CompanyÂ’s cloud strategy extends deployment choices to manage cost associated with business collaboration while meeting security needs

Company’s cloud strategy extends deployment choices to manage cost associated with business collaboration while meeting security needs

Through delivery of software-as-a-service (SaaS) technologies, Sterling Commerce, is using the cloud to deliver new value to customers looking to take advantage of the economic up-turn.

In support of this effort, the company is introducing “as-a-Service” offerings of its Sterling Order Management and Sterling Multi-Channel Selling. With these applications, the company said its entire Sterling Selling and Fulfilment Suite, a collaborative supply chain solution for managing the enquiry-to-cash process, is now available in the cloud.

“Our cloud strategy is at the heart of what we’re sharing with customers this week at Customer Connection 2010,” said Ken Ramoutar, vice president of product and industry marketing at Sterling Commerce. “While Sterling Commerce has been offering cloud-based solutions for more than a decade, more and more customers are now seeing the business benefit of implementing a cloud computing strategy that helps them optimise capabilities while managing cost. Accordingly, we are expanding our offering to customers, giving them the broadest choice in how they define, deploy and extend our solutions to provide flexibility and the ability to quickly deliver ROI [return on investment].”

Expanding in the cloud

Though roughly half of the company’s solutions are already available in the cloud, the company said it is broadening deployment choices for customers by making its cloud offerings more comprehensive across the entire product portfolio to enable fast deployment, lower start-up costs, and reduced use of internal information technology (IT) resources.

The company has mitigated the barriers that have kept organisations from implementing cloud solutions that include security, privacy and availability through its proven ability to securely and rapidly deliver as-a-Service offerings to global companies.

The company’s cloud strategy delivers two options: on-demand solutions are hosted by Sterling Commerce and enable customers to configure the solution to meet their specific business requirements and consume them on a pay-for-use basis, or subscription model; its managed services solutions also are hosted by Sterling Commerce, but provide greater flexibility and control to the customer in how they extend and customise the solution and manage upgrades, availability and access to their users.

A recent survey by Forrester Consulting commissioned by Sterling Commerce investigated options around deployment, pricing and functionality. The ‘Driving Business Value Through Choice’ study found: “Today’s landscape is heavily on-premises; 68% of firms use on-premises solutions exclusively for supply chain and/or integration. And fewer than half of firms said that deployment model made their top five selection criteria. But when asked about future plans, 63% of supply chain technology buyers and 64% of integration solutions purchases said they are likely to adopt SaaS in the future.”

Selling and fulfilling added to mix

Sterling Multi-Channel Selling (MCS) and Sterling Order Management as-a-Service extends the Sterling Selling and Fulfilment Suite offerings for transportation management and supply chain visibility already in the cloud. Its provider said Sterling MCS allows companies to create a consistent, unified buying experience across all sales channels – mobile, web, store, call centre and field sales. Sterling Order Management orchestrates global order and service fulfilment across the extended enterprise to help companies improve cross-channel optimisation and customer responsiveness. By offering these solutions as a service, Sterling Commerce enables companies to be more agile in capitalising on the opportunities emerging in optimising the inquiry-to-cash process, especially to address the peaks and valleys in the commerce cycle such as the holidays.

Delivering Sterling Business Integration Suite, an end-to-end solution that addresses the critical challenges of B2B integration and secure managed file transfer, in the cloud helps companies reduce their IT burden and respond to customer and market demands more quickly.

Currently, the company offers Sterling Collaboration Network, a hosted service that provides secure connectivity and collaboration between businesses, and Sterling Commerce business-to-business (B2B) managed services, in the cloud. Sterling Commerce Managed Services is a hosted B2B integration platform that takes both responsibility for and provides on-demand access to the B2B infrastructure, business process visibility tools and community development resources.