IBX Business Network and Trading Partner Integration
IBX Business Connect enables buyers and suppliers to integrate their on-premise eProcurement, sales order management and billing systems directly to the IBX Business Network. Business documents are exchanged via the IBX Connect integration hub providing validation, format transformation, enrichment and routing via different protocols. Advanced tools for transaction monitoring and troubleshooting are the guarantee for a fast and secured delivery of all kind of documents between buyers and suppliers.
Integration scenarios
When planning integrations between customers' on-premise
systems, the IBX Business Network and other trading partners then it´s
important to have a clear understanding of the integration
scenario that needs to be supported.
Click here to see a short introduction to the main scenarios of
self-service procurement based on SAP SRM.
See IBX Connect - SAP
SRM Integration scenarios.
Supply network collaboration on the other side can become
quite complex depending on the level of globalization and
outsourcing. Various business processes between trading
partners (buyers and suppliers) may involve different systems
and third parties (e.g. service providers). Direct B2B integrations
supporting instant electronical communication replacing older methods,
such as phone, fax, or e-mail usually speed up goods delivery and payments
which is true business value for both parties.
See IBX Connect - Supply network collaboration - Integration scenarios.
Integration process
The process of integrating customer's ERP, eProcurement or
Finance & Accounting systems with the IBX Business Network is
usually handled in form of scheduled integration projects with
predefined scope and time frame. With help from experienced
integration consultants the interfaces are first configured in
a test environment where connectivity and certain scenarios
reflecting different business processes and error cases are
tested.
See IBX
Connect - Integration process.
Standard protocols for integration
Best practice of exchanging business documents via the internet
is using the HTTP protocol (POST) with SSL encryption and basic username/password
authentication. This secures the transmission of sensitive business
data ia a real-time mode with synchronous error handling. Other protocols like FTP, SMTP or X400
are available.
See IBX Connect - Protocols .
Document types
The main business document types reflecting the Procure-To-Pay business processes are Order, ChangeOrder, OrderResponse and Invoice/CreditNote. IBX trading partners are exchanging these documents via the IBX Connect transaction hub where they are mapped to the different formats depending on the receiver's capabilities. See IBX Connect - Document Types.
Formats
Inbound as well as outbound various XML and flatfile formats are supported such as
SAP IDOC XML, xCBL 3.0 and 3.5, UBL 2.0, cXML, EDIFACT, ANSI X12, CSV, OXTA-OAGIS, PDF.
Detailed specifications are provided on demand.
See: IBX Connect - Formats
Interoperability
The IBX Business Network is hosting a certified PEPPOL access point
providing a gateway to the European PEPPOL Transport
Infrastructure. Via the IBX Service Metadata Publisher
(PEPPOL-SMP) trading partners can be registered in the PEPPOL
network with their individual capabilities in terms of
supported document types and business collaboration
profiles.
See
PEPPOL .
Tradeshift is further member of the European eInvoice Service
Provider Association and together with other members working on
standards for interoperability agreements between service
provides to support the wide adoption of e-invoicing and its
benefits. See the official EESPA website.