E.D.I. and X.400

X.400 is covered in detail elsewhere but, in short X.400 is an electronic mail open system standard. Let us investigate if X.400 is compatiable with EDIFACT and will the EDI service suppliers go out of business when and if a version of X.400 is ever available which is compatiable with EDI.

X.400 is concerned with the means of transfer whilst EDIFACT is concerned with the data being exchanged, therefore, the two are theoretically compatible. Unfortunately most X.400 services currently in commercial operation (based on the 1984 standard) do not support EDI because they do not support certain parts of EDI :

the administration of trading relationships
the availability of full audit trails
the concept of a mailbox (i.e. an intermediacy storage stage)

All of these are essential to EDI and were included in the 1988 X.400 standard, but there is one remaining incompatibility :

the envelope itself (in EDIFACT terms, this is a UNB)

This may seem like a minor point but it does raise complex structural and architectural problems. Some time soon the two technologies will be merged.