EDI Standards: SWIFT, VDA and VICS
EDI standards were already mentioned in our blog earlier because this topic is quite essential for those who has just started his EDI education. We have already spoken about ANSI X12, EANCOM, UN/EDIFACT and others. Today we will speak about the following EDI standards – SWIFT, VDA and VICS.
SWIFT Standard
SWIFT (The Society of Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) was founded in 1973 in Brussels for operating global financial messaging. The main goal is to exchange messages between financial institutions and banks. Except this, SWIFT releases special software and services to financial institutions. Some of these products (FIN, InterAct and FileAct) are used in the infrastructure called SWIFTNet Network. The software is aimed to encode the SWIFT documents for transmission. The SWIFT document standard is split into four areas, Payments, Trade Services, Securities and Trading. The SWIFT covers financial and bank institutions from over 200 countries.
VDA Standard
German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) develops standards for German automotive industry and branches connected to it. VDA has already developed more than 30 electronic documents (messages) used by such industrial giants as VW, Audi, Bosch, Continental and Daimler AG. This standard is used in Europe.
VICS Standard
VICS abbreviation means The Voluntary Inter-industry Commerce Standard and is mostly used in the retail industry across North America. Actually VICS is a subset of the ANSI ASC X12 national standard and together with EDI it is used by thousands of companies in North American retail chain. Department and speciality retail stores, mass merchandisers and their respective suppliers depend on VICS EDI. Many companies set VICS EDI standard as a basic demand for all trading partners. In 1988 GS1 US became the management and administrative body for VICS EDI. By the way, the Uniform Communication Standard (UCS) for the grocery industry and Industrial/Commercial Standard (I/C) for the industrial sector are under management of GS1 US.