IMPROVE THE MILEAGE ON YOUR B2B INVESTMENTS

Transcription

1 IMPROVE THE MILEAGE ON YOUR B2B INVESTMENTS B2B integration, translation and communication technology has an accomplished history of connecting organizations with customers, suppliers, logistics providers and other business partners for reliable and secure information exchange. Typically every organization needs to exchange information, like purchase orders, contracts and payments, with trading partners. But as companies continue to grow and diversify, both organically and through mergers and acquisitions, they risk being overwhelmed by changing B2B requirements and a critical lack of integration. This white paper explains why a consolidated gateway gives you the best mileage for B2B communications for the road ahead. TABLE OF CONTENTS 2 The challenges of multiple B2B systems 3 The best path forward: nine n reasons to consolidate B2B 4 Choosing and implementing a consolidated c B2B solution 5 The right approach: pain-free consolidation with w a service oriented B2B gateway 7 Take the next step JULY 2018 WHITE PAPER

2 To simplify your life and maintain your sanity you must consolidate your B2B operations. Consolidation approaches vary as much as the systems that are being consolidated. Depending on the size of the company, it may be possible to demand that partners and vendors accept a single standard to conduct business. Functionally, consolidation solutions vary based on factors such as product maturity, B2B standards support, architectural coherence and community/change management. A B2B gateway can help. Think of it as a digital conduit and translation solution that integrates data from back-end systems so trading partners can exchange information. Designed to facilitate the consolidation of multiple B2B systems, an ideal B2B gateway is: Purpose-built based on trusted architecture and created specifically to manage multiple protocols, partners and data types Comprehensive to provide centralized partner management to simplify onboarding and subsequent management Transparent offering a single view of business across all system and information silos inside and outside the enterprise The challenges of multiple B2B systems Any transaction between two businesses is considered B2B whether with partners, vendors or customers. To manage those transactions digitally, many organizations have implemented various B2B systems to ensure information exchanged is consistent, reliable and secure. However, without a single standard B2B system, there are often separate solutions for each partner or vendor. Today, multiple B2B systems and the difficulties that come with them have become a de facto standard for many organizations. On average, a modern mid- to large-sized company utilizes three to six separate B2B systems with multiple document standards and protocols. The larger the organization, the more systems and the greater complexity to maintain them. This is complicated even further by merger and acquisition activity. The challenges of multiple B2B systems all come down to one critical factor: COST. Decreased efficiency, ongoing maintenance and/or upgrades of multiple systems, security breaches, lack of integration and scrambling to meet varied requirements can cost organizations millions, every day. The challenges of multiple B2B systems all come down to one critical factor: COST. Decreased efficiency, ongoing maintenance and/or upgrades of multiple systems, security breaches, lack of integration and scrambling to meet varied requirements can cost organizations millions, every day. How did the B2B process become so complex? A changing marketplace: To keep pace with increasingly complex supply chains, B2B systems have had to change and grow rapidly. While many systems are up to the task, many are inflexible and difficult to scale. At the same time, the importance and scrutiny of security, audits and compliance have also increased. In a multiplesystem environment, even the slightest changes to policies, protocol or technology can quickly become a nightmare to manage. Seeing outside the black box: Multiple, siloed B2B solutions that don t provide visibility into B2B transactions increase operating costs, lower customer/partner satisfaction and create higher barriers to supporting business initiatives. They also make uncovering vendor or partner redundancies difficult. Keeping every plate spinning: The relevance and effectiveness of each system have come to rely on the diligence of those maintaining it as well as those who created it. Keeping systems current is a challenge that increases exponentially with each system in use, especially with many proprietary point-to-point systems, which require a dedicated set of skills and expertise to manage. Some systems are older and less efficient than others. Some are outdated or going out of support. Organizations also face the modernization challenge for their legacy B2B systems, including mainframe EDI systems, EDI translators, point-to-point integration solutions and dependencies on Value-Added Networks (VANs), which can be expensive because they charge by message volume. 2

3 Not playing well with others: Some legacy systems are poorly integrated, lacking the ability to seamlessly co-exist with internal operations. This creates a potential point of failure for each system connected to internal infrastructure and slows down business dramatically. Multiple-choice hacking: As with sub-par integration, from a security standpoint each system becomes another entry point for hacker intrusion especially with older legacy B2B systems. In essence, multi-system environments leave organizations only as secure as their weakest B2B system. Wasted time and lack of agility: A multi-system B2B environment can be quite inefficient, from the tedious onboarding process that requires entering information on multiple vendors or partners in separate systems to inflexible systems that lead to an inability to respond to business demands. ERP XML AS2 Supplier Item and Pricing XML SOAP Marketplace Inventory/ Forecasting EDI RNIF VAN/Service Provider Financials/ Payments Flat File FTP/SFTP Customer Manual Processes Phone/Fax Customer Typical data traffic before consolidation: using multiple systems to support different document standards and transport protocols increases complexity 3

4 The best path forward: nine reasons to consolidate B2B It s not difficult to see how a multi-system B2B environment can hold an organization back and create costly problems. So how can you face such challenges head-on and keep your business moving forward, efficiently and cost effectively? Increasingly, many organizations find the answer lies in consolidated B2B gateway software built on a flexible, scalable foundation. WHY CAN T I JUST WAIT TO CONSOLIDATE? Organizations implementing state-of-the-art, purpose-built B2B gateway solutions today will be faster and better positioned than less agile competitors as the economic recovery gains momentum. Consolidation to reduce complexity and cost simply makes sense. By moving to a single, integrated system, backed by a purpose-built, rock-solid architecture, organizations can: 1. Gain greater visibility and insight into their B2B transactions, freeing up IT resources to support additional supply-chain initiatives 2. Consolidate and standardize multiple B2B projects (often resulting from siloed organizations or mergers and acquisitions) across the enterprise into a single B2B platform, enabling re-use and reducing cost 3. Minimize supply-chain disruptions and speed up business 4. Capture significant business value with increased operational and competitive agility 5. Eliminate the extra hardware and software licenses and maintenance fees that come with maintaining multiple B2B systems 6. Lower the cost of support, upgrades and system replacement 7. Work more securely and meet compliance requirements with a single point of entry for all B2B transactions 8. Better manage Return on Investment (ROI), Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and internal and external audits 9. Easily scale operations up or down with little to no downtime With flexibility and easy integration, a comprehensive B2B gateway enables organizations to retake control of many disparate B2B systems and obtain a single view of business across all system and information silos both inside and outside the enterprise. ERP XML AS2 Supplier Item and Pricing XML SOAP Marketplace Inventory/ Forecasting EDI WEBMETHODS TRADING NETWORKS RNIF VAN/Service Provider Financials/ Payments FLAT FILE FTP/SFTP Customer Manual Processes PHONE/FAX Customer Data traffic after consolidation: B2B gateways simplify B2B by supporting all major document standards and transport protocols. 4

5 Choosing and implementing a consolidated B2B solution The goal is to build and maintain a single B2B gateway for all your transactions with suppliers, distributors, customers and other trading partners of any size. However, the focus of consolidation into one B2B application typically revolves around enabling the protocols and EDI/XML standards in use as well as the ability to process the data volumes. Other factors to be considered include visibility, extensibility, architectural fit, and the ability of the product to fit in the IT governance model. When selecting a vendor and system, consider your business goals as well as those of your partners and vendors. The right system won t just be an aspirin for today s headaches, but also the means to prevent future ones. Without these considerations, organizations will once again find themselves with B2B systems that are islands of functionality with little visibility into other systems in IT. When selecting a vendor and system, consider your business goals as well as those of your partners and vendors. The right system will keep you open to easier trading with just about any vendor.at a bare minimum, a best-of-breed consolidated B2 system will deliver: A single, integrated gateway that improves accuracy and efficiency of interactions with suppliers, distributors, trading partners and customers, eliminating costly errors and delays Improved collaboration with business partners and vendors through frictionless interactions that don t require manual intervention or cumbersome rework every time changes are made in transaction documents or the like Enhanced reporting, analytics, visibility and real-time information exchange, increasing the speed at which the organization can do business Simplified document flow without worry about file size, format, reliability or security. This includes support for all major B2B standards and protocols such as AS2, ebxml, AS4, X12, EDIFACT and more Faster, more efficient onboarding of trading partners by eliminating redundant data entry and connecting each partner with relevant internal processes A reduced need for point-to-point integrations, ultimately reducing the cost of ownership Integration with governance and policy management The ability to leverage existing IT investments by service-enabling them and re-using services A secure gateway through active validation of partner authenticity, a secure mechanism for information exchange and strong data encryption, whether in motion or at rest An integration platform that provides a platform for B2B exchanges and that s built to scale horizontally and vertically Activity monitoring and alerts built on top of B2B gateway to provide critical visibility into business operations even letting, users define and track Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) A services-driven integration, which enables full visibility into B2B activities, lower operating costs and increased partner satisfaction, thanks to more efficient and accurate interactions, while creating opportunities for new business initiatives As organizations gain further insight into their B2B transactions, they can define partnercentric Service Level Agreements (SLAs) to improve their supply chains, find efficient ways of doing B2B, improve B2B performance and support additional use cases for business. Overall, the chosen solution should improve the speed and efficiency of B2B transactions while simplifying daily B2B operational tasks and lowering costs. 5

6 webmethods Optimize for B2B is business activity monitoring software that helps organizations stay on top of potential problems by offering visibility into transactions and trends across the entire supply chain/trading network. The right approach: pain-free consolidation with a service-oriented B2B gateway The goal is to build and maintain a single B2B gateway for all your transactions with suppliers, distributors, customers and other trading partners of any size. However, the focus of consolidation into one B2B application typically revolves around enabling the protocols and EDI/XML. A services-oriented B2B gateway enables unparalleled visibility and data management empowering organizations to quickly identify and extract services from the various integrated systems. In addition to fast, accurate information exchange with trading partner applications and databases, a services oriented gateway also gives organizations the agility needed for service re-use and improvement versus flat-out replacement. The result is a critical value-added capability on top of the integration with easier B2B consolidation, greater business value and tighter integration while enabling organizations to build new services as needed and manage them across stakeholders and for their entire life cycle. Some examples of this impact include: Quickly and efficiently developing new solutions while extending existing IT investments by re-using or replacing as many or as few parts of legacy B2B services as possible, such as building a new visibility service on top of an existing translation service Obtaining a single view of business across all system and information silos both inside and outside the enterprise Taking advantage of the various options for connecting B2B services to different parts of the organization, including service-oriented, event-driven or enterprise application integration The Software AG approach Software AG believes that the simplicity organizations seek comes from one B2B solution for internal and external integration. To that end, Software AG provides a scalable, easyto-manage gateway for doing business electronically with customers, distributors and trading partners worldwide. With Software AG, all documents flow through the same gateway without worry about file size, format, reliability or security concerns. Plus, you can cure vendor headaches faster with visibility of entire B2B processes, end-to-end. Our integrated B2B solutions include: webmethods Trading Networks: Built on webmethods Integration Server, Software AG s unique webmethods Trading Networks seamlessly provides access to our hybrid integration platform capabilities as well as our Business Process Management (BPM), monitoring, analytics, governance, composite applications, legacy applications and databases. This unparalleled foundation offers: A single, centralized gateway for all B2B integration, spanning EDI, XML and flat-file document formats, enabling the organization to integrate 100 percent of its trading partners with a single solution Support for all major B2B standards and protocols, such as AS2, ebxml, AS4, X12 and EDIFACT, as well as vertical industry standards, such as RosettaNet, SWIFT, CIDX, PIDX, HIPAA and more A proven platform for even the largest, most complex B2B integrations, supporting transaction levels in the billions and connections to tens of thousands of partners and suppliers Completely integrated with webmethods API Management Platform that enables API (REST or SOAP)-based B2B transactions along with the traditional B2B file exchange mechanisms. Best-of-breed back-end integration, BPM, completely integrated with the webmethods API Management Platform, which enables API (REST or SOAP) based B2B transactions along with the traditional B2B file exchange mechanisms, monitoring and business activity monitoring Both B2B integration and Managed File Transfer (MFT) capabilities on top of a single integration platform 6

7 webmethods Optimize for B2B: A Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) software solution that works with webmethods Trading Networks, Optimize for B2B helps organizations analyze and understand interactions with trading partners. It empowers organizations to stay on top of potential problems by offering visibility into transactions and trends across the entire supply chain/trading network, including: Identification of deviations based on historical behavior The monitoring of each KPI and making sense of inconsistent workloads based on historical patterns, such as time-of-day and day-of-month A unified view of the health of B2B processes as well as business data across all B2B transactions Customizable, proactive, exception-based alerts sent via , SMS or through web service actions webmethods estandards: These add-on modules quickly provide value-added, B2B software solutions for specific industries, including manufacturing, financial services, consumer packaged goods, retail and others without the need for coding. Based on industry-specific standards, these distinctive modules include: 1SYNC for automated synchronization of item information ACH, enabling financial institutions to send and receive payments electronically via the Automated Clearing House (ACH) network AS4, with support for the AS4 standard to facilitate the secure exchange of messages, independent of payload type, using web services Chem estandards for Chem document payloads as well as the RosettaNet Implementation Framework (RNIF) messaging protocol ebxml in support of extensible Markup Language (ebxml) Messaging Specification (ebms) versions 1 and 2 with reliable, once-and-only-once delivery of messages as well as both synchronous and asynchronous messaging EDI with support for standards, such as ANSI X12, UN/EDIFACT, VICS, UCS, ODETTE, Tradacoms, EANCOM, VDA and CII EDIINT for conducting EDI over the Internet with support for EDIINT standards, such as AS1, AS2 and AS3 FIX for secure messaging with the Financial Information exchange (FIX) message standard HIPAA, which enables employers, payers, providers and clearinghouses to process medical claims transactions according to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) standards HL7, adding support for HL7 2.X standards, which are leading standards worldwide when it comes to healthcare interoperability, plus MLLP (Minimum Lower Level Protocol) and other common protocols, such as FTP(S), HTTP(S) and EDIINT, for exchanging HL7 2.x messages ISO 8583: Validate partner merchant transactions with out-of-the-box document types for MasterCard, VISA, AMEX, EUROPAY and many more. Modify standard document type definitions for any partner-specific integration papinet, which helps customers meet the transactions and transport specifications defined in the papinet standards RosettaNet, enabling highly scalable, secure exchange of supply-chain information for even the largest manufacturers and service providers, including support for RNIF versions 1.1 and 2.0 SWIFT with support for all message types, including: ISO syntax and semantic validation; various modes of connectivity to SWIFTAlliance Access and SWIFTAlliance Gateway; and secure message exchange via the SWIFTNet FileAct and InterAct messaging solutions We can create supply chain solutions for enterprise customers around the world that are very complex and very customer specific faster, cheaper and better. Mark Stason Head of Performance Management & Technical Consulting, DHL (Software AG customer) 7

8 Staples IT team felt that webmethods Trading Networks was easier to learn, use and maintain compared to other alternatives. Jane Lilley Director of IT, Enterprise Integration Services, Staples The solution in action Software AG s webmethods Trading Networks is a leading B2B gateway that s built on a proven ESB platfom used by more than 1,600 customers and partners across all major industries, from small to very large implementations. Here s an example of a company benefitting from a consolidated approach to B2B: Staples acquired Corporate Express in 2008 and as a result inherited several B2B systems that were being used for both suppliers and customers. Staples IT recognized the need to standardize customer-centric processes and to rationalize the related systems. They embarked on a multi-year B2B project and hit a home run. Read more about Staples success with Software AG. Take the next step Getting rid of B2B pains and increasing business value IT and business leaders alike face the same challenge every day: doing more with less. At the same time, interactions with trading partners require more accuracy, efficiency and speed than ever. Inefficient, underperforming systems drain profitability and slow down business an effect multiplied exponentially by the number of separate, siloed systems in place. In the case of B2B systems, one of the smartest, simplest ways to cut costs and help grow incremental revenue is to consolidate. API-enabled B2B integration addresses cost issues through: Re-use of services Retirement of inefficient and unwieldy patchwork systems The ability to do more with less Additionally, Software AG addresses the business need to build revenue by enabling organizations to rapidly support critical business initiatives. The key to achieving those goals lies in service enablement and the ability to integrate B2B processes with internal processes and also help improve the visibility of partner transactions across the entire supply chain. Those organizations taking these critical steps and implementing state-of-the-art API-enabled B2B today will be better positioned than less-agile competitors as the economic recovery gains momentum. That s why organizations such as Staples turn to the acknowledged leader in B2B consolidation and integration: Software AG. IT decision-makers who choose Software AG will multiply the value of their IT investments and the value of IT to the business and get there faster. Get in the driver s seat to improve your trading networks. Clear out your clunkers and trade up to one multi-utility vehicle! For information about on Software AG s B2B gateway and its benefits of API-centric integration and consolidation, please talk to your Software AG representative or visit ABOUT SOFTWARE AG Software AG (Frankfurt TecDAX: SOW) helps companies with their digital transformation. With Software AG s Digital Business Platform, companies can better interact with their customers and bring them on new digital journeys, promote unique value propositions, and create new business opportunities. In the Internet of Things (IoT) market, Software AG enables enterprises to integrate, connect and manage IoT components as well as analyze data and predict future events based on Artificial Intelligence (AI). The Digital Business Platform is built on decades of uncompromising software development, IT experience and technological leadership. Software AG has more than 4,500 employees, is active in 70 countries and had revenues of 879 million in To learn more, visit Software AG. All rights reserved. Software AG and all Software AG products are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Software AG. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. SAG_Improve_the_Mileage_8PG_WP_Jul18