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 2 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 4 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 6 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 7 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. 8 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 9 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
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