Value Added Networks, VANs, are private networks where EDI related information can be exchanged between companies securely. Trading partners will typically require an account with an EDI VAN provider which simply acts as an electronic mail box to both send and receive electronic documents. The sender connects with the VAN and sends its EDI transactions to the recipient's mailbox where they are stored. The sender then disconnects from the service. Then, at some point that is convenient, the recipient can connect to the network and receive those transactions from their mailbox. Most VANs offer an alerting service which informs the sender when messages have been sent successfully and informs the recipients when a new EDI message has arrived in their mailbox.

In addition to looking after the transmission and receiving of EDI messages, VAN providers offer a number of other value added services including, managing outsourced EDI, community or trading partner enablement and other services which allow companies to integrate back office systems seamlessly. VANs have traditionally been favoured for EDI transmission because of their security and their additional features such as

• Offer a mailbox service; trading partners dial into a VAN via a network access point and use a file transfer protocol to send EDI messages to the VAN. The VAN automatically routes the message to the receiving partner's mailbox and the trading partner dials into the VAN and retrieves the message
• Act as trusted third parties by inspecting and authenticating the EDI messages and verifying the identity of trading partners depositing and accessing them
• Take responsibility for providing an audit trail of all EDI transactions and for tracking / recording the trail of a message
• Send email notifications to partners that EDI messages have been deposited in their mailboxes
• Offer an extensive range of other services, for example, data backup, recovery, document mapping and other outsourced services