British Telecom and International Network Services Ltd, INS, have applied to Vanguard, the UK Department of Trade and Industry-sponsored body, to fund a research study into the possible merger of the EDI Edifact, electronic data interchange for the administration of commerce and transportation, standard into the International Standards Organisation’s X400 electronic messaging standard. Many EDI service suppliers and users within the electronic data interchange industry believe that the current standard Edifact is en route to becoming part of the Open Systems Interconnection, OSI X400 electronic messaging standard. Edifact was passed as an EDI standard by the United Nations in 1986 and the syntax element of it has been adopted as a ISO standard. The actual invoice content of an Edifact message has yet to be looked at by ISO. Geisco with INS won a contract at the beginning of September to set up an EDI network service trial, called Cefic, against British Telecom and IBM. As part of the Cefic deal, Geisco has promised to run an X400 service by the beginning of 1988. Vanguard was established in late 1986 by the Department of Trade & Industry and service providers to promote the use of added network services to industry in the UK.
