Sterling B2B CollaborationNetwork providesmailboxes for sending and receiving data through Sterling B2B CollaborationNetwork.As part of your setup a Customer Support specialist sets up a uniquemailbox with at least one mailslot for you to use when exchangingdata with your business partners.

A mailbox is an electronic storage place for data e-mailand network reports. Sterling B2B CollaborationNetwork usesa five-character mailbox ID assigned by Customer Support to identifyeach mailbox. A mailbox is usually divided into at least two mailslotsbut can contain many more.

A mailslot is a division of a mailbox that can contain certaintypes of documents. For example one mailslot may contain purchaseorders another one may contain invoices. You can use a differentmailslot for each of your business partners functional group typesstandards versions or any combination of these. Sterling B2B CollaborationNetwork identifieseach mailslot by adding a unique suffix to the mailbox ID. For exampleif the mailbox ID is SE900 the ID for a report mailslot could be SE900Rthe ID for a data mailslot could be SE900Dand the ID for a test mailslot could be SE900TST.

The following figure shows the relationship between a network mailboxand its mailslots:

The Sterling B2B CollaborationNetwork mailbox-mailslotstructure is extremely flexible and allows you to organize your databy document type trading partner data format (such as EDI or XML)data version or any combination of these factors. Customer Supportstaff work with you to analyze your business needs and determine thesetup that best suits your requirements.