Interconnects

OpenText^™ Trading Grid^™ Messaging Service supports and interconnects to all leading EDI Network providers worldwide.

EDI Value Added Networks use the X12.56 Interconnect Mailbag Control Structures (X12.56 Standard) to pass interchanges between one another. This standard defines the control segments used to start and end a mailbag, containing EDI data to be exchanged between two interconnecting entities. The purpose of this standard is to provide control structures and an audit mechanism to facilitate the exchange and receipt acknowledgment of EDI data between interconnecting entities

The “Mailbag Number” is the main way Networks verify the receipt and processing of interchanges though interconnects. When a company on Network-A sends an interchange to a trading partner on Network-B and the interchange does not arrive, one of the first requests from Network-A is, “What was the Mailbag Number?”

Another significant benefit of the Mailbag is the ability to prevent duplicate transmissions. Networks routinely reject any Mailbag that has the same Mailbag Number from the same Network. The standard rejection code of W1 makes it easy for the sending Network to understand this is a low-level warning, and not the case of interchanges that cannot be processed.