IBM B2B Integrator Reviews

We're in the UAE. Out of the top 10 banks, there are around six or seven banks that are actually using the product as an SOA layer. As integration with that, they have a different core banking system. They have different layers. They have a B2B also and they have a partner ecosystem. 

Clients are using the solution for the legacy applications, they are using it for microservices that are designed for the various different use cases. There's card management based on that, for example. Every customer has a different requirement and different use cases.

Currently, I'm working with one customer in government where they're trying to build that complete enterprise integration layer, which will have an ESB that is going to connect to that and all their internal applications. They have multiple CRM ERB finance modules.

Afterward, they are exporting the API to external companies, including government entities through the APIs we are exposing, in order to exchange the data. 

There are multiple stakeholders, typically.

The IoT IBM has on offer is very good. There are event streams. These collect data from IoT devices and analyze the data in real-time. IBM has a partnership with that Kafka. They use Kafka for real-time event data collection.

They have an infra layer and a platform layer as well as a software and application layer and an integration layer. They have a big data portfolio. It's great for Kafka and that Hadoop, all the data streaming, data normalization, all those tools are on hand for data quality.

It's easy to collect, diagnose, and transform, and to do real-time analytics through that. We have a complete portfolio from IBM called IBM Cloud Pak for Integration. It's in a bunch of products.

Product-wise, the product portfolio it's a very good product. We have the data power that is the gateway security and it's a very good product. 

The stability is very good.

We've found the scalability to be very good.

The technical support on offer through the portal is very helpful and responsive.

The current trend is to have data integration, hybrid cloud integration, and microservices with further API monetization. The solution needs to ensure that it has all these capabilities in order to properly satisfy a customer's needs. 

The solution definitely needs that gateway security, where all messages need to be secured, from the security point of view. 

They do not have a solid partner ecosystem, and they do not have a clear roadmap for down the line; they're missing that clear roadmap.

They do not have proper documentation of legal requirements so that a partner or a customer can quickly learn and get familiar with it. IBM needs to do a better job of supplying these details.

I've been using the solution for 15 years or so. It's been well over a decade. It's been a while at this point.

It's a very tested and proven solution. If you're talking about that product portfolio-wise, product-wise, it's quite reliable. We can see in the Gartner Quadrant Table that IBM is always well-positioned. There aren't bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze.

The scalability of the product is excellent. If a company needs to build the solution out, they can do so.

There are thousands of organizations that are using the product worldwide. If I'm talking about the UAE, our market, in the UAE we have close to 72 customers who are using this product.

IBM offers PMR support. Customers can log into the IBM portal and they can create that PMR, and the IBM team, based on the complexity, can respond as appropriate. If there is a severe case, IBM can typically respond within 30 minutes to one hour. They are quite knowledgeable and very responsive.

I didn't use any other solution previously. Predominantly I was into IBM; I was working within IBM itself. When I left IBM, I joined a company that was also selling IBM software only. We have a DNSR contract. If a customer is asking for any specific region, then we can ping another vendor, however, we don't sell the other vendor's solution.

Usually, when I work with the customer, they come up from a tender RFP, where they have a complex requirement. They have a lot of legacy applications, and they have a different kind of hybrid cloud. They may be working with a Salesforce cloud and on-premises applications. It's not really straightforward. Typically, they are big enterprises with complex environments. It's rarely straightforward. 

We have our own consultancy team and we have a services delivery team within the company. They typically handle the deployment, however, sometimes, if we do not have the bandwidth or our own legal resources, we rely on a partner ecosystem where we have to engage with our partners to implement the solution.

There are multiple kinds of offerings. If the customer is going to deploy on-premises, we have a perpetual license. If the customer is going to use the solution like a software as a service cloud solution, it's a monthly subscription. It's all according to the customer requirement and the customer budget.

We don't use it for ourselves. I am part of the sales team. I used to sell this product to my customers. The customers use on-premises as well as cloud deployment models. 

The market has gone through a bit of a digital transformation. Customers need that integration layer that provides the capability to integrate with the various kinds of applications, and a solution should be able to integrate with the hybrid cloud. That is one of the major modern requirements.

A customer today will often have devices on-premises and often have a multi-cloud. A product should have the capability to have that integration supported by the hybrid cloud, and at the same time have the data integration layer with the capability for IoT sensors.

Whoever is trying to choose a tool needs to look for the integration to deploy to their enterprise. They have to look at all the aspects, and then they should select that tool that is going to be fit for their current requirements as well as their future needs.

Overall, I'd rate the solution eight out of ten. 

I work for a bank, and we've used IBM B2B for internal and external transfers at all levels. In the past 10 years, we've used it in every way imaginable. It transfers files from point A to point B.

B2B Integrator has made us more secure. People who used to transfer confidential data through emails can now set up file transfers within 48 hours through an automated system using this product without any security risks.

IBM B2B is user-friendly. The most valuable features are the most basic, like the logs and the security features. It can monitor and communicate issues directly to us before they become more significant problems. It's a great product.

Patching or upgrading the product is a bit of a nightmare. It would be nice if they removed the installation manager port. We find it complicates upgrading and patching a great deal. The installation manager is supposed to make things easier, but it actually makes it a lot worse.

I've been using IBM B2B since 2011.

B2B Integrator's stability is rock-solid. It never goes down. It's one of the bank's most prized uptime software products.

Scalability is a bit tricky because we're limited on file sizes. We're exploring ways to integrate into PCI DSS, a security requirement for the credit cards system. So it might be a little challenging to scale above what we have now. I'd say it's a moderate level of difficulty. We can do some things, but some aspects are more complex because of security. We plan to increase our usage to cover anything that goes in and out of the bank. Eventually, everything will pass through the product, so it's the only gateway to transfer anything in and out of the bank.

IBM support was horrible.

The previous product was an in-house solution built on a Windows NT. We needed something with more security features and maturity.

Setting up B2B Integrator was complex. Right off the bat, we set it up on a HADR.  It's high availability and active on two different sites. Getting all the rules set and the firewalls open was challenging. It was complicated to get it to work in the mesh design. Total deployment time took about two years. It took that long to get everything fully working. We had a project team that included the integrators from Sterling and a group of three people from the bank. In addition to that, we had another five people handling network security, configuring the firewall, and setting up the database. So there were eight in total on our end. 

We had help from a consulting firm called ComResource. I believe that's what they were called at the time. It was Sterling Commerce's consultant firm. They were really hands-on and helped deliver the product the way we needed it, with custom features. 

I can't give a precise figure, but we get our money's worth.

We pay an annual fee based on the number of VPUs. It's fairly reasonable. We're in the middle of analyzing other products, and they're all pretty much in the same range. When we have problems and the support is inadequate, we pay outside consultants. We've had this issue twice, so sometimes there are additional costs when we need consultants to fix problems support can't handle, and we need help fast.

Before selecting IBM B2B Integrator, the bank looked at Axway and another IBM product called MQ Transfers. These were the three that our integrator Sterling Commerce suggested at the time. Now we're looking into BMC B2B MFT. We've got the training and the license, but we haven't started using it. One of the advantages of BMC is that upgrades take only 15 minutes.  We installed it, but we found BMC lacks the maturity of the current product, so we won't be deploying it at the bank any time soon. 

I would rate IBM B2B Integrator a nine out of 10. It's a great product. It's highly stable, and the redundancy is amazing. B2B Integrator also has a high availability option to work in a cluster environment. You rarely have issues operating it because of the HA. The only problem is support. When something goes wrong, you sometimes have to find the answers yourself on the internet. But overall, after working with it for 10 years, I can say it's been great to work with and learn to use

We use B2B Integrator to collect files locally and send them to external business partners, like the national banks. For example, the company regularly sends financial reports to the national central bank. In short, it's for data exchange between companies. I previously worked for an automotive company, and we used B2B Integrator to exchange data with the parts supplier.

B2B Integrator is multi-platform, so it can be integrated with Windows, Unix, or whatever, and it can work with almost all programming languages. It can also transfer a lot of data in a short time. For instance, a system I recently implemented exchanges about 20 million files a day.

The user interface is outdated. B2B Integrator was developed in the United States in the nineties, and the graphical user interface hasn't improved since. It's tough because you have to program the software in XML. Nowadays, other methods are easier to work with. Programming the system is challenging. However, it's not a shortcoming for me. I think it would help if they had more documentation, too. 

I've been using B2B Integrator for about 10 years.

I would rate B2B Integrator eight out of 10 for performance but 10 out of 10 for stability. 

B2B Integrator is highly scalable. I give it a 10 out of 10 for scalability. 

IBM support is another one of B2B Integrator's advantages. Support is crucial for large enterprises, and this is a product primarily used in big corporations.

I have some experience with a similar product called Axway File Gateway, but not too much. Axway is easier to set up. Apart from that, I'd say that they're more or less the same program. Nonetheless, I would still go for IBM because the aftersales service of Axway needs some improvement.

The initial deployment is very complex. I would rate it 10 out of 10 for complexity. The installation itself is pretty straightforward, it's hard to configure the business flows, and it takes a lot of time. 

The programming interface is old. You need to program everything in XML and XSLT, and that's an old-fashioned way to do things. It took me an entire year to fully deploy the system in a corporation of 60,000 employees. We're talking about 20,000 files a day. We have a team for deployment and maintenance, but the product doesn't require much maintenance — only regular updates. For updates and releases, the product manages itself. 

B2B Integrator is expensive, but it's worth it. I rate the price 10 out of 10 for the most expensive, but it's also the best product for what it does. The only additional cost is the support contract.  

I rate B2B Integrator nine out of 10. If you are implementing B2B Integrator, you should have good programmers and a solid system administration team. It's also better to outsource the system setup.

The solution covers a multitude of functions including file interchange between applications. That includes all the EDI flows. It can also be used in finance providing support for all the finance standards. Above all, this is a product for the interchange of files between internal applications and external. We are gold partners with IBM and I'm the head of the division. 

This product is very flexible, it allows you to implement different flows on the same infrastructure. It has the power to support every layer of security required on the market. It includes the option to integrate software to sign, authenticate and encrypt. For this reason, it's the most commonly used product of its kind in the banking sector because it allows you to interchange every type of file with four levels of security as well as having the ability to handle huge files. 

The web interface of B2B is quite ancient and not particularly user-friendly. It's quite difficult to navigate within the dashboard of the product and understand the features. Whenever they bring out a new version, the new features are not documented for the first month although they are visible. I can try using them but it's really not possible without the documentation which really needs to be provided in tandem with the new features. Additional features I'd like to see are the integration of some external tools for API management. IBM has a lot of such tools and some could easily be integrated.

I've been using this solution for 16 years. 

The solution is generally stable. When it's not, this is usually not related to the product. It may be that there are some database issues.

The solution is easily scalable, horizontally and vertically, and in every typeof container, whether on-prem or cloud. 

The technical support is very good. 

The complexity of the deployment really depends on the situation. It's quite similar to Software AG in those terms. It requires the correct operating system, availability of the database, firewalls must be open, etc. We sometimes lose time because not all the system requirements are correctly handled by the customer. A regular deployment can be completed in a week, and a more complex one, anywhere up to three weeks. The organizations are generally mid to enterprise-size and can have thousands of users. We might use up to eight engineers for the largest deployments and we cover a very huge infrastructure. We also provide support to our customers. 

ROI is variable. Some customers have been able to get a return on investment in two months, and some others in one year which is also good.

This is the most expensive solution of its kind in the market, but it's also the Ferrari of the market. The pricing is quite flexible, particularly when it comes to new customers or smaller organizations. They have a very intelligent policy for attracting new customers that includes a variety of licensing modules.

I rate this solution nine out of 10. 

IBM B2B Integrator is primarily used for EDI transmissions, audits, and VDA transactions.

We have application developers, EDI mapping experts, system administrators, and architects using this solution.

The solution is deployed on-premises.

The most valuable features are the flexibility and the range of EDI standards that IBM Sterling can handle. It's easy to design a process and streamline the VDA transaction. There are different possibilities for connectivity. IBM handles almost all communication protocols and comes with an adapter. It's easy to set up. The range of connectivity and data handling is really good compared to other products.

The one thing that is lacking is easy visibility. It's hard to provide business users with a view into the statuses of their transactions.

The EDI translation mapping could be more simplified with more templates.

I have used this solution for several years.

It has a good range of tuning possibilities. If the capacity is designed correctly, it's very stable.

The scalability is high, but the ease of scalability depends on what you're using. IBM Sterling has the container option, which you can use to auto scale, but it depends on what kind of implementation you have done.

Technical support is fairly good. I would rate them as eight out of ten.

I would rate the setup as seven out of ten. Deployment takes a maximum of six hours if you consider the step-by-step procedures.

Building the servers will take additional resources, but installation itself is a one-person job. It also depends on what kind of capacity you are implementing.

The pricing is based on how many cores are used and the type of cores. They have something called PVU, process value units, which are based on the chip set and the number of chip sets being used for capacity. There are different pricing models, including an enterprise edition.

For a company that's a typical size, the cost is not significant.

I would rate this solution as seven out of ten, due to the lack of visibility and mapping.

The application's performance is based on the database. It is the most competitive product currently available in the market if you compare it with any other MFT or integration products.

Connect:Direct and Sterling File Gateway are the processes most banks use. These two products are effectively used for managed and secure file transfers. IBM B2B Integrator is used mostly by retailers and logistics companies.

The challenge is there is no related transaction stored in the database because it's an OLTP application.

We have been using this solution for more than 20 years. It is on private cloud, public cloud and on-premises. Most of the customers use on-premises. They also have a product called Global Mailbox, which is used for metadata between two data centres. They also provide high availability.

It can scale horizontally as well as vertically as a cluster. I have observed at least one twister with ten notes up and running. It is most suitable for small and medium-sized enterprises, and it is better to go for their tax model.

The technical support is good, and I rate them a ten out of ten.

Positive

The initial setup is simple to install. Its placement is very simple. However, for implementation and maintenance, you need some technical knowledge. So it may be a bit complex for basic users.

The initial investment is high, but the renewable cost is much cheaper compared to other products.

We compared three top products, but IBM is a unique solution on the market. They have been on the market for over three decades, and the product stability and capability are great.

I rate the solution a nine out of ten. They should add a good dashboard that can do one single review for all the transactions. Users can see how many transactions happen and the status. So, there is no single-view dashboard where businesses can access and view.

We use the product for EDI transactions. Another use for us is for managed file transfer.

The initial setup is straightforward. 

The solution has been stable.

Technical support is very good overall. 

It's a very powerful tool.

The solution offers good integration capabilities. 

The reporting features could be better. right now, they are lacking a bit.

In the future, we would like to see daily reporting capabilities and improvements in the dashboards.

We've been using the solution for a while. We've used it for sure over the last 12 months.

The solution is very stable for us. There are no bugs or glitches. It doesn't crash or freeze. the performance has been reliable. 

I'm not sure how many people are on the solution at our organization. Usually, it is just accessed by administrators. 

We do not use technical support a lot, however, when we do need it, we find them to be helpful and responsive. We are satisfied with their level of service.

I find the initial setup to be quite straightforward and simple. It's not overly complex. A company shouldn't have any issues with the process. 

We used an integrator to help us with the deployment process. They were great. 

There are just standard licensing fees. It's my understanding there are no other costs beyond that.

We didn't really look into other solutions. We were familiar with its one, which is why we ultimately chose it. 

We're a reseller.

I'd rate the solution at a nine out of ten overall. In general, it's a very good solution. 

Our company uses the solution for 50% of our sales orders and our integrations with 100 trading partners. Company wide, we have 100 users. 

The best feature is that many companies use the solution so there is a lot of peer support. You can talk to people from different companies who understand and can help you troubleshoot. 

The initial setup is complex. 

I have been using the solution for three years. 

The solution is pretty stable. 

We have not yet scaled, but I'm pretty sure the solution is easy to scale. 

We previously used a combination Axway Interchange and OpenText TLE. We had to switch because TLE was not being updated and people were moving away from the product. 

We did not want to go with OpenText's product because it did not offer on-premises, in-house maintenance. 

We chose the solution because it matched our requirements. 

The initial setup is complex and deployment took a few days. 

Ongoing maintenance can be handled by two or three technicians. 

We used a third-party reseller for implementation. 

The return on investment is that the solution is much less expensive than our previous solution. We save money so it is cheaper for B2B annually to use the solution. 

The solution is priced at $20,000 to $30,000 per year with no extra costs. Our previous solution was a lot more expensive. 

It is important to talk with your consultant before implementing the solution. 

I rate the solution an eight out of ten.