IBM Sterling B2B Integrator

In todays' digital economy, it is vital for enterprises to be able to seamlessly integrate with their partner and customer communities to ensure that they stay connected. IBM Sterling B2B Integrator enables the security-rich integration of complex B2B processes with diverse partner communities. It provides a single, flexible B2B gateway that enables companies to meet a wide range of B2Bi needs. It can help improve business processes beyond the enterprise boundaries and increase visibility into and across supply and demand chains.

The 'Graphic Process Modeler'

Enterprises that are looking to become digital and automated, rely heavily on the effectivenes and reliability of their business processes. These business processes not only need to be automated but also need to be properly integrated into various sources and activities to ensure the connected nature of the process.

This is sometimes a difficult task which requires heavy knowledge of XML and BPML (Business Process Modeling Language). The IBM B2B Sterling Integrator comes built in with a drag-and-drop tool for building process models. The IBM Graphic Process Modeler is used by many of our customers in conjunction with Sterling Integrator to create and modify critical business processes easily. The GPM helps convert graphical business process models into source code, saving the customer's time and effort.

Over the years, Miracle's B2Bi Teams have helped numerous customers build essential and enterprise-class process models using the Graphical Process Modeler. We have been able to help depict process models as graphical diagrams using the tool, which also displays the available adapters, services and instructions that form the core of the customers Business Processes.

The GPM also enables developers and business users to configure related parameters through the GPM and create rules and conditions within your process models. Our teams are capable of validating the process models and deploy them into Sterling B2B Integrator, from within the GPM. The GPM includes its own Source Manager tool, enabling customers to lock, check in and check out business process models, and to monitor versions of business process models using a data and time stamp.

Customer Case Study

Scenario

One of our customers required the following scenario to be automated,

A Trading Partner puts files in XML Format in a Secure FTP location on one server. These files need to be fetched from the location, translated into iDOC format and sent back to the SAP application.

Note : Customer was on IBM B2B Sterling Integrator 5.2.4 System

The Solution

Our Teams were able to use the built-in Graphic Process Modeler in the IBM Sterling B2B Integrator Tool Set to easily create a Business Process for the above flow using in-built services and adapters given by GPM.

Some of the built in services used for this Business Process construction were,

• FTP Services : For pulling data using the SFTP protocol services
• SAP Adapter : We were able to provide SAP connectivity by configuring the SAP Adapter in the GPM Admin Screen
• FSA Services : This service helped us to place the file in a mail box
• Writing routing rules : The GPM allows us to write routing rules to ensure that another BP is triggered once the file is placed in the mail box
• Translation Service : We then used the translation service to convert this XML document into an IDOC using the SAP Suite Adapter for JCo 3.x
• The translated files are sent to SAP system by Application Linking and Enabling (ALE) i.e. by using SAP Adapter
• mailMIMEService : Error Reports and Failures are report to the client EDI team using the mailMIMEService which triggers an email message

Over the years our teams have gained expertise in using the GPM to help you achieve your Business-Critical and Enterprise-Class Business Processes and in turn driver greater business value in your partner ecosystem. Contact us today, and let us know how we can help you analyze, plan and build your Business Processes in Sterling B2Bi.

You can find out more about our B2Bi and MFT Service Offerings at www.miraclesoft.com/b2b or reach out to us at b2b@miraclesoft.com