Modernizing B2B Operations for Retail's SAP Rollout with IBM Solutions

The Challenge: 

Our Client was preparing to replace many of their legacy systems with SAP, which would have a significant impact across the company—including its B2B operations. They were using an unsupported, outdated version of TrustedLink which would not work properly in the new environment and lacked many capabilities they needed to support their changing business needs. 

The Solution: 

• Our Client and Eliassen started the engagement with an Integration Assessment of their current processes and business requirements.
• • During the assessment, Eliassen found and documented a number of manual processes, as well as legacy functionality, that would be lost in the SAP transition and needed to be addressed. Eliassen also uncovered areas where improved visibility, error handling, SLA monitoring, and security would be very valuable.
• • The IBM Supply Chain Business Network and Business Transaction Intelligence was presented as an additional value-added solution to compliment IBM Sterling B2B Integrator and the Eliassen Framework.
• • Our Client used the combined solutions to transform their entire B2B/EDI environment, and implement a world-class end-to-end solution with enhanced functionality, visibility, security, and scalability. 

The Result: 

As a result of the extensive analysis and discussion around deployment options, the client’s team was able to conclude with confidence that an on-premise software option for IBM Sterling B2B Integrator with the Eliassen B2B Framework was the right fit for their needs.

With this decision made, the Eliassen team proposed:

• IBM B2B Integrator for processing and translation
• Eliassen's B2B Framework for end-to-end visibility, reporting, and self-service access for their business users
• IBM Control Center for proactive monitoring of SLAs
• IBM Secure Proxy for enhanced security

In addition, agreeing to a multi-year initial software and support contract, the Eliassen and IBM teams presented a creative way to move Our Client to IBM Supply Chain Business Network and not only gain significant functionality, but also save them money on their VAN services. Moreover, Eliassen helped Our Client optimize how their costs were allocated between Capital Expenditure versus Operational Expense.

The proposal and teamwork were a tremendous success. Our Client transformed their legacy applications with a modern set of solutions providing the Business the visibility and real-time data needed to better run operations and the technical teams are now more proactive, efficient while reducing costs to support their EDI and Integration environments.