What is EDI and Why Is It Such a Pain to Implement?

EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) is a decades-old standardized method for businesses to exchange documents electronically, still dominant in enterprise commerce due to deep supply chain embedding, high-volume reliability, enormous switching costs, and regulatory requirements. Implementation is notoriously difficult because each trading partner customizes the standard differently with unique segment requirements, field restrictions, and qualifiers, and the transport layer (AS2, SFTP, VAN) adds further complexity.