day to day firefighting,” says Scott Lewis, Senior Product Marketing. Manager for
Sterling B2B Integration Solutions at IBM. As a result, companies are often left ...
B2B Integration: Automation for growth As customers become more empowered and savvy, companies are under mounting pressure to meet ever-increasing expectations. For many of these companies, ensuring that products meet customer demand can be more complex than you think. Behind the scenes, a company may be engaging in hundreds, perhaps thousands, of interactions with trading partners and suppliers to make sure that the right goods and materials are sourced and delivered. Historically, many companies have generally used a tactical approach to tackling their business processes. These organizations typically implemented point solutions that in isolation solved the most pressing problem, but never addressed the bigger picture of full automation. And by implementing one system at a time, companies inadvertently built silos, which led to integration challenges. “In the past, it’s been day to day firefighting,” says Scott Lewis, Senior Product Marketing Manager for Sterling B2B Integration Solutions at IBM. As a result, companies are often left with a tangled web of disparate systems that are connected with many manual processes, limiting a lot of the potential value of automation that companies could achieve.
The key to holistic B2B integration is automation. Manual data entry and formatting introduces human errors that left unchecked can cause larger problems down the supply chain.
The need for B2B integration Often as a business grows, so too does the number of trading partners, suppliers and customers. And as each partner, supplier
partner community and increased transaction volume, revealed some
and customer has its own set of needs, a company’s business
limitations with their previous EDI software. Slowed down by manual
processes can become more abundant and definitely more complex.
processes to format data and resulting human errors, the company’s
For midsized companies, growth can place pressure on the business
software was incapable of supporting the company’s growth, today
ecosystem and reveal weaknesses in the supply chain.
and in the future.
A recent Aberdeen report, “Understanding the Complexity of B2B
Scott Hulme, Vice President of Services, Sourcing and Software at
Integration: Insights for Mid-Market Leaders” found that 44 percent of
The REMEDI Group which worked with the midsize distributor, knows
midmarket companies are feeling under pressure by the lack of business
this to be an all-too-common challenge for midsize organizations.
process integration which leads to poor customer, supplier and trading
“Our clients have utilized an EDI translation software application that
partner communication. “With a lot of companies,” says Lewis, “even if
many years ago once met their needs when they first implemented it
they have an electronic connection with a supplier, they may not have a
and when the demands on the EDI environment weren’t complex at all.
connection to their backend systems, meaning that transactions can’t
Now with changing complexities within their EDI environment, these
flow from the system to the supplier or back without manual intervention.”
companies are experiencing the need for automation of processes and integration with external trading partners and internal processes
One midsize company, a leading global distributor, was experiencing a
that current EDI translators cannot support.”
similar problem, albeit one borne out the company’s recent success. Rapid sales growth in the company, namely an expanded trading
The key to holistic B2B integration is automation. Manual data entry and
© Copyright IBM Corporation 2012. All rights reserved.
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formatting introduces human errors that left unchecked can cause larger
volumes to a midsize company with limited resources. “The holistic
problems down the supply chain. And as midsize companies continue
platform ultimately provides a less expensive solution to operate and
to grow, the inefficiency of having to reenter or massage data can take
from a process standpoint, provides better integration with backend
its toll. How many midsize companies still rely on processing paper or
systems,” says Lewis.
manually reentering data? According to a recent survey conducted by SmartBrief, 88 percent of their readers rely heavily or partly on manual
In fact, the right solution can reduce costs and improve communication.
processes when working with their suppliers.
With an integrated value chain, companies can process orders and ship product more accurately and quickly while ultimately conducting
Compounding the pressure to automate operations is the shift of many
business in a more secure manner.
companies into a more global environment where they are faced with customers and suppliers in regions outside of their comfort zone. Over
Getting started
the past decade, for example, the average number of trading partners
According to Lewis, the first step for any company that wants to get
of IBM Sterling’s B2B Collaboration Network customers increased 400
started is to look for the manual processes that can plague a business.
percent – an increase that is mainly due to market globalization. For
“Start looking for piles of paper. Figure out how to automate those
companies, an increasingly diverse business community often translates
manual processes.” This approach allows a company to identify the low
to a complex world of new standards and regulations, additional
hanging fruit that will demonstrate fast results.
protocols to support, supplies and partners with varying degrees of technical sophistication and multiple platforms to address. “Something
Companies can next try to better understand how their business
often changes for these companies,” says Lewis. “Either government
functions on the front lines, namely sales and customer service. These
regulations require the data to be treated differently or an overseas
departments have a unique insight into how a business provides
customer needs a data in a new format.”
customers with the answers they need from an end-to-end perspective. “Understand the process,” says Lewis. “If a customer calls in, what do
And companies know they are in need of help. Hulme sees an
you do? How long are they on hold or have to wait for an answer?”
increase in clients that want to move away from manual processes to full automation. “We get requests on a daily basis… from companies
When tackling integration challenges, companies have a plethora of
that are looking to move to a best of breed solution that allows them to
software options, cloud-based solutions and managed services solutions
customize workflows to their needs.”
to choose from. Hulme recommends that while cost is always a factor for smaller companies in particular; midsize companies should consider the
Better integration = ready for growth
scalability of the solution. “The key is finding a solution that accounts for
Today’s B2B integration offerings allow companies to easily and cost-
the company’s needs now and is scalable for future growth.”
effectively automate their internal business processes and extend these automated processes out to their customers and suppliers. Not long
Lewis adds that that working with a trusted partner or advisor to lay out
after upgrading its system and implementing Sterling B2B Integrator, the
an upgrade plan and assessment can be critical to success. And one
midsize global distributor began to see real business results. In addition
that understands the unique integration needs of a smaller business can
to gaining up to 30 hours per week of productivity, the company reduced
make all the difference. “Each company has its own set of challenges. A
errors, eliminated many of its manual processes and was able to get
one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work. Companies need to take a step
unprecedented visibility into the company’s data. The distributor was
back and think of a strategic approach to B2B integration.”
able to also “automate and integrate in ways that they haven’t done in the past,” says Hulme. According to Lewis, companies that automate processes with Sterling B2B Integrator can generally see reduction in administrative costs of 30 to 60 percent over manual processes. That kind of savings can speak
Learn more by going to: ibm.com/businesscenter/forwardview
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