A Better Connection for e-business

Sterling Commerce now supports IBM SecureWay Communications Server software with CONNECT:Direct

IBM Business Partner Sterling Commerce® has recently updated CONNECT:Direct®—a high-performance file exchange solution for business-critical data—to provide integrated support for IBM SecureWay Communications Server for Windows NT. Offering a full range of e-commerce solutions to over 45,000 customers worldwide, Sterling Commerce helps businesses leverage multiple technologies to enable, manage, and service a variety of e-commerce business communities and systems. These e-commerce solutions range from the secure movement and management of business information over Internet protocols, to the Web enablement of existing systems, to the management of Web-based communities.

Sterling Commerce’s extended portfolio of products addresses extranet management, business process integration, community management, communications infra-structure, and outsourcing. In particular, CONNECT:Direct provides a secure, reliable method for managing the exchange of data between mission-critical applications running on diverse operating environments—automating the movement of data from application to application regardless of the underlying operating system.

CONNECT:Direct Helps Bridge TCP/IP and SNA Environments

Working with IBM SecureWay Communications Server for Windows NT, CONNECT:Direct can now exchange data with IBM high-end servers that use the SNA protocol. This approach gives businesses a way to connect legacy applications residing in the mainframe environment with the more open TCP/IP protocol. The support of SNA via IBM SecureWay Communications Server gives CONNECT:Direct an easy way to extend the advantages of TCP/IP to the SNA environment. As a result, businesses no longer need to dramatically transform their existing environments in order to take advantage of the Internet and e-business practices.

Enabling the exchange of data from outside sources through an open system gateway, businesses can also retain the control and integrity they are accustomed to with their legacy systems. For instance, with the versatile communications support for both TCP/IP and SNA within CONNECT:Direct, data can first be transferred from outside sources using the Internet (TCP/IP) and then automatically transferred to legacy systems via SNA. All of this is accomplished automatically through predefined processes within CONNECT:Direct.

IBM and Sterling Commerce Present e-commerce Seminar

To explain the benefits of these leading-edge software offerings and to help raise awareness of real-world e-commerce success stories, IBM and Sterling Commerce recently sponsored a multi-city seminar series highlighting trends in e-commerce. The half-day seminar was designed to educate IS management on the benefits of e-commerce, and featured Tom Oleson, research director at International Data Corporation (IDC™). Oleson presented the components of e-commerce, market trends, and examples of the returns being realized by companies that have implemented successful e-commerce strategies. In addition, representatives from IBM and Sterling Commerce discussed methods currently being used by companies to extend key business processes to e-commerce communities.

For more information about Sterling Commerce, visit www.sterlingcommerce.com
Visit www.ibm.com/software/network/commserver

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November 1999