Whit e pa p er
SEEBURGER Consolidation & Modernization
How to Get Ahead of the Competition:
Consolidate and Modernize Your B2B
and File Transfer Environments
www.seeburger.com
Content
Executive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Consolidation and Modernization: A Powerful Duo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Why Focus On B2B, File Transfer and SAP.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Some Success Stories .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Seven Key Success Factors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Consolidation Begins Here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
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Whitepaper | Consolidation & Modernization
Executive Summary
To stay competitive today, most companies must go
beyond cost-cutting. They need to use new technology
to be innovative in responding to the demands of a fastmoving, intensely competitive global economy. By taking
a consolidated approach to your B2B and file transfer
environments – the backbone of your supply chain – you
can reap big rewards: cost savings, improved operational
efficiency, and increased revenue.
A number of best-run businesses have achieved a
competitive edge by consolidating and modernizing
the EDI, B2B and file transfer environments that control
their supply chains – including SAP processes. In this
paper, we tell some of their stories. We also discuss
the seven key success factors for a consolidation and
modernization project.
Whitepaper | Consolidation & Modernization
3
Consolidation and Modernization: A Powerful Duo
Regardless of the industries in which they operate,
businesses across the globe have been facing the same
three IT challenges for years. CIOs are under intense
pressure to reduce costs, increase revenue and minimize
risk. This pressure isn’t new.
What is new is the approach to alleviating the pressure:
consolidation and modernization of IT. It’s no longer
enough to just try to do more with less; you need to do
everything better:
1. Cut costs - via consolidation
2. Increase revenue - via modernization
3. Reduce risk - via continually improved data security
Obviously, you can’t throw everything out and start over
as in the old days. But CEOs still expect you to achieve
more with less, which means consolidating the number
of applications, platforms and processes you’re running.
Modernization means replacing legacy tools with modern
tools that can help you deliver more and better services
that propel the business ahead of competitors. It means
consolidating strategically.
In meeting the three IT challenges above, many well-run
companies have instinctively turned to their EDI, B2B
and file transfer environments.
It makes sense. EDI, B2B and file transfer environments
constitute the critical infrastructure that connects the
business with its business partners and customers
Source of Savings
Operating and maintenance staff
Creation of new B2B/EDI interfaces
Software maintenance fees
Search (status, errors, document tracking)
Transfer fees
worldwide. This infrastructure enables competitive
advantage: high-quality, competitively priced, and timely
products and services.
These well-run companies have achieved noteworthy
results by consolidating their EDI, B2B and file transfer
environments into a single, unified environment based
on a modern business process integration engine. Once
they have a unified environment in place, they have
then been able to innovate and modernize outmoded,
inefficient processes.
For example, using SAP best practices, many have been
able to dramatically streamline the integration of internal
functions and external partners. Others have been able
to move from fragmented, insecure and wasteful file
transfer processes (scattered FTP servers, corporate
email servers, and public Web services) to Managed
File Transfer (MFT), a single, automated process that
centrally governs all types of file transfers (system-tosystem, system-to-human, and human-to-human) with
end-to-end security, reliability and auditability.
A survey of SEEBURGER customers showed that by
consolidating their EDI, B2B and file transfer technologies
using the SEEBURGER Business Integration Suite, they
were able to cut their application and project costs by up
to 80% while maintaining the satisfaction of internal and
external partners*.
These businesses also achieved the following savings:
Amount of Savings
50%
65%
60%
96%
30%
In addition to these financial benefits, the businesses achieved improved reliability, availability and service levels.
* Survey of International automobile suppliers, ODETTE conference, 2011
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Whitepaper | Consolidation & Modernization
Why Focus On B2B, File Transfer and SAP
B2B and file transfer environments are ripe with potential
to meet IT’s three challenges: cut costs, generate new
revenue, reduce business risk.
With proper consolidation and modernization, IT can help
the business move more quickly and deliver higher levels
of service across the supply chain, at less cost. You can
roll out new revenue-generating services, connect new
trading partners, and troubleshoot operational problems
much more quickly, while more easily accommodating
supply chain growth and diversification. You can extend
your SAP business processes — and create and deploy
new processes — much more easily. You can protect
your business better by protecting your data better, to
the farthest edges of your supply chain — even as your
supply chain grows and changes.
To achieve these advantages, however, every business
first has to overcome several legacy problems, including:
Disparate, fragmented and departmental silo systems,
which deliver specific functions but usually at a high
cost
Legacy applications, which require multiple patch
upgrades and ongoing fixes to comply with everevolving operating and application infrastructure
Inconsistent visibility of various B2B or file interfaces
across the business, which complicates governance
and increases business risk
synchronization of production and logistics processes.
These inconsistent internal processes make external
integration with your trading partner ecosystem difficult,
slow, costly and risky. You need to efficiently link with
not only your largest, most technically sophisticated
supplier but also your smallest EDI-challenged supplier.
If you’re seeking to consolidate legacy tools and
applications, you should ideally replace them with
a single solution that can deliver a complete set of
modern functions, including end-to-end, business-level
monitoring/reporting; and industry-specific integration
components (processes, mappings, adapters) that
work out-of-the-box. If you’re an SAP user, you should
additionally look for functions that can “get inside” SAP
to simplify the task of extending SAP processes across
the supply chain – processes such as Order-to-Cash,
Purchase-to-Pay and B2B/Supply Chain Monitoring.
With such functionality in place, you’ll no longer have
to reinvent the wheel each time you want to offer a new
service or onboard a new trading partner. You’ll be able
to respond much more quickly and decisively because
your focus will be on the business problem – and not
the internal mechanics of integrating data with people,
partners and processes. And, with end-to-end visibility,
both your business users and your IT people can work
together logically and productively to ensure that each
step of the supply chain process is running smoothly,
improving customer satisfaction. All of this means less
waste, bigger rewards, and steadier business.
In large supply chains that require multiple integration
applications, it’s also very common to find inconsistent
Whitepaper | Consolidation & Modernization
5
Some Success Stories
A number of best-run businesses have achieved a
competitive edge by consolidating and modernizing their
EDI, B2B and file transfer environments in this manner.
Leading Technology Company: This global computer
manufacturer was able to replace multiple products
with the end-to-end platform of the SEEBURGER
Business Integration Suite. The replaced products
cost $510,000 annually before administrative
expenses. The new single platform connects
15,000 partners; integrates multiple standards and
communications protocols; and handles 15 million
business transactions a month.
Automotive Supplier: As one of the world’s largest
automotive suppliers, Magna wanted to consolidate
its global information network. SEEBURGER Business
Integration Suite allowed Magna to cut costs by
supporting consolidation of all its formats and
business processes, with complete integration in six
months.
Magna IT
Up to 60 subsidiaries
in Europe, Asia and
North America
ERP 1
ERP 2
ERP 3
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Whitepaper | Consolidation & Modernization
Large
Retailer: One of Switzerland’s largest
retailers, Coop was able to meet the demand set by
a rapid doubling of its EDI partners and processes by
consolidating and modernizing with the SEEBURGER
Business Integration Suite. The solution met Coop’s
operating-system requirements and enabled direct
integration with sister companies through various BIS
integration points.
Telecommunications
Company:
Following
a
restructuring by its parent company, a newly formed
wireline company was able to reduce its EDI operating
costs by nearly 50% by centralizing all its EDI
activities on the SEEBURGER Business Integration
Suite platform. The solution replaced a patchwork of
EDI systems in three different data centers managed
by three different teams.
Magna IT
SEEBURGER
BIS 6 as a
central platform
Message
Tracking
Future automotive
portals f or supplier
integration
Purchase orders,
invoices,
delivery notes,
credit notes,
JIT/JIS,
JIT delivery
schedules,
collective daily
delivery notes
External partners
Customers
All major OEMs such
as BMW, Audi,
Porsche, GAZ Group
(Russia), ...
Suppliers
WebEDI etc.
Seven Key Success Factors
There are seven key success factors in a successful
consolidation and modernization strategy for B2B and
file transfer environments. The Business Integration
Suite from SEEBURGER enables companies of all sizes to
achieve these key success factors.
1. Comprehensive Functionality Coverage
Consolidation and modernization typically involve
replacing numerous B2B and file transfer solutions,
2. Large Process Repository
Businesses with large-scale consolidation needs often
have very specific needs. A good consolidation and
modernization solution should be able to meet these
needs without programming or extensive hand-holding
by your solution vendor. Otherwise, your project will take
too long and cost too much. Therefore, look for a solution
that includes a large repository of processes that you can
easily adapt, repurpose and reuse.
each offering a different functionality. Therefore,
when consolidating, look carefully for a solution that
has a comprehensive and natively well-integrated set
of modules, communication protocols and adapters.
Don’t complicate matters by selecting a replacement
solution that itself is a patchwork of function-specific
technologies brought together through the acquisition of
different vendors.
For example: the SEEBURGER Business Integration
Suite’s BPEL functionality makes it simple for companies
to create their own processes and modify existing ones.
Our standard repository contains a large number of
components and functions for use in processes — such
as adapters, mappings and other components — that you
can easily edit using BPEL. Our large library of editable
industry-specific components (adapters, mappings and
pre-configurations) further speeds deployment and
lowers your total cost of implementation.
Public Processes (B2B, MFT)
Private Processes (EAI, MFT)
Legacy
Development
& Deployment
Process Designer, Mapping
Designer, Repository Service
Process
Management
Analytics, Master Data,
Trading Partner Management
Process
Monitoring
Portal
EDI
WS Enabled
Rules Engine, Inspector
Logging / Auditing
Message Tracking,
Task lists, Portal
Process
Execution
Broker / ESB
SCM
Business Process Engine
SEEBURGER BIS
ERP
B-to-B
Legacy
Transport
activities
Transformation
activities
WS Enabled
JMS, SOAP, OFTP,
X400, HTTP, MQ,
…
XML, EDIFACT,
ANSI, CSV, …
Adapter
activities
SAP PI, BAAN, MS
ERP..
Component
activities
ZIP, Encryption,
Signature, Splitting,
Merging, …
A
Adapter/Transmission
Whitepaper | Consolidation & Modernization
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3. End-to-End Visibility
A comprehensive business activity monitoring approach
can provide end-to-end visibility of your processes
that empowers business users, improves customer
satisfaction, and frees up your IT people. To ensure
smooth operation of all your processes, look for a
solution that automates tasks such as message tracking,
audit logging/inspector, move-to-production, process
restarts, and trouble ticketing, as well as automates
critical business functions such as trading partner
management.
SEEBURGER’s Business Integration Suite uses these and
other sophisticated automated functions in providing
end-to-end monitoring for all your business processes,
including SAP internal processes. We ensure reliability
and availability by using a variety of cluster and
architecture options. For on-premise customers, we
support your operation via remote management; with
our Managed Service option, we take over complete
responsibility for your operation. Regardless of delivery
option, SEEBURGER provides complete visibility of your
B2B and file transfer environments via our sophisticated
business activity monitoring tools.
4. Performance with Scalability
Your consolidated platform should be built on a
modern architecture that can reliably handle very large
transaction volumes and scale with your business. For
example, SEEBURGER’s Business Integration Suite has a
future-proof, scalable multi-tenant architecture designed
to handle extreme amounts of transactions in a private or
public cloud — including highly distributed installations
and clusters.
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Whitepaper | Consolidation & Modernization
5. Ease of Migration
When consolidating, look for a solution that will simplify
your migration from multiple solutions and platforms –
not complicate it. For example, SEEBURGER’s Business
Integration Suite includes special automated and
preconfigured migration tools, such as the Mapping
Analyzer and Mapping Test Automation Tools.
6. Ease of Use
A solution with a modern, intuitive graphical user
interface will shorten your implementation times, reduce
your training costs, and ensure a smooth transition from
multiple solutions. Innovative, contextual interfaces can
empower business people to perform complicated tasks
with little or no training – or IT handholding. Portals can
provide powerful management dashboards for IT and
business people, which they can access anytime from
anywhere. Easy-to-use solutions mean that people can
easily adopt them, minimizing the disruptions that can
often occur with a consolidation project.
7. Best Practices
Choose a solution with a history and a strong customer
track record. It will, by definition, have best practices
built into it, based on the ongoing experience and
feedback from an active community of customers. For
example, SEEBURGER’s Business Integration Suite
incorporates best practices for SAP that are based on our
years of serving more than 2,000 SAP customers. We’ve
seen it all.
Consolidation Begins Here
Technology has advanced to the point where every
well-run global business can afford to benefit from a
consolidated EDI, B2B and file transfer infrastructure.
You’ll gain cost savings, a path to IT innovation, and
an infrastructure that can more easily expand with the
growing needs of the business.
You can save money and increase your efficiency and
flexibility by consolidating your EDI, B2B and file transfer
applications on a single, central platform driven by
existing industry-specific processes orchestrated by a
world-class process engine: the SEEBURGER Business
Integration Suite.
More than 8,800 customers worldwide — ranging from
the Fortune 100 to small and medium companies —
depend on the SEEBURGER solution. SEEBURGER has
been integrating companies for more than 25 years. As
a SEEBURGER customer, you’ll join the ranks of other
well-run companies that are benefiting from the power of
this technology, which has been precision-engineered in
Germany from the ground up.
SEEBURGER Business Integration Suite
Advantages for Consolidation and
Modernization
One Platform • Complete Control • Single Source
Reduces operating costs by up to 80% through
consolidation and modernization of heterogeneous
EDI, B2B and file transfer environments
Extensive toolbox speeds individual integration
projects for large international companies
Industry-specific, pre-configured standard solution
simplifies consolidation for small and medium
enterprises
Best practices for extending and modernizing SAP
processes
Flexible delivery options: on premise, on demand
(managed service or cloud offering), on device
Delivers lowest possible TCO, improved efficiency, and
painless accommodation of future requirements
Improves service delivery levels and customer
satisfaction
Whitepaper | Consolidation & Modernization
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www.seeburger.com
SEEBURGER Global Offices
Asia Pacific
SEEBURGER Asia Pacific Ltd.
Level 3, Three Pacific Place
1 Queen’s Road East
Hong Kong
Phone + 852 2584 6220
Fax + 852 2588 3499
[email protected]
Austria
SEEBURGER Informatik GmbH
Vienna Twin Tower
Wienerbergstraße 11
A-1100 Wien
Phone + 43 (0) 1/99460-6189
Fax + 43 (0) 1/99460-5000
[email protected]
www.seeburger.at
Benelux
SEEBURGER Benelux B.V.
Het Poortgebouw – Beech Avenue 54-60
Schiphol-Rijk
NL-1119 PW, the Netherlands
Phone + 31 (0) 20 658 6137
Fax + 31 (0) 20 658 6111
[email protected]
www.seeburger.nl
SEEBURGER Belgium
Regus Brussels Airport
Pegasuslaan 5
B-1831 Diegem
Phone + 32 (0) 2/709 29 28
Fax + 32 (0) 2/709 22 22
[email protected]
www.seeburger.be
Bulgaria
SEEBURGER Informatik EOOD
Grigorij Gorbatenko Strasse 6
k-s Mlados I
BG-1784 Sofia
Phone + 359 29745-100
[email protected]
www.bg.seeburger.com
China
CHINA HQ
SEEBURGER China Inc.
Suite 523-526, 5/F Cimic Tower
800 Shangcheng Rd.
200120 Shanghai,
P.R. China
Phone + 86 (0) 21 5835 7779
Fax + 86 (0) 21 3887 0999
[email protected]
www.seeburger.cn
SEEBURGER China Inc.
CBD International Mansion
C529, 5/F
No.16 Yongan Dongli
Chaoyang, Beijing, 100022
Phone + 86 (0) 10 6563 7565
Fax + 86 (0) 10 6563 7562
[email protected]
SEEBURGER Asia Pacific Ltd.
Level 3, Three Pacific Place
1 Queen‘s Road East
Hong Kong
Phone +852 2584 6220
Fax +852 2588 3499
[email protected]
Czech Republic
Phone + 420 733 723602
[email protected]
www.cz.seeburger.com
Eastern Europe &
South Eastern Europe
(except Hungaria, Czech Republic,
Bulgaria & Turkey)
Phone + 49 (0) 7252.96-1172
[email protected]
www.seeburger.com
France
SEEBURGER France S.A.R.L.
87, rue du Gouverneur Général Eboué
F-92130 Issy Les Moulineaux (Paris)
Phone + 33 (0) 1 41 90 67 50
Fax + 33 (0) 1 41 90 67 59
[email protected]
www.seeburger.fr
Germany
SEEBURGER AG (Headquarters)
Edisonstraße 1
D-75015 Bretten (near Karlsruhe)
Phone + 49 (0) 72 52/96-0
Fax + 49 (0) 72 52/96-2222
[email protected]
www.seeburger.de
Hamburg
Spaldingstr. 77a
D-20097 Hamburg
Phone + 49 (0) 40.2388240
[email protected]
www.seeburger.de
Köthen
Konrad-Adenauer-Allee 13
D-06366 Köthen
Phone + 49 (0) 34 96.50 81-0
[email protected]
Great Britain/Ireland
SEEBURGER UK Ltd.
Heathrow Boulevard 4
280 Bath Road
West Drayton
Middlesex
UB7 0DQ
Phone + 44 (0) 20 8564 3900
Fax + 44 (0) 20 8897 8295
[email protected]
www.seeburger.co.uk
Italy
SEEBURGER Informatica SRL Unipersonale
Via Frua, 14
I-20146 Milano
Phone + 39 02 45 48 53 68
Fax + 39 02 43 51 01 10
[email protected]
www.seeburger.it
Japan
SEEBURGER KK
Nishi-Gotanda Sign Tower 5th Floor
1-33-10 Nishi-Gotanda
Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo 141-0031
Phone + 81-(0)3-6303-9120
Fax + 81-(0)3-6303-9124
[email protected]
Middle East & Africa
Phone: + 49 (0) 72 52.96-1172
[email protected]
www.seeburger.com
Spain/Portugal
SEEBURGER Informática S.L.
Pso. Infanta Isabel, 27-1 Izq.
E-28014 Madrid
Phone + 34 91 433 69 89
Fax + 34 91 434 12 28
[email protected]
www.seeburger.es
Sweden/Scandinavia
SEEBURGER Svenska AB
Vendevägen 90 (7th floor)
S-182 32 Danderyd
Phone + 46 (0) 8 544 99 140
Fax + 46 (0) 8 544 99 149
[email protected]
www.seeburger.se
SEEBURGER Svenska AB
Hisingsgatan 30
S-417 03 Göteborg
Phone + 46 (0) 31 339 15 25
Fax + 46 (0) 31 339 15 26
[email protected]
Switzerland
SEEBURGER Informatik AG
Samstagernstrasse 57
CH-8832 Wollerau
Phone + 41 (0) 44 787 01 90
Fax + 41 (0) 44 787 01 91
[email protected]
www.seeburger.ch
Turkey
Phone + 49 (0) 72 52.96-1592
[email protected]
www.seeburger.com.tr
USA
SEEBURGER, Inc.
1230 Peachtree Street NE
Suite 1020
Atlanta, GA 30309, USA
Phone + 1 770 604 3888
Fax + 1 770 604 3885
[email protected]
www.seeburger.com
Imprint: SEEBURGER Inc. · 1230 Peachtree Street NE, Suite 1020 Atlanta, GA 30309 USA W
SEEBURGER Consolidation and Modernization White Paper 2/2012
All product names mentioned are the property of the respective company.
© Copyright SEEBURGER AG 2012