Getting Sterling B2B Integrator to Work for You

With a high-level understanding of the key Sterling B2B Integrator components and their capabilities, you are ready to identify the process improvement opportunities within your organization. For information about the process you must follow, see Implementation Overview. For a features overview and description, see Architectural Overview.

Identifying Process Improvement Opportunities

Determining the configuration strategy that matches your organization’s requirements requires careful planning and an understanding of the complications that you want to overcome.

As you work with IBM®to determine your implementation strategy, you will determine the areas in which you must make changes to processes in order to maximize revenue and lower costs.

The following table describes the problem areas that you can consider making changes in:
Problem
Description

Manually handling information or processing steps that are definable and repeated

Any information-based task that can be defined can be automated. Automated tasks are typically performed faster and with fewer errors than manual tasks. Definable tasks that are repeated with sufficient frequency and quantity are almost always less expensive after automation.

Information stored and transmitted on paper

This requires either key-entry into the business application that will process it, or manual processing followed by key-entry of the results. Key entry and manual processing are slow and error prone, and are therefore are an inefficient use of human resources. The delays and high rate of errors raise expenses. Errors and missed opportunities can cause negative effects further down the process stream.

Information in a non-codified form (such as text)

Non-codified information must be manually processed.
Process obstructions
Any point at which a process slows down or stops because of some aspect of information movement, presentation, or processing, presents an opportunity for improvement. Examples of process such points include:
  • Waiting to obtain information from another source.
  • Spending extra time finding information.

  • Slowing down because of information that is in a form that cannot be used.

  • Actions pending because of information processing by humans.

  • Time spent finding, researching, and correcting an information-based error.

After identifying the problem areas that will benefit from automation and integration improvements, analyze which of the potential changes will most significantly improve your organization’s target performance measurements, and make those the priority.

Implementation Resources

The array of services and support offered byIBM® helps to accelerate your installation and deployment phases, transferring knowledge from our integration specialists to your staff and reducing the risk of project delays.

IBM offers the following resources to assist you with your implementation:
  • Consulting services to assist with analysis, design, and planning
  • Education in the form of training programs and documentation
  • Implementation assistance for developing and testing your system
  • Live and online Customer Support, as required, for sustaining your solution

When you realize your business results quickly, you can focus on maximizing the returns on your investment.

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