Suite addresses demand for single tool to manage internal and external business integration

European research investigating the benefits to organisations of driving an end-to-end business integration strategy has found that over a third of companies are struggling to achieve efficiencies due to the use o f multiple tools to address internal and external business integration needs.

The research, conducted across 300 senior IT managers in France, Germany and the UK on behalf of Sterling Commerce, reveals a number of operational challenges experienced by companies in this area, when in fact the current climate dictates the need for a strong and effective collaboration across a company’s Business Collaboration Network – the ecosystem of customers, partners and suppliers

The findings of the research are further discussed by Dave Carmichael, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Sterling Commerce in the third of a series of video Guides to Business Integration, launching today.

Key findings include:
• UK organisations cited their reliance on multiple integration tools as the primary obstacle to achieving seamless business integration, whereas German-based and French-based organisations suggested a lack of integration between disparate tools as the dominant factor
• Lack of pre-integration was raised as the biggest challenge for large enterprises (3000+ employees) when it comes to effectiveness of B2B integration, closely followed by 34% stating that inefficiency was related to their integration tools being based on older technology
• Over half of the retail companies surveyed use more than one tool for internal and external (B2B) integration, with  40% of these companies stating that the main limitation of current integration capabilities was the dependency on multiple integration tools
• For the manufacturing sector, 36% of companies cited difficulties in quickly on-boarding new partners as the primary restriction of their current B2B capabilities, followed by the inability to effectively integrate their B2B capability with internal applications
• 50% of financial services companies highlighted the lack of a combined approach and tools to address all of their integration needs as a key inhibitor for effective integration
• 44% of large companies (3000+ employees) use more than one tool set to support both internal and external business-to-business (B2B) integration, rising to 59% for companies with 1000 – 3000 employees.

Market demand, therefore, has clearly increased for a comprehensive integration tool that offers the agility to cope with changing business conditions in today’s competitive market.  Frequent updates to legislative and regulatory compliance, pressures to increase cost efficiency and the need to adapt to M&A activity are driving this change.

In response, Sterling Commerce today unveils its new Sterling Business Integration Suite™ at its Customer Connection event in San Antonio, Texas.

The Sterling Business Integration Suite is an end-to-end integration solution that enables companies to improve business agility, increase operational efficiency, and drive business growth.  The Suite gives companies increased capability to support complex integration across the value chain with low maintenance and operational costs as the result of a common toolset. By meeting both the internal and external needs in one comprehensive suite, the solution gives companies the agility to respond to changing market demands and to leapfrog the competition.

Carmichael Comments:  “The research demonstrates that the market has been waiting for Sterling Business Integration Suite. It’s a suite of products and capabilities that finally brings together all the islands of information within an organisation, and enabling them to trade more effectively with customers, partners and suppliers.”
Dave Carmichael, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Sterling Commerce

Quotes:

“Sterling Business Integration Suite helps us streamline our supply chain with our suppliers while continuing to meet the increasingly stringent requirements of our customers.”
—John O'Moore, General Manager, Information Systems, Irish Dairy Board Irish Dairy Board

“Our sales team is marketing Sterling Business Integration Suite and the capabilities it provides to SXC as a strategic differentiator when selling against our competition.”
Jon Hoysaka, Chief Information Officer, —SXC Health Solutions

“With Sterling Business Integration Suite, Orica’s ability to respond to customers has moved from weeks to hours. We have gone from handling 200 documents a day to 15,000 documents a day, without growing our department from 2.5 people.”
Donald Defoe, Applications Manager, Orica

“With Sterling Business Integration Suite and EDI, Do It Best has been able to keep our overhead down to an industry low of 2.13 percent”.
Scott Christen, IT Support Manager, Do It Best

“We move a lot of financial documents on a daily basis with Sterling Business Integration Suite between both external and internal business partners, while meeting all of our information protection and compliance requirements.”
Ian Silver, Senior Technical Analyst, Ameriprise

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