How B2B Completes ERP – Part 2

Editor's Notes

• #2: Hello and welcome to the second of a two part video presentation which discusses how B2B integration completes ERP. This video presentation is hosted by GXS and my name is Mark Morley, Industry Marketing Director.In the first part of this video presentation I described how ERP and B2B systems share many similarities, both require skilled resource to implement and manage on an on-going basis, they need to be accessed by many users across the extended enterprise and they can be difficult to integrate to other back office systems. In this second video presentation I will discuss how adopting a cloud based integration approach can benefit ERP/B2B integration projects.
• #3: Cloud computing environments have received a lot of coverage in the IT press and media over the past couple of years. Many CIOs thought that Cloud was just hype, another buzzword that would disappear very quickly. However the hype surrounding cloud is very real indeed and it has fundamentally changed the strategies of not just companies looking to deploy cloud environments, but also the software and services vendors who now provide these solutions. Just look at the acquisitions that companies such as SAP have made in recent months to build out their cloud story.Many of the big software and services vendors have been rolling out new data centre infrastructures so that they can host these new cloud environments and some CIOs have decided to embrace the cloud and make it a core part of their company’s IT strategy. The example shown on this slide is from the CIO of Jaguar Land Rover who after being divested from Ford said that they would deploy cloud solutions for most areas of their business. From using Google as the basis of their corporate email through to using GXS Managed Services to manage their B2B infrastructure, JLR decided to externalise these applications so that they can simplify, standardise and modernise their IT and B2B infrastructure.So we are hearing a lot about cloud environments, but what exactly are they?
• #4: Cloud computing environments typically comprise of three different components.Infrastructure as a Service - IaaS, essentially provides the core backbone infrastructure onto which the rest of the cloud environment is built. For example companies such as Amazon and EMC will provide extensive compute and storage facilitiesPlatform as a Service - PaaS, provides the infrastructure onto which the applications are developed, for example GXS Trading Grid (the world’s largest integration cloud platform) is a good example of a PaaS environmentSoftware as a Service - SaaS, provides the core business applications that effectively plug into the cloud environment. These are typically web based in nature and are heavily optimised for operating across the internet and cloud based environments. SAP’s Business by Design and GXS Active Logistics are good examples of SaaS based applications.
• #6: It provides Global accessibility, as all applications are hosted by a central provider it means that anyone in your company or across your trading partner community can get access to your B2B tools using nothing more than a web browser. It also means that users will get a consistent user experience as well.Cloud environments also allow B2B infrastructures to be maintained much more efficiently, as applications are hosted centrally, it means that applications only have to be upgraded once rather than on multiple servers, and everyone connected to the cloud platform benefits from the newly upgraded environment.Cloud environments can be deployed very quickly, once again as software and services are installed by a vendor at a central location it means that new applications can be deployed in a very short time frame and new users can be added to the environment with ease. Cloud environments really allow you to build flexibility into your B2B environment, getting access to new functionality as and when you require it.Cloud environments are low cost, rather than pay a software license fee, users pay on a month by month or project by project basis. This pay as you go way of working allows managers to get much better predictability of long terms IT or B2B related costs. Also, as you do not have to buy expensive servers to host any applications, it means that there is no capital expenditure and zero cost can be applied to your company’s balance sheet.In these uncertain financial times, cloud based environments allow companies to scale up or scale down their B2B needs very quickly, may be as a result of winning a new contract and a need to onboard new trading partners very quickly or needing to scale down operations due to a product coming near to retirement.Finally, cloud based environments provide an ideal way to manage a community of users with ease. Centralised management of usernames, passwords and contact details help to bring an extra layer of security to your B2B environment. In addition it allows users to be presented with just the information they need to do their work, ie a role based environment can be presented to a user depending upon their role and responsibilities within the business.
• #9: From a B2B outsourcing perspective GXS is very well positioned to help companies improve their ERP / B2B integration projects.B2B outsourcing allows a company to utilise external resources on a scalable basis so as an integration project becomes more complicated or has to encompass different geographical sites then more resources can be pulled into the project as required. Many companies have regarded third party outsourcing vendors such as GXS as an extension of their own IT departments.B2B outsourcing allows trading communities and any associated on-boarding process to be managed and implemented much more efficiently. This allows ROI on ERP projects to be achieved much more quickly when new modules or transaction types have to be implemented across a trading community.B2B outsourcing can lead to less risk of connectivity loss due to greater investment in high availability infrastructures offered by vendors such as GXS.B2B Outsourcing has the capability of wrapping a company’s ERP applications with an ERP firewall thus allowing externally generated information to be checked before it enters the ERP system.
• #10: One of the main benefits of integrating an ERP and B2B system is that it is then possible to establish what can best be described as a firewall around a company’s ERP system. The aim of this is to protect the ERP system and ensure that incorrect data does not enter the ERP environment. Whether you are trying to protect your ERP system from information being sent in by customers, distributors, logistics providers, suppliers or financial institutions, integrating to a B2B system can provide a higher level of security around your ERP applications and downstream business processes. GXS Data Quality and Compliance solution helps to protect your ERP related systems by ensuring that only clean and accurate information that obides by predefined business rules and checking procedures is allowed to enter your ERP environment.
• #11: So how does B2B help to complete ERP?It can provide a highly available platform that allows information, either internally or externally sourced, to seamlessly enter an ERP system 24/7It provides a way to mediate between any type of document format irrespective of where your trading partner or customer may be located around the world. These document maps would then be maintained on an on-going basis so that if features or functionality of applications change then the maps can be updated accordinglyB2B helps to connect to any trading partner across the extended enterprise, irrespective of the communication protocol being used, for example FTP, OFTP2 or even via SAP ALE or SAP PI, B2B integration can ensure trading partners and ERP systems receive information via mediation between any communications protocol
• #12: In addition B2B integration to ERP helps to:-Improve the way in which you manage and collaborate with your trading partner community, this is especially important in today’s business environment where many companies are using truly global business partners, offices, manufacturing plants. It is one thing being able to develop an integrated B2B/ERP platform, but it needs to be deployed across your extended enterprise in a smooth and efficient mannerB2B integration can certainly helps to improve the quality of information entering an ERP system and being able to proactively monitor transactions will certainly help to reduce the risk of other internal business systems or production lines being impacted in some way.If your company has decided to divert IT resources into completing an ERP related project then you certainly do not want to leave your B2B platform exposed. B2B outsourcing can help plug the resource gap and offer a way to keep ERP integration projects on schedule.
• #13: So in conclusion for ERP systems to function correctly they need to be seamlessly connected to external trading partners to ensure that information can flow easily into and out of an ERP environment. GXS and in particular our cloud based B2B integration platform is used by many companiesand we have worked on many single and multi-vendor ERP projects over the last few years. These companies have derived significant benefits by moving this integration to a cloud based environment :-We have helped companies free up valuable resources so that they can be used on other projects and hence they can then focus on their core competenciesWe can help to improve the quality of externally sourced information entering an ERP systemWe have moved companies on to a cloud integration platform that provides the flexibility and scalability such that if business needs change then the integration platform can be changed accordinglyIn short, GXS helps to provide the bridge or connection between an ERP environment and the extended enterprise.
• #14: If you would like to learn more about GXS’ Cloud integration platform, then please go to www.gxs.com/cloud To find out further information about how GXS can help maximise the return on ERP/B2B integration projects then please visit the websites highlighted on this slide, you will find some useful resources for managing such projects. The microsite shown on the left provides further information from the ERP/B2B IntegrationResearch Study mentioned in the first part of this video presentation and you can download a copy of the study from this site.The microsite shown on the right provides a more detailed overview of GXS ERP integration expertise and how B2B outsourcing can benefit SAP specific integration projects. This site is available in U.S and UK English and German.The web addresses for both sites are shown on this slide.