what is a value added network van 
a value added network van is a private hosted service that provides companies with a secure way to send and share data with its counterparties value added networks were a common way to facilitate electronic data interchange edi between companies as the internet created competition for this service with the advent of secure email vans responded by expanding their service offerings to include things like message encryption secure email and management reporting a value added network simplifies the communications process by reducing the number of parties with which a company needs to communicate the van accomplishes this by acting as an intermediary between business partners that share standards based or proprietary data vans are set up with audit capabilities so that the data being exchanged is formatted correctly and validated before it is transferred to the next party vans are sometimes referred to as added value networks or turnkey communications lines 