Mastering B2B Flow Intelligence & Revenue Integrity

In this episode, Michael Jauquet, Director of Demand Generation & New Business Development at MeshIQ, is joined by Navdeep Sidhu, CEO of MeshIQ, and Jeannine Calandra, Product Leader at IBM, to explore the growing importance of end-to-end B2B flow intelligence. Together, they discuss how organizations can improve transactional assurance, gain greater operational visibility, and protect revenue integrity in increasingly complex business ecosystems.

Learn more about meshIQ at https://meshiq.com.

Follow meshIQ on LinkedIn for more insights on messaging, observability, and enterprise integration: https://www.linkedin.com/company/meshiq/.

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:12

Welcome everyone. So happy to have everybody here today. And here at MeshIQ, I wanted to say we focus on the integrity of the messaging backbone. And today we are excited for our discussion with IBM, a leader in the broadest portfolio and the deepest expertise in B2B EDI and MFT managed file transfer. In this session, we will discuss mastering end-to-end B2B flow intelligence. But before we get into it, with our guests and our introductions, I'd like to set the stage for this session. Today, modern commerce requires millions of critical business transactions, from purchase purchase orders to invoices to payments and claims to complete seamlessly across your messaging backbone. Just as a customer expects real-time tracking for critical delivery, your organization needs guaranteed, verifiable end-to-end assurance that every business event reaches its destination on time and in full. So thanks for joining us and let's meet our guests. We are thrilled to have Janine Calandra, IBM's product leader for B2B and MFT, joining us from DC. Welcome, Janine. And joining us from SIQ, all the way from Sao Paulo, Brazil, is Nabdeep Sedou, our CEO. Nabdeep brings 15 years of deep B2B and MFT experience, including his time as a product manager for Sterling Integrator and his 12-year tenure with Web Methods, where he launched Active Transfer. So now we are firmly in an AI-driven world. Today we are exploring how B2B and MFT are evolving to meet these new demands. Jamine, I'd like to start with you. Can we talk a little bit about how IBM solutions and capabilities and how they enable billions of commerce transactions?

SPEAKER_01 1:45

Absolutely. So B2B integration and managed file transfer, I view them as essentially the backbone for global commerce. So as you mentioned, billions of transactions. We process billions of mission critical documents and files that go through IBM's portfolio of B2B integration and file transfer solutions. So these are all different document types, formats, all things that drive business for our customers. So think crucial purchase orders, invoices, payments, and IBM is processing these continuously. So every hour of every day across various industries, ranging from retail to financial services to healthcare. And for our customers, it's not just about the connectivity and the processing, but it's about trust. So trust that every transaction is delivered securely, completely, and on time. And IBM is an essential part of providing this trusted foundation for our customers. So we offer flexible deployment options. And whether those customers are on premises, in the cloud, or across both in a hybrid manner, it's all about the speed, the reliability, and the security being the forefront for our solutions.

SPEAKER_02 3:06

Thank you so much, Dean. Appreciate it. Nancy, over to you though. What are you noticing in the B2B, EDI, MFT world from you know Mesh IQ's perspective?

SPEAKER_00 3:16

Yeah, let me start off by saying that IBM has the market leading platforms for B2B and MFT. And as Janine said, they are the backbone for EDAI and file transfers for large companies globally. And I would say the B2B and the MFT landscape has become more complex. And the reason I say that, we have noticed in the last decade or so, the enterprise boundaries now extend to the cloud. The file transfers, which used to happen between two partners or between two internal applications, are now extending to the cloud. And whether you're moving the files to the S3 buckets or sending data to Snowflake or Databricks, the boundaries have just expanded and the infrastructure has become more complex. So similarly, B2B integration has also evolved. And now IPaaS platforms like WebMethods Hyber Integration, they're processing EDI documents in the cloud. So not only you have the on-prem gateways, you have the IPaaS platforms, you have cloud storage, you have cloud data warehouses, you have data lake houses, in addition to the legacy EDI vans. So the transaction boundaries have expanded, and the typical visibility is not able to deliver the transaction flow level intelligence anymore because these flows have become much more complex, and there are too many failure points in those flows.

SPEAKER_02 4:41

Wonderful. Thank you so much for your insights there, Dev. I'd like to hop over, if we can, to talking about innovation and modernization strategies. Jeanine, what are the new or even upcoming innovations for IBM that you'd like to highlight, particularly regarding AI and those cloud native shifts?

SPEAKER_01 4:59

Sure. So a couple of things we hear from customers all the time is they need to modernize, they want to modernize, but they don't want to disrupt what's already working, as these environments are just very deeply embedded into their business processes. So what we are focused on is modernization for customers without disruption. And that's something really our IPHS platform, the Web Methods Hybrid Integration Solution, excels at. So there's a couple of key areas where we help here. So first, hybrid by design. So giving customers like flexibility, that's just not just to run one model, but to run what works for their business. So whether that be on-prem, cloud, SaaS, they can evolve at their own pace. And bringing together these different integration patterns across capability, so the B2B integration, it's managed file transfer, whether it's app integration, APIs, events, et cetera, into a unified experience. Really seeing these as no longer separate domains, but more of a unified platform and solution. And as we continue to expand this beyond web methods, IBM has a broad set of really powerful integration solutions ranging from things like IBM API Connect to Sterling to MQ. We're really focused on adding these integrations that add value to customers into a more holistic, unified experience. So you also mentioned AI, which is critical to our overall mission for this platform. And we are the one of the biggest pain points, this like full stop that I hear from our B2B customers or prospects in general, is around onboarding. So all the time customers talk about it just takes too long to onboard. Now, Deep talked about that complexity. And this is really key here because the complexity in this area has just been increasing exponentially because organizations are just doing business with a broader set of partners and they have a broader set of requirements and more integration patterns to support. So an area of focus for us is how do we streamline this for customers? So we've introduced, for example, a B2B agent as part of the Web Methods B2B solution to speed that process and make it easier for customers to transact with key trading partners more quickly. And there's been really positive responses to that. So we're going to continue to evolve it. So another request we hear around that complexity is with reducing the effort of managing partner certificates and how AI can help in these areas. So that's a focus point moving forward for us.

SPEAKER_02 7:32

Very interesting. Thank you so much, Janine. And Natib, how are you seeing companies modernize their B2B or MFT stacks?

SPEAKER_00 7:40

Yeah, a great question there, Mike. The companies across the board, they always take a very careful approach to modernize B2B and MFT infrastructure because it is mission critical. And any failure for a minute, for 10 minutes, or even for an hour, it will directly impact the top line and the bottom line. In finance, there are clear penalties. For example, a bank may pay millions in penalties for delayed SWIFT transactions if the money is not moved across geographies, across borders in time. And similarly, a retail company may lose customers' orders if the system cannot apply a customer's coupon while the customer is in the store. So the use cases differ across industries, but the fact that B2B and MFT is mission critical stays the same. And due to the fact the use cases are different, the modernization strategy is slightly different across the industries, but it is always centered around minimizing impact to the core business processes. So financial organizations, for example, they focus on risk reduction and compliance. And while the retail organizations they have a laser sharp focus on cost per transaction and they want to scale while staying lean. So across the industries, some aspects like auditability and compliance, they apply to every industry. But overall, depending upon the industry segment, we see different modernization strategies and goals.

SPEAKER_02 9:09

Interesting. Yeah, I can really see that that varies depending on the industry. So I think I'd like to move to our last topic for the day and really talk about bridging that visibility gap that we see. Janine, IBM has you know has an incredibly vast spectrum of products. You know, how does IBM deliver visibility across that that entire spectrum for a business user? Um and to follow up, if if an organization realizes today that their current support model is too reactive, waiting for a partner to call and complain, what are the first steps that they should take to build a more proactive governance framework that scales without adding a massive amount of manual overhead to the IT teams there?

SPEAKER_01 9:51

Good question. Uh so I echo what you're saying. This is a very common customer challenge just around visibility in general. So I'll often hear about the need to extend visibility beyond one area, such as beyond like a system-focused type of monitoring type of model, into something more proactive and end-to-end that has uh visibility into business processes. Another area I hear often about is empowering line of business users to avoid things like IT bottlenecks that where people are waiting on information. So customers really need to understand what's happening across their flows, their partners' transactions, all of those things, and be able to head off issues quickly and optimize their operations. So they want to do that, and they also want to empower business users with this information very quickly. So a few ways IBM is working on serving and providing this type of visibility within the iPads platform, the Web Methods Hybrid Integration. We are continuing to add AI capability there to help with these types of things and evolve it. So there's end-to-end visibility across the multiple capabilities of the platform, for example. And we now have some built-in observability agents that work cross capabilities. So these new agents like aid customers in identifying and resolving issues quickly, regardless of where they are in the flow. So a big value out of the platform. We've also focused on adding more business user-friendly type of views. So everyone doesn't need to speak EDI, so to speak, or be an expert in those types of things by having more easy to understand, say human readable and role-based appropriate access. Also, like taking into consideration customers operate in different models, as Navdeep was saying. So they can be hybrid, they may have different geos, different deployments, a mix of various solutions within IBM. And they really do need holistic views of all of these things. So I definitely see strong value in a solution bringing these types of transactions all together in one spot and helping customers proactively identify these types of bottlenecks across their entire ecosystem.

SPEAKER_02 12:09

Makes total sense. Nev, you know, before we wrap this up, I'd love to get your read on this. You know, how does MeshIQ specifically, you know, B2B in the flow intelligence layer onto this, you know, provide that end-to-end assurance?

SPEAKER_00 12:24

Yeah, so you know, the transaction boundaries keep expanding from partner onboarding to AI agents. And as the transaction boundaries have increased for B2B EDI and MFT transactions, um, the flow intelligence into the complete flow has become extremely important. And mesh IQ, B2B and Flow Intelligence uh sorry, Mesh IQ, B2B and MFT flow intelligence taps into 40 plus data points like APIs, uh files, MQ, IBM MQ, Kafka, Webhooks, etc., to gather the relevant metrics into the transaction flow. So transaction could be stalled, slowing down, or totally failed. So our goal from B2B and MFT flow intelligence is very simple. Detect bottlenecks before they become outages. So we can look across IBM Sterling integrator, Sterling File Gateway, Web Methods Active Transfer, Web Methods Trading Networks, and every other IBM and non-IBM technology which is involved in the overall transaction flow to monitor the complete end-to-end transaction flow. And by correlating these transactions and by adding the layering on the proper context on top of these data points, each transaction flow can be analyzed for SLA violations and we can diagnose the slowdowns, whether it could be due to an expiring or expired certificate, uh slowing down network or even storage outages. If the storage is full and the MFT transactions are failing, and we can detect issues at the network layer and even at the OS layer. So that gives you a complete picture on why these mission critical B2B and MFT transactions are slowing down or failing. We deliver the end-to-end visibility across each step in the transaction, not just the visibility on top of the B2B gateway, because most of the problems they happen downstream from the B2B and MFT gateway.

SPEAKER_02 14:26

Makes sense. Love it. Thank you for the insights, Nev. You know, I think we're about to wrap this up, but I'd love to hear your last comments. Um, you know, it seems like Mass Fream B2B isn't just an IT project, it's revenue integrity strategy. So, you know, Janine, Nev, what are your last insights to share with the team here?

SPEAKER_01 14:47

So I think it's about uh a bit of an evolution in B2B. Navdi uh hinted at this as well, as it becoming a bit more prominent in terms of business strategy. So I'm seeing a shift from these conversations around picking a B2B and file transfer solution evolving from just IT discussion, I think to a broader business strategy for organizations. So acknowledgement that these B2B documents, files, they're all directly tied to revenue. So every transaction matters. And if something like an order doesn't go through or a payment is delayed or rejected, then that has real monetary and business impact. So from that point of view, you know, IBM's goal is definitely to ensure that every business transaction that should generate revenue for customer does so. And it does so completely correctly and in an on-time fashion.

SPEAKER_02 15:42

Thank you, Janine. Nev, any last thoughts?

SPEAKER_00 15:44

Yeah, I completely agree. And I think uh for many industries like manufacturing, retail, finance, and even healthcare, um, I will not hesitate to say that B2B and MFT are the most critical business applications that directly impact revenue and profitability. Flow intelligence into IBM sterling and non-IBM technologies uh involved in the overall transaction flow, it should be a very high priority for every CIO. Uh and it should be on their agenda to protect and grow revenue. So I will end with two thoughts. First is modernize your B2B and MFT. Look at technologies like WebMethods IPass to process your B2B transactions in the cloud for you know MFT in the cloud. And secondly, as you modernize, develop a flow intelligence strategy, we are an IBM partner and we work closely with their teams to deliver B2B and MFT flow intelligence.

SPEAKER_02 16:36

Thank you both so much for the insights today. Um, I felt like I learned a lot and I hope that the viewers did as well. Um, but thank you again for joining us. And for those out there watching, if you have any questions, please reach out, but visit us at at IBM.com and meshIQ.com for more information, and we'll be surely uh be able to track down any answers you have for any questions you have. Uh but really appreciate the time. Janine, Navdeep, thank you again. And until next time, appreciate it. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 17:04

Thank you.