ORLANDO , FLA. – October 11, 2006 – At the Gartner Symposium ITxpo, Sterling Commerce, the multi-enterprise collaboration company and a subsidiary of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), today announced the availability of an integration kit between Sterling Multi-Channel Order Management and IBM WebSphere Commerce version 6. Developed in collaboration with IBM, the integration kit enables companies to accelerate the return on their software investments with pre-integrated processes that drive improved customer satisfaction through optimization of the entire order cycle, from order capture through fulfillment.
Both Sterling Multi-Channel Order Management and IBM WebSphere Commerce are based on service oriented architecture (SOA), which expedited the development effort. Sterling Commerce was recently invited to join the IBM SOA Business Partner Specialty. To participate in this group, Sterling Commerce supply chain applications successfully completed IBM’s rigorous SOA technical and business requirements and integration with the IBM SOA foundation.
“IBM and Sterling Commerce provide best-of-breed solutions for today’s multi-channel order processes,” said Jim Caldwell, director of IBM WebSphere Application Infrastructure Product Management. “IBM WebSphere Commerce offers a single, unified customer interaction platform to enable our customers to do business efficiently with their customers, across multiple channels and Sterling Commerce delivers a powerful solution to expedite the fulfillment of those customer orders.”
Solutions Accelerate Software ROI with Pre-integrated Business Processes
IBM and Sterling Commerce have jointly developed a standard integration kit, based on SOA and Web services, that provides two-way integration between IBM WebSphere Commerce with the Sterling Multi-Channel Order Management solution. The integration kit enables customers to exchange information seamlessly between Sterling Multi-Channel Order Management and IBM WebSphere Commerce. The kit spans application and enterprise boundaries to combine fragmented financial, inventory and logistics processes into a single, central view across all business units and channels, resulting in the following benefits:
- Shortened time to results;
- Reduced total cost of operation; and
- Reduced deployment lead-time and costs.
“Based on our multi-enterprise collaboration expertise, Sterling Commerce is uniquely positioned to enable companies to manage order fulfillment within and outside their four walls, in spite of today’s complex, global trading environment,” said Cory Wiegert, vice president of global applications product management, Sterling Commerce. “Combining our expertise with IBM’s leadership in e-commerce delivers significant benefits to customers.”
Integrated Order Cycle Processes Drive Improved Customer Satisfaction
Traditional applications address fulfillment within the four walls of a company – focusing on the products, inventory and processes owned by the enterprise. As fulfillment extends beyond the enterprise and across multiple channels, failure to manage and monitor fulfillment in the extended supply chain results in lost orders, increased inventory, highly manual order processing and declining customer satisfaction.
Together, Sterling Multi-Channel Order Management and IBM WebSphere Commerce provide a complete order-capture-to-fulfillment solution that enables companies to optimize their entire order cycle and drive high levels of customer satisfaction. IBM WebSphere Commerce captures orders across various sales channels, including the Web (by customer or a customer service representative) and the call center channel. Sterling Multi-Channel Order Management orchestrates and automates the entire order fulfillment process, choosing the most cost-effective channels, including identifying sources of supply such as internal warehouses or third-party suppliers, scheduling delivery and associated services, and executing fulfillment. By providing business processes, such as order capture, search, history, and modification, pre-integrated between the solutions, the integration kit enables companies to deliver two benefits crucial to a high level of customer satisfaction:
- Real-time information for customers about their orders, including inventory availability and payments data; and
- Simplified management of product availability for manufacturers and retailers to address customer expectations, limit out-of-stock situations, and offer differentiated services such as home delivery and service scheduling.
About Sterling Multi-Channel Order Management
Sterling Multi-Channel Order Management enables organizations to execute and coordinate order fulfillment processes across their extended supply chain networks. Sterling Multi-Channel Order Management provides flexible, process-based management of orders from multiple channels and enables customized fulfillment based upon user-defined business requirements. It also delivers powerful visibility and event management capabilities across all fulfillment activity, allowing organizations to respond quickly to unexpected problems and meet customer expectations.
About IBM WebSphere Commerce
IBM Software Group offers a wide range of middleware and operating systems for all types of computing platforms, allowing customers to take full advantage of the on demand era. IBM WebSphere Commerce, celebrating 10 years of e-commerce leadership, is used by top enterprises and is widely regarded as the market leading e-commerce solution. IBM WebSphere Commerce provides a solution for all of a company’s e-commerce needs. From a simple online store to a fully integrated, multi-channel sales network, WebSphere Commerce can be used for any or all of a company’s business models and touch points. It is the single, unified “customer interaction platform” that customers need to do business directly with consumers, with businesses, indirectly through channel partners – or all of the above simultaneously. To learn more, visit www.ibm.com/software/Websphere/commerce.
About Sterling Commerce
Sterling Commerce, a subsidiary of AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), has more than 30 years of leadership and expertise in helping FORTUNE 500® customers thrive in a global economy by optimizing the performance of their business communities. With nearly 30,000 customers worldwide, the company is one of the world’s largest providers of multi-enterprise collaboration solutions. Sterling Commerce has unparalleled experience in the retail, consumer packaged goods, manufacturing, financial services, healthcare and telecommunications industries. For detailed, up-to-date information about Sterling Commerce and its solutions, visit www.sterlingcommerce.com.