IBM Sterling B2B Integrator and Gentran Integration Suite Consulting

FAQ
Q. On average how much experience do your Sterling Integrator consultants have?

A. On average our consultants have 5 years of experience across Gentran Integration Suite and Sterling Integrator.  We have consultants that have worked with the product(s) since inception, and others with levels of experience that suit client / project needs.

Q. What is the scale of your services?

A. The scale of our services is from SI/GIS mappers, to BP developers, to administrators, to full spectrum professionals.  Within and across each of these we can ramp numbers and combinations of professionals according to client / project needs.

Q. What kind of work do you normally do on a Sterling Integrator engagement?

A. Approximately 25% EDI mapping / testing / implementation, 5% rapid community on-boarding, 25% BP development/optimization, 5% framework development, 15% original planning / installation / configuration, 20% Gentran / GIS to Sterling Integrator conversion / upgrade, 5% system health checks, project audits, companion product utilization.

Q. How many SI/GIS engagements have you done?

A. We have had +200 Sterling Integrator / GIS engagements since 2007.

Q. Do you have any tools to assist with converting the maps from Gentran to Sterling Integrator?

A. X-Link will convert Gentran UNIX Visual Maps to Application Integrator or SI/GIS maps which can cut time and costs up to 75-80%.

Q. Can you come in and just spend a few hours reviewing our infrastructure and make recommendations for improvements?

A. We have done a system review for many companies over the years and recently began using a product to assist with this.  BPdocRx will analyze your Sterling Integrator Business Processes and creates documentation showing how the BPs are working and make performance recommendations.

Q. Have you helped clients with Sterling Integrator 5.0 implementations?

A. Yes, we’ve done over 10 since the release of SI 5.0.

CASE STUDIES

• IBM B2B Integrator – Transportation/Logistics
• Sterling Integrator – Insurance
• Sterling Integrator – Label and Tape Manufacturing
• Sterling Integrator – Food Manufacturing
• Sterling Integrator – Transportation Services
• Sterling Integrator – Food Service Distribution

IBM B2B Integrator – Transportation/Logistics

PROJECT DESCRIPTION
REMEDI Electronic Commerce Group collaborates with IBM Mid-Market Integration Software team to resell +$100K transportation / logistics industry software and services deal.

CLIENT PROFILE
Client headquartered in the Northeast, is a long term software and hardware customer of IBM, while the trusted advisor and B2B Integration IBM Business Partner was REMEDI Electronic Commerce Group. REMEDI is a software reseller and preferred professional services provider where IBM B2B Solutions are concerned. IBM and REMEDI developed a new collaborative sales cycle with the B2B Sales teams to support mid-market software and services opportunities. This newly developed sales cycle was launched with IBM and the client, given the client opportunity outlined below.

BUSINESS CASE
The client’s vision for the project was to replace Dell’s Boomi eCommerce solution with IBM’s B2B Integrator eCommerce solution. The IBM B2B Integrator solution systematizes internal business processes, and that shared with trading partners, to automate the complete buy-sell-ship-pay process providing visibility into information and processes shared with internal/external applications and stakeholders. Not available through the Boomi solution, client needed a solution that would grow with the expansion of their transportation and logistics eCommerce environment over a five to ten year time period.

SOLUTION / DELIVERABLES
The retirement project devised by REMEDI Electronic Commerce Group and client replaced the current legacy environment with a more robust software solution aimed at several objectives:

• Allow for growth of their eCommerce environment over the next five to ten years
• Allow for an onsite software solution to provide greater administrative control
• Automate data transformation for processes with external partners
• Provide integration with internal applications
• Provide real-time visibility across line of business and client IT systems

The project was also the foundation of a longer-term scalable vision of integration allowing client to handle variations in volumes of data due to seasonal peaks, gain greater control of their business processes, and provide better visibility into data and business processes.

OUTCOME
The collaboration resulted in the licensing of IBM’s B2B Integrator software solution and an engagement for REMEDI to provide implementation services, (re)architecting the client environment with IBM B2B Integrator software serving as the linchpin and focal point of their state of the art integration environment.

Sterling Integrator – Insurance

PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Migrate communications processes from Unix scripts to Sterling Integrator.

CLIENT PROFILE
Client is a regional health insurance company that serves more than 880,000 members in 32 counties.

• Industry: Health insurance
• Location: Midwestern United States
• Technical Environment: Hardware(and OS): Unix, Software(and version): Sterling Integrator v4.2, ERP: Peoplesoft, Trizetto
• Relevant to the project: Number of trading partners: 50+, Number of business processes: 60+

BUSINESS CASE

It had been very tough and time consuming to create and to maintain the scripts, to monitor and to re-process the daily jobs.  All the communications, compression or decompression, encryption or decryption had been handled through the Unix scripting.  The scheduling and the e-mail notification had been handled through the mainframe jobs.

The client intends to use Sterling Integrator/Gentran Integration Suite as a communication gateway and as a depository/archiving of files being sent or received through the gateways.  The mainframe will soon go away.  GIS will be in place to play the role of the mainframe.

SITUATION

• Company installed Sterling Commerce’s Sterling Integrator 4.2 for Unix in 2007.
• Sterling Commerce had set-up the mailboxes allowing the customers to drop or pick-up files via FTP.  The DOS batch jobs and Unix scripts were scheduled to run to process these files.

SOLUTION / DELIVERABLES

• Provided a GIS consultant to develop different templates to replace the existing DOS command and Unix script.
• Trained and helped two employees to use the developed templates to replace other batch jobs.
• Developed re-usable FTP sub-processes to get and put files from and to the mainframe and the Unix boxes.

OUTCOME

• Most of the batches (80+) and Unix scripts have been replaced with GIS business processes.
• Eliminated unnecessary FTPing to the Unix boxes.
• Eliminated the scheduling and e-mail alert or e-mail notification from the mainframe.
• Eliminated Unix scripting to compress or decompress, to encrypt or decrypt, to FTP and to handle complex file requirements from the clients.
• Added additional communication protocols such as FTPS and SFTP to meet the clients requirements such as banks.
• Expanded the use of the mailboxes to handle different file processes.
• A certain process can be re-started without reloading of files.

Sterling Integrator – Manufacturer

PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Installation and configuration of Sterling Integrator v5.0

CLIENT PROFILE
Client manufacturers adhesive labels and tape in the United States and sells these products globally.

• Industry: Manufacturing
• Location: North Carolina
• Technical Environment: Hardware(and OS): Windows 2003, Software(and version): Sterling Integrator v5.0, ERP: SAP

SITUATION
The company needed assistance with installing and configuring Sterling Integrator (SI) 5.0 in a clustered environment.

SOLUTION/DELIVERABLES

• The deliverable was the installation, configuration, and documentation of an SI 5.0 clustered (2-node) environment, tested for load balancing and failover.
• The application server(s) were tuned to optimize performance.  Interface adapters were configured and tested.
• A System Maintenance and Monitoring plan was established to ensure ongoing operational stability.
• An environment review and knowledge transfer session was conducted to educate client resources on system administration.

OUTCOME
The delivery of a stable, fully documented environment, allowed client resources to focus on the implementation and migration phase of the project.

Sterling Integrator – Food Manufacturer

PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Migrate from Gentran:Server Windows to SI v5.0

CLIENT PROFILE
Client is the largest producer of corn and flour tortilla products with facilities around the world.

• Industry: Food manufacturing
• Location: Texas
• Technical Environment: Hardware(and OS): Windows, Software(and version): Sterling Integrator v5.0, ERP: SAP

SITUATION
The client spent a lot of time daily to maintain the EDI processes. Even though the ERP is SAP/R3, the IDOC was not used to interface with Gentran. Data had to be modified for the inbound and the outbound to support the EDI environment.

SOLUTION / DELIVERABLES
New BP processes were developed on SI and most of the maps had to be modified or re-developed to allow the EDI process to be fully automated. A trading partner with the most transactions was used as the target for this development.

OUTCOME
Based on the migration of one of the trading partner, the fully automated process would save the client at least 2 hours+ a day.

Sterling Integrator – Transportation Services

PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Upgrade GIS v4.11 to SI v5.0 / Process Automation and Improvement / Business Process Development / Data Mapping / Operations / Support

CLIENT PROFILE
Client is a privately held company providing integrated transportation services to and from the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Tortola.

• Industry: Transportation Services
• Location: Florida
• Technical Environment: Hardware(and OS): Linux (RedHat) / Windows, Software(and version): Gentran Integration Suite v4.11 – Sterling Integrator v5.0, ERP: Great Plains / Proprietary in house systems
• Relevant to the project: Other: Oracle 9i / 10g

SITUATION
The existing GIS Administrator had moved to a new company and the company had several outstanding issues that needed to be addressed.

SOLUTION/DELIVERABLES

• GIS / SI upgrade and migration
• System assessment / recommendations
• Development of new B2B and EAI processes
• Process and system improvements
• Operations support
• EDI maps / XML maps / JDBC maps / positional maps

OUTCOME

• Stabilization of existing GIS environment
• Upgrade GIS v4.11 to SI v5.0
• Improvements in the migration processes from beta to production
• Successful implementation of several new trading partners and transactions
• Resolution of several operational and design issues

Sterling Integrator – Food Service Distribution

PROJECT DESCRIPTION
EDI mapping and customer on-boarding team staffing

CLIENT PROFILE
Client is a national food service supplier providing food and related products and services to 250,000+ customers, including restaurants, hospitals, hotels, schools and governmental operations. The client employs more than 25,000+ associates and operates more than 90 distribution centers.

• Industry: Food Service Distribution
• Location: Midwestern United States serving North America
• Products:
  Food and food related products
• Technical Environment: Hardware(and OS): Unix, Software(and version): GIS 4.3, Communications software (and version): GIS (AS2), VAN, ERP: Proprietary
• Relevant to the project: Number of Trading Partners: 70+, Number of Maps: Varied based on customers meeting client specifications or customers requiring their specifications be met, Other:
  TIBCO, PRIME, Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW), Product Information Management (PIM)

BUSINESS CASE

• Project goal was to increase the number of customer business documents processed by EDI to result in reduced processing costs, reduced data errors, and increased efficiency
• With increased electronic integration, faster inbound PO’s (etc.) were to speed the order to cash cycle
• There was difficulty in making progress on implementations as new customer integration opportunities were being presented to the company faster than current staff implementation levels would allow

SITUATION

• Client was understaffed in terms of GIS mappers / business process developers
• Client was understaffed in terms of EDI data integration and implementation coordinators
• Client wanted implementation coordinators capable of working effectively with customers that had a mature EDI knowledge base and infrastructure, as well as those with the demonstrated ability to assist customers with integrations where customer knowledge of EDI, required infrastructure, and implementation techniques was not strong
• There was an extremely high degree of implementation complexity in the client environment due to different systems, a variety of divisions (acquired through acquisition), and a variety of customer / specification types

SOLUTION / DELIVERABLES

• Created two EDI integration teams to increase integration capacity and reduce backlogs
• Each EDI integration team consisted of one person to perform EDI mapping, testing, and GIS BP development
• Each EDI integration team consisted of three people who worked directly with client customers to perform specification review, data integration and gap analysis, and coordination of testing/problem resolution/go-live
• Based on large scale EDI implementation and integration efforts for other clients, use best practice and lessons learned from other projects to consult with client and arrive at the most effective strategy for aggressive on-boarding given the complexities of the client environment

OUTCOME

• 70 integrations were completed in 2.5 months with the new team and structure (with more integrations to come), as opposed to 92 integrations for all of 2008
• Much needed documentation has been completed and circulated throughout client departments to aid in awareness of various eCommerce processes
• Projects are being handled more timely and efficiently as a result of these implementation teams

CUSTOMER QUOTES

IT MANAGER – INSURANCE INDUSTRY

“You have done an excellent job as a GIS EDI Consultant over the past 3 years. During your tenure, you have been a valuable asset to our organization, thank you for providing your knowledge and expertise.

Special thanks for your contribution and dedication to the project, you were instrumental in helping us make our deadline, along with support and training you provided.

It has been a privilege to work with you on several projects and tasks over the past few years. You possess the ultimate ‘can do’ attitude and positive energy, always with a smile. I feel very fortunate and grateful for the contribution and professionalism you provided to our organization.

I would highly recommend you to anyone looking for a hard working, dedicated, true professional. You would be a asset to any employer in any endeavor you choose to pursue.”

EDI ANALYST – TRANSPORTATION INDUSTRY

“Michael consulted for our business for eight months.  In that time, he applied his knowledge of EDI, data integration tools from Sterling Commerce, and shipping to help us with EDI implementations and related issues.  In particular, he was instrumental in setting up EDI with two of our customers, one of which provides more than $4 million gross sales annually to our company.  He also provided analysis and advice on technical matters.

Over this period Michael demonstrated initiative, communicated well with our customers, and was focused on the business issues related to what he was asked to do.  We are pleased with his efforts and going forward feel he will add value for our customers.  Thank you for his service.”

IT MANAGER – FOOD MANUFACTURER

“This email is to confirm that project Sterling Integrator implementation was successfully completed within the time frame which was agreed by both parties, we still have a lot to do (learning curve) but we will be able to manage since REMEDI’s consultant delivered an excellent professional knowledge of the application, we will definitely use them for future needs even if it has to be by remote support. I still need to do a final test and will notify you if any issues encountered, once again thank you for your support and for your records, I have worked with several consultants in the past but just a couple have had the knowledge and credentials.”