Business Process Approach

The Sterling B2B Integrator approach to integration centers around business process management. A business process is a goal-driven, ordered flow of activities that accomplishes a business objective.

Using Sterling B2B Integrator, you integrate the activities that make up your company's business processes. Common examples of such activities include:
  • XML, EDI, and proprietary file translation, transformation, and filtering
  • Human interaction through a browser interface (such as reviewing and approving data)
  • Content-based routing of messages
  • Data publishing

  • Extended process models that integrate the execution of a B2B protocol, such as AS2, with enterprise system integration, such as invoking the SAP adapter

You can create and coordinate activities into business process models, extending the automation of your processes and increasing the value of your e-business operations.

An example of a simple business process is the fire-and-forget publishing of a business event to a group of interested participants. The steps that comprise the process trigger the process and the subsequent publishing of the event to the interested parties.

A complex business process might require multiple interactions among many applications in a start-and-stop, request-response mode, along with human interaction, occurring over a long period of time.

For more information, see Business Process Engine.