IBM® STERLING ORDER MANAGEMENT

Why look at Third Party Support options for Sterling Order Management?

App Connect Enterprise and its previous incarnations have been best-in-class on-premises solutions in their space for many years, and continue to support enterprises in business-critical functions today. Strategically, however, the general trend is towards API based integrations rather than Service Bus as architectures evolve and become more hybrid in transitioning to cloud and service-based.

For existing App Connect Enterprise customers, a few challenges are presented – how do I manage the rising expense of maintaining my existing deployment, with IBM both making V10 and V11 EoS and spending more of their R&D budget on Cloud pak-orientated solutions, while also developing a challenging cloud migration strategy given the interdependencies and complexities that accompany a long-standing App Connect deployment?

Third-party support offers potential solutions to the above issues – dedicated product expertise from highly qualified personnel, combining deep product knowledge with a comprehensive understanding of your particular interoperability challenges through an intimate pro-active support mode, and the flexibility to stay on your current version for as long as you need, for significantly less outlay than your current OEM support costs.

STERLING ORDER MANAGEMENT FAQs - FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

  1. Origina offer an intimate support model to all our customers, We assign dedicated Global IBM/HCL Experts (GIEs) to each client, and follow a pro-active support model helping our customers get the most out of their App Connect investment. All of our GIEs have a minimum of 15 years of specific product experience and undergo thorough vetting by our Technical Council before recruitment. Find out more here.

  2. We offer a suite of specific services designed specifically to assist our customers in managing legacy product installations, and transition if required. Discover more here.

  3. We will support all versions – unlike the OEM, we are not concerned with EoS announcements for our customers. We will support your installation for as long as you need.

  4. We are significantly more cost-effective than IBM, which in turn may help you fund more strategic initiatives.

  5. Learn more here.

On average, less than 15 percent of customers that switch to Origina are on the latest version – and over 60 percent are three or more versions behind in the upgrade cycle. Therefore, it’s realistic to say that upgrades are not a requirement for every product. Find out more here

Learn how how to escape tech debt and improve your tech debt management strategy through TPSM by reading our white paper: Managing Technical Debt on the Road to Evergreen I.T.

IBM Sterling Order Management is an omni channel order fulfillment platform. IBM Sterling OMS has been an industry leading Order Management platform for over 26 years, used by Fortune 500 and SMBs.

It provides the following features:

  • Provides visibility of the enterprise inventory. Exposes real time services to find and reserve inventory. Inventory can also be asynchronously published to various channels such as eCommerce web sites and MarketPlace. Aggregated or node level view of inventory can be provided.
  • Order lifecycle management and single source of truth for the Enterprise Order. Order status tracking and orchestration with various integration touchpoints including fulfillment nodes, fraud engine, payment, ERP posting.
  • Order sourcing engine. Optimize selection of fulfillment nodes at line/quantity level to deliver product to customer in timely and cost-efficient way.
  • Reverse Logistics and customer service portal.

 

Companies are increasingly using IBM Sterling OMS to digitize their commerce presence and reach to customers globally. Product is templatized and can be adapted to business requirements or can be customized as required. IBM Sterling OMS is built on 100% Java.

History of IBM STERLING ORDER MANAGEMENT

When it was created, older versions, if it had a different name, was it sold to a different company? What it started off as, and what it evolved into overtime.

  • Developed by Yantra, which was an offshoot of Infosys Consulting. As a Service Oriented, J2EE compliant, 100% Java based Order Management platform, Yantra OMS was ahead of its time when it was released in 1995.
  • Sterling Commerce acquired Yantra in 2005
  • IBM acquired Sterling Commerce in 2010.

Sterling OMS was an on-premises only solution till version 10 before IBM released its private cloud version (SaaS). Most recently, IBM Sterling OMS is provided as containerized versions that can also be deployed in private or hybrid cloud.

“We’re getting more than we ever did with IBM! Origina help us to understand and transform our digital estate, and saved us between 40 and 50 percent off our annual IBM software support and maintenance costs.”
BT is a telecommunications firm that works with Origina for third-party IBM software support.
Matt Turner
Channels & IT Transformation
ABM Procurements and Operations 500 fortune

STERLING ORDER MANAGEMENT product versions

Product Version Release Date Latest Fix Pack End of Support by IBM
App Connect Enterprise 12 Dec 2021 12.0.3.0 Not announced
App Connect Enterprise 11 Oct 2021 11.0.0.15 Not announced
Integration Bus 10 Dec 2021 10.0.0.25 30/04/2022
Integration Bus 9 Sep 2018 9.0.0.11 30/09/2018
WebSphere Message Broker 8 Jun 2017 8.0.0.9 30/04/2017
WebSphere Message Broker 7 Nov 2015 7.0.0.8 30/09/2015
WebSphere Message Broker 6.1 Dec 2013 6.1.0.12 30/09/2013

STERLING ORDER MANAGEMENT packages

IBM App Connect Enterprise installs as a single package, but you need to choose the edition and operation mode. The capability and capacity provided varies according to the operation mode in which the App Connect Enterprise (ACE) integration servers are running in. Your entitlement to run in a particular mode depends on the edition of the product that you have purchased.

The following modes are supported:

Advanced:

  • All features are enabled and no restrictions or limits are imposed

  • This mode is the default mode unless you have the Developer Edition

Nonproduction:

  • All features are enabled and no functional limits are imposed, but you can use the product for evaluation, development, and test purposes only

Developer:

  • All features are enabled, but you can use the product for evaluation, development, and test purposes only

  • Developer Edition is limited to one message (transaction) per second at the message flow level

Standard:

  • All features are enabled

  • If you are using an integration node, you can associate only one integration server with it, but the number of message flows that you can deploy to it is unlimited

STERLING ORDER MANAGEMENT DEPLOYMENT

When you purchase a license for IBM App Connect Enterprise, your license entitles you to install IBM MQ for use by App Connect Enterprise, within the terms of the license. IBM MQ must be downloaded and installed separately.

App Connect Enterprise v11 removed the requirement to have a dedicated MQ queue manager associated with the App Connect Enterprise integration node. This is now optional. It is required if there are certain types of App Connect Enterprise processing (this includes MQ transport, Aggregation, Two-Phase Commit). 

STERLING ORDER MANAGEMENT components

IBM App Connect Enterprise installs as:

  • App Connect Enterprise Toolkit
  • App Connect Enterprise Runtime (integration node and/or integration servers)

DON’T MISS OUT ON BETTER SUPPORT FOR STERLING ORDER MANAGEMENT

Share with