In the context of B2B integration, the definition of “solution” is highly dependent on the circumstances and requirements of the containing business. The reason for this is that the business goals, partner requirements, integration process objectives, business documents, and implementation sources / targets are unique to each business and application case.

EXTOL defines a “solution” by starting with the business process or processes that must be enabled, whether that means integrating EDI or spreadsheets or web services or some other business document type. Initially, most integration requirements are expressed at the level of a desired high-level business outcome, such as integrating incoming orders with fulfillment, invoicing, and settlement processes (“Order to Cash”) or integrating the receipt of customer sales and inventory data to replenishment, manufacturing, and reorder processes (“Vendor-managed Inventory”). Ultimately, these high-level process definitions are decomposed into constituent integration processes that connect trading partner interfaces, applications, and data stores.

Every integration process defines, at a minimum:

• An automated sequence of actions that conditionally processes one or more inputs in order to produce one or more required outputs
• Collections of (one or more) source and target business documents, represented using some combination of syntaxes, including XML, EDI, spreadsheets, databases, and flat files
• Interfaces to source and target resources, which may be external (partners, service providers, SaaS applications), internal (applications, processes, services, data stores, middleware), or a combination of both
• Conditions for process activation, including internal and external events, schedules, and direct application, process, or human invocation

The matrix below is designed to assist identification of available EXTOL software and service solution components for some common business process examples:

1. Locate the business processes you need to implement, from the list on the left side
2. For each business process of interest, mark the cells that represent your requirements; or accept the defaults shown, to cover all cases
3. Scan down to the EXTOL Products section, and locate products or product combinations that match your requirements
4. Click on the product name hyperlinks at the lower right, to view product details

In some cases, satisfying the full set of requirements for your solution may require a combination of EXTOL software products and services. And for smaller projects, a limited-license product subset may meet your needs. EXTOL offers flexible product licensing that enables you to acquire only the capabilities you need for your current project, and acquire additional capabilities with a simple licensing change, with full protection of your existing investments in EXTOL software, deliverables, and skills.

For assistance in identifying the EXTOL products and services that meet your specific needs, click on the “Contact EXTOL” link at the top of the page.