It is an electronic means to transfer business documents such as orders and invoices between companies. The development background of EDI in the contemporary world, science and technology are advancing by leaps and bounds, and social economy is changing with each passing day. Especially since the 1980s, under the violent impact of the new technological revolution, a high-tech competition has swept the world, making all fields of human society change with each passing day. International trade is also unprecedentedly active, and market competition is intensified. In international trade, because the buyers and sellers are located in different countries and regions, in most cases, it is not a simple face-to-face sale, but must be guaranteed by banks and proved by various paper documents to achieve the purpose of commodity and currency exchange. At this time, paper documents represent the transfer of ownership of goods, so in a sense, "paper documents are foreign exchange." The increase in global trade volume has brought about a surge in the number of various trade documents and documents. Although the emergence of office automation equipment such as computers can reduce the labor intensity of manual processing of paper documents to a certain extent, because various types of computers are not completely compatible, they actually increase the demand for paper. The American Forest and Paper Association has made statistics, and obtained the law of excessive paper consumption: that is, for every $654.38+billion increase in gross national product every year, paper consumption will increase by 80,000 tons. Here, a considerable number of data in various commercial and trade documents are repetitive and need to be input repeatedly. Some people have done statistics on this. On average, 70% of computer input comes from the output of another computer, and repeated input also increases the probability of error. According to the statistics of a large distribution center in the United States, 5% of the documents have errors. At the same time, repeated entry wastes manpower, time and efficiency. Therefore, paper trade documents have become a more prominent factor hindering trade development. In addition, new features have emerged in market competition. The proportion of price factors in competition is gradually decreasing, while the proportion of service factors is increasing. In order to reduce the risk, the seller requires small batch, multiple varieties and fast delivery to adapt to the changing market conditions. In the whole trade chain, most enterprises are both suppliers and sellers, so improving the delivery speed and processing speed of business documents has become the common demand of all members in the trade chain. Similarly, the popularization and application of modern computers and the continuous improvement of their functions make computer applications move from stand-alone applications to system applications; At the same time, the improvement of communication conditions and technology and the popularization of network provide a solid foundation for the application of EDI. It is under this background that EDI based on computer application, communication network and data standardization came into being. Once EDI appeared, it showed great vitality and was widely used in major industrialized countries and regions in the world. As the promotional materials of Hong Kong Tradelink Company pointed out: "When EDI was first adopted in the United States in the late 1960s, it was just one of the ways of doing business at that time; Today, not only the United States and most European countries, but also more and more countries in the Asia-Pacific region have realized that EDI is the only way to do business. " Due to its high-speed, accurate, remote and huge technical performance, the rise of EDI marks the beginning of a brand-new and global business revolution. Foreign experts profoundly pointed out: "Whether the EDI plan can be developed and popularized will determine the rise and fall of foreign trade. If we follow the trend of world trade and actively promote EDI, it will become a dragon, otherwise it will become a dinosaur and become extinct. " At the end of 1960s, Europe and America put forward the concept of EDI almost simultaneously. Early EDI was only completed between two business partners, relying on direct communication between computers. In 1970s, the development of digital communication technology greatly accelerated the maturity of EDI technology and the expansion of its application scope, which also led to the emergence of cross-industry EDI systems. In 1980s, the internationalization of EDI standards made the application of EDI leap to a new milestone. Today, EDI has experienced germination and development and entered a mature stage. British EDI experts clearly pointed out: "With the current level of information technology, the realization of EDI is not a technical problem, but only a commercial problem".