VAN
Value-Added Network. The historical intermediation layer between EDI partners: mailboxes, routing, format conversion, archival.
Definition
A VAN is a third-party operator running a private network of EDI mailboxes. Every partner gets a mailbox at the VAN; messages are deposited there, routed to the recipient's mailbox, archived and traced. Beyond pure transport, a VAN typically provides: format translation (EDIFACT to X12 and back), acknowledgment tracking, syntactic integrity checks, conformance with the principal's specifications, and a contractual SLA on availability.
Origin
VANs emerged in the United States in the 1980s, at a time when the Internet was not yet a mature commercial channel. The pioneers — General Electric Information Services (GEIS), IBM Information Network, Sterling Commerce — operated on their own leased X.25 lines. The arrival of AS2 in the early 2000s enabled direct point-to-point EDI over the Internet without an intermediary, which reduced the VAN market share without eliminating it. Modern VANs position themselves as cloud B2B integration platforms with extra services: supplier portal, dashboards, PEPPOL e-invoicing, legal archival.
Example in context
A European manufacturer wants to exchange in EDIFACT with a North-American retailer that only speaks X12. Rather than maintaining a dual mapping, it subscribes to a VAN that:
- Receives its EDIFACT messages via OFTP2 or AS2.
- Converts them to X12 5010 per the retailer's spec.
- Deposits them in the recipient's X12 mailbox at the partner VAN.
- Pulls and back-translates X12 997 acknowledgments to EDIFACT CONTRL for the manufacturer.