john konczal – industry executive, communications &...

John Konczal – Industry Executive, Communications & Media, B2B & Commerce, IBM Software Group

Russell Longo – Account Executive, Business Solutions, IBM Software GroupRussell Longo Account Executive, Business Solutions, IBM Software Group

Business-to-Partner Integration and CollaborationManaging Operational Complexity to Capitalize on New Revenue Opportunities

Tools of Change for Publishing, NYC, February 16

© 2010 IBM Corporation

Session Agenda

Investigate the growth in sales channel partnerships in publishing and how this growth is impacting publishers’ operational infrastructure for transacting sales through these partners:

• What is driving this growth

• The implications of this growth on the business

• Capabilities needed to manage this growth

• How digital sales models are complicating this issueHow digital sales models are complicating this issue

• Capabilities needed to manage new digital sales models

© 2010 IBM Corporation2

IBM is looking at how publishers can enable “smarter commerce” processes and practices to drive new revenues

SMART ISEmbracing ne c stomer b ing

SMART ISUsing m ltiple medi ms to deli er o r Embracing new customer buying

models for your customersUsing multiple mediums to deliver your content to your customers

SMART ISSMART IS SMART ISOptimizing and expanding the use of traditional and digital sales channels

SMART ISEfficient marketing across allmediums


The Importance of Sales Channel Partnerships in Publishing

Successful publishers will be those that have created ambidextrous and agile organizations that:

– Build revenue streams from multiple points: direct sales and in-direct sales (retailers and e-retailers)

– Manage business relationships with channel partners in a flexible manner


Sales Channel Partnerships are Expanding Exponentially

Physical and DigitalLocal and GlobalSmall and Large

Manual or Automated

Item CatalogsPurchase OrdersReturn Requests


qDigital Sales Data

Settlements Invoices

Business Issues Channel Expansion Creates

The Business to Partner Integration Challenge:The Business-to-Partner Integration Challenge:How do I connect to these to these partners?How do manage their unique requirements?

How do I ensure our date exchange is accurate and timely?


How do I ensure our date exchange is accurate and timely?How do I scale my operations profitably?

Our research shows that B2P Integration is a Big ConcernThe business needs more!

Communications Media

Service ProvidersWhat the business wants!What the business wants!

Companies are not satisfied!


What the Business Wants!

Increased Effectiveness of B2P Integration Efforts

Enhanced Process Control and Optimization

Real-Time Business Visibility

Faster Reponse Times to New Requestsp q

Improved Cost Control


Solutions for the Publishing IndustryC fThe Comprehensive Business-to-Partner Integration Platform

Driving new revenue streams in the digital economy requires publishers to have in place a B2P infrastructure that:

– Flexibly extends to new partners and channels

– Supports connection type, method, and protocol tomethod, and protocol to integrate and communicate with partners

– Hides the complexity of legacy back-office systems and applications – enablesand applications – enables “flow through” processing

– Enables rapid, scalable, and effective expansion of channel partners worldwide


The Comprehensive Business-to-Partner Integration PlatformSEnables Integration with Any Partner and Any System

Partner/Channel Profiles Must be Implemented to Guide Integration Execution and Governance

How Information Is Handled Between the Two Organizations Must be Configured, Including Data Validation and Transformation. Adapters Should be Implemented to

Process Partner Transactions To/From Back office SystemsBack-office Systems.

USRetailer

SmallRetailer

GlobalE-Retailer

SmallRetailer

GlobalRetailerGlobal

Retailer

USE-Retailer


Channels Connections B2P Infrastructure

The Comprehensive Business-to-Partner Integration PlatformO f 2Enables Process Orchestration for All B2P Transactions

Process Templates – B2B OrchestrationS l ti t h t t b i

B2B Orchestration

Process Modeling State Management

Workflow

• Solutions to orchestrate business processes internally and externally

– Workflow• Management, optimization andManagement, optimization and

monitoring of business processes – Process Modeling

• Modeling capability that dramatically reduces process d l t l tidevelopment cycle time

– State Management• Provide restart/resume control,

and guaranteed deliveryProcess Template– Process Template

• Templates that reflect the way a company does business, examining the steps, touch points, and processes that surround b i ti iti


business activities

The Comprehensive Business-to-Partner Integration PlatformCEnables Close Visibility Into All Partner Transactions

ERP 1

Visibility

ThePublisherEnterprise

ERP3

Workflow ERP 1

ERP 2Sales

PurchaseO d

Confirmation

Invoices

Digital SalesDataCatalog Aggregation Inventory

Catalog

Order

Web Portal File Transfer

EventManagement

Sales Channels

Finance

Operations

Unsophisticated Channels

EDI/RNET/XML

RegionalDistributor

USE-Retailer

SmallRetailer

GlobalRetailer

USRetailer

Operations


SophisticatedChannels

Performance Management

GlobalE-Retailer

Multi-National Trade PublisherB ildi B i V l Th h B i t P t I t tiBuilding Business Value Through Business-to-Partner Integration

To maintain competitiveness and grow in a rapidly transforming marketplace, this company had to become more responsive to meeting new types of customer requirements. The emergence of new channels,

Challenge

including big-box stores and supermarkets, as well as the need to support varying terms and conditions and document standards, posed challenges to existing processes and technical infrastructure. This created a

need to reengineer their B2P infrastructure.

Complication SolutionIn-house infrastructure was ill-suited to work with channels whose capabilities ranged from Excel spreadsheets to supporting highly complex EDI-based transactions.

The company selected IBM Sterling Integrator and Collaboration Network:

• One platform to support all B2B standards including EDI/EDIFACT, ONIX, ANSI X12, and Tradacoms.

• Needed to support a range of B2B standards, both cross-industry and specifically related to the publishing industry, such as ONIX, ANSI X12, and Tradacoms.

• Key channels had many stringent rules and SLAs to be

EDI/EDIFACT, ONIX, ANSI X12, and Tradacoms.

• End-to-end process visibility to monitor performance against partner SLAs.

• High degree of process automation. For example, met or penalties would be applied.

• Line of business was also asking for greater automation capabilities.

g g p p ,automated outbound file processing with unique workflow by partner and file type.

• Direct integration with SAP-based ERP layer.


• The B2B team also needed to prune and update its list of trading partners under management.

• Larger volumes supported by smaller staff.

The Comprehensive Business-to-Partner Integration Platform

Connectivity Translation Processing/Routing Visibility

IBM Sterling B2B Integrator

Connectivity Translation Processing/Routing Visibility


So How Do You Use ThisSo How Do You Use This Capability to Take

Advantage of the DigitalAdvantage of the Digital Economy?


Remember This Slide?

Digital Sales Models Complicates This Even More


Why is the Digital Sales Model So Complicated?

Publishers are partnering with online book sellers to provide consumers instant access to p g pmillions of books and other content via download to a variety of electronic devices

– Selling books in the digital age becomes an easier proposition for sellers as physical inventory management is not requiredTheoretically any seller can sell digital books (with the proper digital infrastructure)– Theoretically, any seller can sell digital books (with the proper digital infrastructure)

– This can drive potentially robust growth in digital book sales worldwide (in units sold)

This digital sales paradigm and associated growth increases the complexity associated with publishers support of digital sales channelspublishers support of digital sales channels

– This includes moving, storing, analyzing, and processing digital sales transaction data as end-customers make purchases.

Publishers must be prepared to connect to a rapidly growing number of on-line salesPublishers must be prepared to connect to a rapidly growing number of on line sales partners and exchanging digital sales data in real time while providing the business control to ensure optimal financial performance of digital media offers

– This is a business-to-partner integration problem


What The CFO Wants To Know…

ConnectConnect CollectCollect ProcessProcess SettleSettle

ScalabilityScalabilityManageability

TimelinessAccuracy


yEfficiency

The Digital Sales Data Exchange

E-Retailergenerates sales data

Send XML file of sales

data.Digital Sales Data

Exchange processes file:

File is receivedFile is translated

ERP receives

translated file.

OR

Validated and parsed file.

sales data file.

Uploads flat file via publisher

site.

File is interrogatedData is routed

Reports generatedNotification sent

Visibility platform updated real-time

.

Units Sold by CategoryUnits Sold by TitleUnits Sold by Revenue TypeEtc.

Connectivity Translation Processing/Routing VisibilityConnectivity Translation Processing/Routing Visibility


Key Capabilities in Deploying a Digital Sales Data ExchangeWith Associated BenefitsWith Associated Benefits

Capability Area of Impact Business Benefit

Connectivity to e-Retailers sites

• Offers multiple protocols/mechanisms for connectivity to Digital Sales partners

• Lower Ops Costs – IT (less time to onboard and less time maintaining communicationse Retailers sites connectivity to Digital Sales partners

• Abstracts the complexity to the partner through self-service and provides a consistent partner experience

and less time maintaining communications with non-VAN trading partners)

• Faster Revenue Realization - Shorter time to revenue with more agile on-boarding process (get the sales flowing sooner)

ODigital Sales File Translation

• Provides any-to-any transformation for integration between partners and publisher ERPs, including data pre-validation

• Rapid on boarding of partners through

• Lower Ops Costs – IT (automated handling of error conditions due to pre-validation)

• Lower Ops Costs - Finance (remove manual labor currently associated with exception handling)

the reuse of templates, maps, and processes reduces time to implementation

Digital Sales File Visibility Portal

• Offers aggregated views of Digital Sales files by partner time period and product

• Lower Ops Costs – IT (reduce involvement in tracking efforts – reduction in Q/I tickets)Visibility Portal files by partner, time period and product

• Real time tracking of transactions by business and IT including forecast reporting

tracking efforts reduction in Q/I tickets)• Lower Ops Costs – Finance (automated

reporting reduces labor waste from file tracking)

Digital Sales File • Automated processing of exceptions • Lower TCO – IT, Finance (reduce manual


Exception Process • Automated notification to partners and publisher staff

processing of exceptions)• Faster Revenue Realization - faster

reconciliation of error drives faster payment on errors

So What Have We Discussed Today?Th B i t P t I t ti C li tiThe Business-to-Partner Integration Complication

As sales channels for selling physical and digital media grow and develop, publishers must confront and solve a series of business complications in order to capitalize on new revenueconfront and solve a series of business complications in order to capitalize on new revenue opportunities:

– Increasing complexity due to the range of data exchange methods to support and the number of files that must be exchanged between partnersthat must be exchanged between partners

– Need for improved visibility and monitoring over data as it moves between back and forth between internal systems and external partners

N d f b tt ti it t ti d dit bilit f f t d ffi i t d t i d– Need for better connectivity, automation, and auditability for fast and efficient data processing and problem resolution

– Need for a scalable solution that efficiently and accurately handles quickly growing volumes of partner transactions especially with digital sales datatransactions especially with digital sales data


So What Have We Discussed Today?Th B i t P t I t ti S l ti

Comprehensive Business-to-Partner integration solutions give publishers a competitive advantage in the marketplace by solving many of the channel partner business

The Business-to-Partner Integration Solution

advantage in the marketplace by solving many of the channel partner business complications:

– Reducing the complexity associated with establishing connections with electronic retailers, moving data, and processing transactionsdata, and processing transactions

– Providing visibility and real time tracking of transaction data as it is exchanged so that business and IT users can quickly respond to inquiries, solve issues as the arise, and proactively analyze data for audit, reporting, and forecastingp g g

– Automating tasks associated with processing, translating, and routing data for more efficient back office operations, faster data analysis, and the ability to handle growing volumes of partner transactions with no or little impact to the business


To Learn More: WWW.THEPUBLISHINGVALUECHAIN.COM

Business Integration SolutionsgBy Sterling Commerce, an IBM Company

Recognized as a leader in

Gartner’s Magic Q d t f B2B

Over 18,000 worldwide customers,

including 80% ofBacked by the

worldwide fQuadrant for B2B

Gateway Providers

including 80% of the FORTUNE® 500, use Sterling

Solutions

resources of IBM


john konczal – industry executive, communications &...

Documents