The EDIFRA ORDER message
for ordering newspaper advertising by Electronic Data Interchange
Commercial interchange is increasingly handled and implemented from one
machine to another. To allow newspapers to use the advantages to be gained
from doing business this way, they and their partners have to speak the
same digital language. Such a language is EDIFACT, developed by the United
Nations for E lectronic Data Interchange For
Administration Commerce and Trade.
In 1994 IFRA convened a Pan European User Group of experts from the newspaper
industry and its advertising partners which jointly developed a subset of
the EDIFACT message for ORDERS.
This Special Report describes how the EDIFRA ORDERS message works and provides
an users guide line for programmers. The message is not a theoretical product
but is being implemented in the newspaper industry. It can be mapped to
the ANSI X.12 message.
The EDIFRA INVOICE message
for invoicing newspaper advertising
This EDIFACT message has been finalized by the Pan European User Group
in October 1996 and will be available as IFRA special report like the ORDER
message.
If you are interested you can view the final ORDER
message in PDF format with an Acrobat Reader.
Table of Contents EDIFRA messages
5.1. Message identification
5.2. Identification of parties involved
5.3. Order- or Contract numbers
5.4. Information about the ad itself
5.5. Appearane date and frequency
5.6. Re-runnung of ads
5.7. Other parties involved
5.8. Documents, Artwork, proofs and tear sheets
5.9. Text
5.10. Price information
5.11. Message trailer
1. Introduction:
There are many reasons why it makes good business sense for the newspaper
industry to start processing orders for advertisements electronically i.e.
from one machine to another.
There is a wide range of consensus in the international newspaper industry
of a need to facilitate the handling of the newspaper as an advertising
medium.
To remain competitive the newspaper has to make it easy for a client to
place an ad. When media planers have done their job, this plan has to be
turned into booked advertising space without numerous orders forms having
to be laboriously completed.
When a car dealer looks out of his window and sees what cars he has on his
fore court, he has to be able to make sure the readers of the local newspaper
know what is on offer when they look for a replacement for the family car.
The newspaper's advertising department has to be open for business 24 hours
a day and the people working there will need to be freed from repetitive
routine tasks to gain more time to provide service to clients.
Deadlines have to be pushed pack as far as possible.
Full electronic page make up is on the rise and while with that advertising
copy arrives in the newspaper in digital form, it seems our of keeping with
best practices of the industry if the orders for the advertising space is
still handled on paper.
2. IFRA's action:
IFRA responded quickly on the industry's need to improve the efficiency
of its advertising operation. The issue was first ventilated at the IFRA
Congress in Geneva in October 1992. In January 1993 IFRA's then so called
Prepress Committee decided to establish an EDI working group which had its
first meeting shortly afterwards. Very quickly it emerged that the electronic
transmission of the advertising copy and the advertising order were two
different things. In many cases they take place at different times, they
originate from different sources and different technological issues are
involved.
Advertising copy can contain huge amounts of data, while the amount of data
needed to order an advertisement in a newspaper is relatively small. Who
is buying, who is selling, what do they want to buy and what are they going
to pay for it? This information however has to be standardised so that it
can be understood and acted upon by all the many different office, commercial
and production systems which may be involved. UN EDIFACT was seen as the
standard on which all further efforts should be built.
In order to bundle these efforts and to draw on expertise available and
to be closely involved with the EDIFACT process, IFRA started proceedings
to be recognised as a Pan European User Group (PEG) and with that to take
a seat on the Western European EDIFACT board. This application was granted
at the WEEB meeting in November 1993.
At the same time, a sub-group was formed with the task to develop a message
that can be widely used throughout the industry and the group based its
work on the EDIFACT based MEDI message, which has been developed in Finland.
Its creators generously made available their experience to the industry
as a whole, an act well worthy of much thanks and appreciation.
The group had its first meeting in December 1993. It met at regular intervals
thoughout 1994 and concluded its work on the EDIFRA message for ordering
newspaper advertising with its approval of the document at hand at its meeting
on ...... .
The next tasks at hand are the development of a message to confirm the order
and a subsequent invoice message.
The members of the group were:
Olivier Chouraki Havas Regie
Peter Winiwarter Havas Regie
Peter Green Associated Newspapers, London
Werner Isenbügel NBRZ, Frankfurt
Jari Kosonen Helsingin Sanomat, Helsinki
Désirée Chabarekh Publicitas, Lausanne
Jørn Nelsing Politiken, Copenhagen
Piet Veraart Dagbladunie, Rotterdam
Roland Meylan Publicitas, Lausanne
Again, much thanks must go to the individuals and the companies concerned
who willingly allocated time and resources so that an industry wide standard
could be developed and developed quickly. The group's work was marked by
a laudable readiness to listen to and understand different position and
practices and to compromise in order to reach solutions.
3. The working of EDIFACT
For a detailed introduction to EDIFACT see IFRA Special Report 6.14.1. Unless
the reader is familiar with that Special Report or has other knowledge of
EDIFACT the subsequent text will be difficult to understand.
What happens in principle is that information that needs to flow between
two parties in order that one can react to the other is identified, structured
and coded where possible. While documents are exchanged and the receiver
knows what the sender means with a particular signal, it does not matter
of the insertion date for a newspaper advertisement is in the top left or
the bottom right hand corner of the document. The document does not even
need to have corners. However, when the systems used by senders and receivers
are to exchange information in digital form, then no direct communication
is possible when the sender's system has the height of the ad in data field
nr. five and the advertising and commercials systems of the receiver are
structured to find and act upon that information in data field nr. six.
While only two parties are involved this can be overcome. The receiver's
system can be so programmed that it takes the values of the sender's data
field nr. five and places it where it needs it too process the message.
But no newspaper can know the data structure used by its many advertising
clients, and this is where EDIFACT comes in. If an EDIFACT message is created
to carry the information relevant to placing an advertisement in a newspaper,
then all concerned only need to convert, translate or "map" their
data structure to the EDIFACT structure and vice versa and wide use of automated
communication becomes possible.
4. Basic assumptions:
The group realised early on that a pragmatic approach would be the most
likely to bring results in the desired time frame.
In addition there was ready agreement that the introduction of EDI in newspaper
advertising was only to a lesser part a technical issue. Instead it would
change the internal ways companies work and the ways they do business with
each other. Producing an EDIFACT message for newspaper advertising is one
thing. Getting it to be used in the industry is another.
It was therefore decided not to start from scratch and develop a message
from the basic UN ORDERS message but to develop further the existing and
well tried MEDI message. Since management on the newspapers side as well
as on the side of the clients would need to be convinced, it was felt to
be helpful to have a working reference model rather than something completely
new.
Starting from the Finnish MEDI message, the group would develop a message
which would cater for the needs of newspapers in a wider European context
and would strive to maintain a satisfactory level of compatibility with
the ANSI X.12 standard for newspaper advertising which is under development
by the Newspaper Association of America (NAA).
A message to place an order for an advertisement and to verify that order
would be created first. An invoice message would come later.
The group also decided that it would create a message that would be applicable
to routine high frequency and high volume cases and not the special issues.
If 70% or 80% of all orders for advertising can be handled by EDI, there
will be enough capacity left to spare to handle the tricky cases which are
not straight forward but need special attention, negotiation etc.
The group also decided that it would need to create a message that would
be automatically processable by the administrative, commercial and production
systems of a newspaper.
This meant that unless an identical ad is repeated on several occasions
* each individual ad order has to have a unique reference number
* the artwork that goes with the order has to carry that same unique reference
number and that
* this number has to be matched with an equally unique production order
number by the newspaper.
All work was based on the assumption that only partners who have an established
business practice would conduct their interaction using EDI. Since final
legal responsibility for the ad remains with the newspaper they would not
want to have total strangers placing ads in their newspaper whose content,
if this comes in digital form as well and the newspaper is into electronic
full page make up, they would in all likelihood only see for the first time
when the paper comes off the press.
To keep things simple it was decided to use existing codes from the UN directories
wherever possible. If necessary the breadth of interpretation of the code's
meaning would need to be extend a little to include a meaning in the context
of newspaper advertising. Only where this was not possible were new codes
defined so that transactions for newspaper advertising and subsequently
of course advertising in other print media, could be accomplished with EDIFACT
messages.
This interpretation of existing codes or the creation of additional ones
which would need to become part of the normal UN directories can never cover
all eventualities so that the afore mentioned 80/20 rule was applied. While
the basic business transaction for a newspaper advertisement
Data flow:
The basic data flow involved in newspaper advertising is as follows:
While the seller of the advertising space will normally be a single newspaper
publishing company, the buyer may take different forms. In the straight
forward case, it can be the provider of goods or services who wants to buy
media space to bring his product to the attention of his potential clients.
In a more complex model an advertising agency, a media bureau, a production
house and even a subsidiary or local representation of a larger corporation
who places an ad as part of a wider ranging contract which the newspaper
might have with an ultimate customer might be involved.
5. Message content:
The information which a message ordering a newspaper advertisement has to
contain is also relatively straight forward.
The message has
* to identify itself and explain the syntax it uses so it can be read and
understood at the other end,
* to define the buyer and seller as well as any other parties who my be
involved,
* to describe the ad and related documents stating its physical attributes
like size and colour as well as where in the newspaper it should appear
and on what day or days,
* to state what the buyer is planning to pay for the media space in question
and how he plans to pay.
5.1. Message identification
The identification of the message is handled in the Header Section of the
message in which the UNH, BGM and DTM Data Segments (DS)will be used.
The message starts with the UNH segment and Data Element (DE) 0062 which
contains a reference number. The EDIFACT messages which a party sends are
numbered by the system that is used to prepare them and the number of the
particular message in question is carried in this DE. It is not the
number of the order, that comes later.
This is followed by Composite Data Element (CDE) S009 the Message Identifier.
Here it is stated (DE 0065) that the message is in fact an ORDERS, that
version 1 of the message is being used (DE0052) which was published in 1992
(DE921) by the UN (DE0057) and that the EDIFRA subset of that UN ORDERS
92.1 message is being used(DE0057).
Further information to identify and interpret the message is given in the
next segment, Beginning of Message, BGM. Using UN code values Composite
Data Element (CDE) C002 defines that order is actually a purchase order.
The function of the message if described further in DE1225 where using UN
codes it is stated where the message is an original order, an advance notification,
a confirmation or cancellation.
The sender of the message states in the subsequent DE4343 whether the message
needs to be acknowledged or not. The receiving system at a newspaper can
only process those messages which it fully understands and can act upon.
Messages which do not fulfil this criteria must land in some kind of mail-box
or come up on a screen and be processed by an operator. Any changes necessary
need to be undertaken in consultation with the client. EDIFRA therefore
foresees only an acknowledgement with detail and no change or no acknowledgement
at all. Acknowledgements with changes cannot be made by systems.
The last segment used in this first Segment Group (SG) is a DTM segment
informing with the use of UN codes the date and time at which the order
is placed. This may be different from the time the message is sent.
5.2. Identification of parties involved
The parties involved are named in SG 2 and sub-group 3 and in SG 34 of the
message whereby parties which are commercially involved, buyers, sellers,
agencies, bureaux etc. are in SG2 and those with a technical involvement,
which has more to do with each individual advertisement such as the production
house from which the artwork will come, a person who receives proofs or
tear sheets etc. are named in SG 34 .
The NAD segment in SG 2 is mandatory and can be repeated 20 times. i.e.
a message that does not say who it comes from, who in this case will receive
and hopefully pay for the invoice cannot even be sent. The sender's system
would check that all mandatory fields are correctly filled in.
In a straight forward case, DE3035 would first state that the party in question
is a buyer (BY) and second time round name the seller SE. UN codes would
be used. If the ad is being placed by and agency, SG 2 would need to be
repeated three times to state who the seller (SE) is, who the agency or
media bureau (AG) is and who the prime contractor (PG) is. e.g. a local
advertising agency places an ad for a local retailer. In cases where the
ad in question is part of a special arrangement which a large concern may
have with a newspaper but in which the actual ad is being placed by a local
subsidiary SG 2 would be repeated four times to name the agency (AG) the
newspaper (SE), the local subsidiary on whose instruction the agency is
placing the order (OB - Ordered By) and lastly the prime contractor (PG)
on whose behalf the whole thing is taking place and who has a wider contractual
relationship with the seller. This special arrangement, which normally means
that the price is different from the price list, is later referred to in
DE 1153 in SG 3 where the contract number of that ultimate customer on which
this order is based, is given and in DE5387 in SG27 where price information
is handled.
EDIFACT then requires in C082 that the party named is uniquely identified.
This is among other things essential so that the newspaper's system can
check, whether an arrangement to do business using EDIFACT has actually
been concluded. The part identification in coded form is mandatory. It can
be repeated in full text
The two digit ISO 3166 codes for representation of names of countries followed
by the VAT number of the party in question will be used to identify the
party. EDIFACT provides 17 digits for DE3039. They can be letters as well
as numbers. Using the two letters to specify the country and the VAT number,
which in the EU has a maximum of 12 digits a blank can be left after the
VAT number and two digits remain to denote any part or subsidiary of a company
which may not have its own VAT number.
Using UN codes, DE1131 will then specify that the values given in DE3039
identify a party and DE3055 will specify who created the code used to identify
the party. Since the VAT numbers may change and since not all countries
have VAT numbers the code should be assigned by the seller or the buyer
and their agents, (91 or 92 using UN codes), or it should be mutually defined
(ZZZ) An alternative is for companies to obtain a code number from the International
Article Numbering Association (EAN) in which the code list responsible agency
would be 9.
To double check the identity of parties the name and address are repeated
in full in Composite Data Elements C080 and C059.
In practice, two things will happen. the sender's system will automatically
fill in the VAT nr. so no typing errors can occur. The newspaper's system
will only accept EDI messages from anyone whose VAT number it knows. A repeat
of the name and address in written form would therefore not be necessary.
5.3. Order- or Contract numbers:
The order number will be given in the REF segment of SG 3. In case the order
forms part of wider contractual arrangement which the newspaper might have
with a client, (PG - prime contractor in DE 3035 in NAD segment) then the
number of that contract will be given here.
The identification of the parties concerned commercially is concluded with
SG 5 where the person who is placing the order and others concerned and
the departments in which they work are given in the CTA segment. The COM
segment states how the person may be reached if there is any need, such
as the newspaper's system not being able to process the order and personal
attention being necessary.
5.4. Information about the ad itself:
Once the parties have been identified and it is clear who is buying and
who is selling, the things the buyer wants are listed line by line in the
detail section of the message, SG 25.
While several things can normally be ordered in one order, the newspapers
have explained that their production systems can only process on order and
with that a unique order number, which their system then matches with an
equally unique production order number.
Therefore a "One Ad One Order" concept has to be applied for the
time being and the Line Item number in DE1082 will in all cases be "1".
5.4.1. Placement Information:
The buyer needs to give understandable and specific instructions about where
in the newspaper the ad should appear. Since EDIFACT so far does not contain
fields which cater for this, the existing structure is suitably extended
and adapted in the PIA segment which deals with "Additional Product
Identification". The product is in this case the ad.
This segment can be repeated 25 times and contains five Compound Data Elements
C212 (Item number Identification) to carry the actual information. 125 variables
should give sufficient scope to describe where the ad should go.
First of all the nature of the placement (NOP) will be defined, i.e. it
will be stated whether the placement details given in subsequent data elements
must be adhered to, in which case they are often price relevant, or whether
they are requests only. Also it will be stated whether the ad should not
appear in a particular context which is defined later.
The message then goes on to say more about the nature of the ad (NOA), i.e.
whether the ad is a display ad, which should appear in an editorial context,
a display ad which should appear surrounded by classified ads or whether
it is a classified ad.
If the advertiser wants the ad to appear on a particular page, placement
by page (PBP) has to be chosen and the page number given.
If the placement is stipulated in a specific book of the newspaper, the
number of the book (one to last) has to be given with the PBB identification
and the subsequent page number within that book with the page in book (PIB)
placement.
To make sure a classified ad appears in the section into which it belongs,
the buyer (of the ad space) has to specify the type of transaction which
is supposed to result from the ad. e.g. buying, selling, offering/seeking
jobs etc.
The classified ad section in which the ad should appear is given using the
codes defined in the CAS data element and the editorial environment in which
an ad is to appear is defined in the editorial section list (ESL).
Lastly the PIA segment is used to describe the precise placement of the
ad on a page, e.g. top left, bottom right etc. Here, the buyer is provided
with two options: POP for a definite placement and POD for a request. This
was felt to be necessary in order to cater for thoses orders where buyer
specify a particular page state the placement on the page as a request only.
5.4.2. B/W or Colour Information:
Information about whether the ad will be in colour or black and white only,
and what that colour should be is given in the IMD segment, which, by the
way, is where the automobile industry has that information as well.
EDIFACT procedure provides the possibility to state whether the values in
this segment are taken from industry code lists, are text and codes or in
free form. Data element DE7081 then specifies whether the ad is B/W, 4C
or uses spot colours.
If it is B/W then DE7009 states whether it consists only of text or whether
it carries line art, half tones or is in fact a negative white on black.
Process colours, if they are used as spot colours are also identified in
this DE as well as the actual value for a particular range. Which range
is meant, Pantone, HKS etc., is defined in the subsequent DE3055.
Colour requirements which cannot be coded in the above way can be given
as text in DE7008 which is available twice and thus provides for information
up to 75 characters.
5.4.3. Size information:
Having defined where the ad should go and what colours should be used the
message goes on to define the size of the ad in the MEA segment. EDIFACT
requires definition of what is being measured and the code "SE"
in DE6311 suits our purpose best.
We then go on to state in DE 6313 whether the measurements which are yet
to come refer to the height, the width or the surface area of the ad which
is being ordered, and what that height or width or surface area (half page,
double page etc. ) will actually be measured in (columns, millimetres, advertising
units etc. is given in DE6411. Only when all that is done will a computer
be able to interpret the value given in DE 6314, which is the actual measurement
value.
5.5. Appearance date and frequency:
Having stated what the ad is going to look like and where it should be in
the newspaper, the message then goes on to say in which publication, local
edition or advertising package the ad should appear and how often.
This is done in SG 32 and 48. While there are other alternatives, SG 32
is chosen because it has segments dealing with location, quantity and date
in one segment group. Scheduling information, i.e. information which tell
whether the ad should go into the morning or evening edition or any other
edition during the day is carried in segment group 48.
The first data element in the LOC segment of SG 32 tells us whether the
subsequent information is the name of the publication in which the ad should
appear, a particular local edition on which the ad should appear or a particular
advertising package or cross selling arrangement such as NBRZ in Germany
or 66/3 in France etc.
The following composite data element C517 states what that location is.
It provides for the possibility of doing that by name or in a coded form.
Since the insertion possibilities of newspapers will be difficult to maintain
provision will be made that these can be coded by mutual definition between
buyers and sellers of media space. (ZZZ)
The QTY segment then goes on to state the number of ads being ordered. To
start with, EDIFACT requires us to state what kind of quantity we are talking
about and provides us with a code "ordered quantity. For the time being,
the actual quantity will normally be "1" and the date on which
the ad should appear is given in the subsequent date/time/period segment
DTM.
So far year month day are used, other EDIFACT applications start including
the centur y.
5.6. Re-running of ads:
In those cases where an identical ad is inserted on several dates, the number
of insertions is given in the QTY segment and the DTM can then go on to
state the first and last insertion date or just the day on which the ad
should appear in so many weeks.
If the identical ad has been run before and should with this order be run
again, the previous purchase order number is given in the REF segment in
SG 35 and the date on which the ad appeared last is in the DTM segment of
the same segment group.
5.7. Other parties involved:
Apart from straight forward buyers and sellers, other parties are often
involved when an ad is place in a newspaper. These will be described in
segment group 34.
The NAD segment will start by giving information about the nature of the
party that is about to be named in DE3035.
5.7.1. Repro houses:
Using UN codes in a slightly wider context we will say that the "goods
releaser" (GR) will be the repro house, which will actually send the
artwork. Further information that artwork is provided in segment group
36.
5.7.2. Proofs and tear sheets:
The "Party to receive inspection reports" (IS) will be the party
to whom proofs should be sent and the "party to whom documents should
be presented" (DM) will in our case be the party to whom the tear sheets
should be sent.
In both these cases, the number of proofs or tear sheets may need to be
specified. This information is included later in segment group 36.
5.7.3. Courier Services:
If the artwork is to come by courier than CA in this data element tells
us that with subsequent information as to whom to contact if it does not
arrive at the specified time. The time by which the artwork will arrive
is given later in segment group 36.
5.7.4. Box numbers:
If the ad is to have a box number to which to reply to all responses are
to be forwarded to a third party, than that party is identified here as
DB, i.e. "party to whom goods would be delivered if different from
consignee". It may be some time before "lonely hearts" ads
are ordered by an EDIFRA message.
Compound Data Elements C082 and C058 then give the identity of the party
described in the NAD segment. As in the header section, the VAT number is
s good solution but the name and address in writing can remain an optional
alternative.
5.8. Documents:
(Artwork, proofs and tear sheets)
Once the additional parties involved are identified the message goes on
to describe the documents which they will exchange. This is done in SG36,
which is a sub-group of SG34.
The nature of the documents (artwork, proofs etc.) is defined in codes form
in compound data element C002 in the DOC segment of SG36. The manner in
which the documents will be delivered to the newspaper is given in compound
data element
The "GR-Goods Releaser" and "CA-Carrier" parties will
be sending "ZAW-Artwork" the "IS-party to receive proofs"
will stipulate that the documents they want are "ZPF-Proofs" and
the "DM-Party to receive tear sheets" will say that it is tear
sheets that they want.
The channel (EDI, FAX, Mail etc.) by which these documents will be exchanged
is given in DE3153, and DE1220 defines how many copies are required. That
goes particularly for proofs and tear sheets.
In addition, the DOC segment provides two data elements with 35 alphanumeric
characters each (1000 and 1004) in which a name or a number for the document
in question can be given. This will be particularly valuable so that when
the artwork arrives, it is easily and directly linked to the order and the
space reserved by the ad production system of the newspaper.
Data element 1373 will be used to convey information in coded form whether
the artwork, which the buyer or repro house will be sending, will be ready
for production, ZRP (i.e. it will be a film or digital file in a format
that the newspaper can integrate without complications into its production
system, or whether it ZNR, not read for production and additional work needs
to be done on it.
The date and time of the arrival of the artwork is given in the DTM segment
of SG36. This information is mandatory i.e. the system that sends this message
can make sure that a value is given here and the receiving system can check
that the value given is in keeping with its production deadlines.
Lastly, the CTA and COM segments in segment group 37 states whom to contact
at each party in case anything needs to be clarified and how to contact
them.
5.9. Text:
EDIFACT can only work from one system to another as long as all information
transmitted is coded or at least unambiguous and interpretable by the receiving
system. Text in a message will therefore normally lead to the message being
automatically deposited in a directory for unprocessable messages.
However, if it is clearly specified, what the text should be, and the receiving
system only has to place that text somewhere and not interpret it or act
upon it, then text can be transmitted.
The FTX segment in the detail section, segment group 25, is the place for
such text. It will normally be straight ASCII text, and there are language
limitations as EDIFACT does not recognise characters such as ø or
ñ which are common in many European languages.
If the buyer wants some particular reference to appear on the invoice, then
the FTX segment will carry that text. The FTX segment can also carry the
text and possibly some simple typographic instructions for a classified
ad. Repeating the segment by the maximum number of times permissible 25
lines of text with 70 characters each can be transmitted.
ISO codes can be used to specify the language of the transmitted text in
DE3453.
5.10. Price information:
5.10.1. The basic price:
The basic unit price that the buyer intends to pay for the ad being ordered
is given in DE5118 of the PRI segment of SG27. The currency, both that of
the rate card and that in which payment may eventually be made (reference
currency, target currency) is given in the CUX segment.
The number of units being ordered is the product of values given in the
MEA segment where heigth, width, suface area or number advertising blocks
or units is given. The system calculates the prdouct of the no of units,
given in the MEA segment, the price per unit, given in the PRI segment and
places that in the MOA segment giving the basic price of the ad from which
all allowances and charges will be calculated.
From a point of view of a system, this is not essential, because both systems
will do their own calculations and only accept the message, if they come
to results that are acceptable to them.
The date of the rate card from which the buyer has gleaned this price information
is given in the DTM segment of that group so that the receiving system can
check, whether the price calculation is based on the valid rate card.
5.10.2. Allowances and charges:
Having stipulated the basic price of the ad the message then goes on to
name those allowances and charges which are applied to calculate the final
price. These are given in segment group 38. Codes for the more standard
allowances and charges are provided in DE7161. Additional ones have to be
mutually agreed (ZZZ)
DE1227 also specifies the sequence in which allowances and charges are calculated
and deducted from or added to the basic amount.
The DTM segment in that segment group can be used to give the date of the
rate card on which these allowances and charges are bases. A system comparison
between that and the DTM in SG27 can make sure that they are identical.
The PCD segment in SG40 then goes on to specify the allowance or charge
as a percentage of the basic price and the MOA segment in SG41 gives that
percentage as a monetary amount.
In case the allowance of charge is not a percentage of anything but just
a flat fee or discount, then only the monetary amount needs to be given
in SG 41 since the use of SG40 is conditional.
5.10.3. Total amount:
After all deductions and additions from the basic price are made, the actual
amount payable is stated in DE5004 of the MOA segment of the summary section
of the message. The currency can again be given in coded form (see DEs6345
in SG 27)
Payment instructions:
Having identified himself, stated what he wants to buy, described that in
some detail and having said what he is prepared to pay for it, the buyer
concludes by stating how he intends to pay.
This information is carried in the PAI segment of SG 25. The EDIFACT directories
provide codes for some 69 different payment conditions. One of those should
be in keeping with the business practices of the newspaper who is selling
the ad space. If those codes do not suffice additional payment conditions
can be mutually agreed.
EDIFACT directories provide a similar range of variety with additional codes
being mutually agreed for both the form in which the payment will be guaranteed
and the means of payment as well as the payment channel.
5.11. Message trailer:
The message ends with a control segment which stated the number of segments
which are in the message and repeats the message reference number from the
BGM segment
6. Conclusion:
Having received the EDIFRA Order message the newspaper, using another EDIFACT
converter, translates or "maps" this into the structure and formats
which its in house commercial and production systems.
These check the various parameters such as:
Is the price correct?
Will the paper appear on the given publication date?
Can it carry the colour required?
Etc.
When these are affirmative, create a message that will look largely identical
to the one received. However in the BGM segment in DE1225 the code value
"9" for "confirmation" will be given.
If that is not the case and instructions given in the order cannot be interpreted
or carried out the order will need to be handled by a person in the traditional
way. Phones have to ring, faxes have to be sent, but if only half of all
the orders for advertisements for a newspaper are processed automatically,
an operator should have plenty of time to service clients, respond to their
needs and perhaps sell them a bit more ad space or an additional colour.