with their own modifications according to their needs.

If a company does not play in the premier league of industry or banking companies, it will have to comply with the demands of the large corporations.

As this leads to the insight that there are as many different EDI formats as companies, it is evident that an EDI converter needs to have at least one major feature, which is flexibility in the sense of openness towards modification of the conversion rules.

There are hundreds of converter solutions on the market not counting the individual in-house programming solutions done by many companies.

EDI is a market on its own. Numerous companies specialize in providing EDI solutions and services. The majority of those companies also provide converters. Many of the converters are certified by SAP to be used with R/3. However, this does not tell anything about the usability or suitability to task of the products.