Fairfax County Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) Program Overview
EDI has the capability to send standard business documents (such as purchase orders) electronically to a vendor through a security-controlled "value added network" or VAN. The EDI process "translates" the document from the standard hardcopy form to an "industry standard" format which other computers (such as a vendor computer) can accept for processing. For Fairfax County, EDI technology eliminates the manual processing steps, costs, and time delays associated with paper-based documents as well as improves the accuracy and exchange of information with our vendor/business community.
For those vendors who are EDI-capable, Fairfax County uses X12, Version 3, Release 5 (3050) of the ANSI standards for outbound purchase orders (850) and inbound Functional Acknowledgments (997).
This is how our EDI Program works:
Fax Purchase Orders
For vendors who are not yet EDI-capable, we can also transmit purchase orders directly to your facsimile machine.