B2B Integration : A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce

280 B2B Integration — A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce
WEBMETHODS AT WORK WITH JUNIPER NETWORKS
Introduction
Juniper Networks is a perfect example of medium size companies
using the Internet and becoming an e-business to compete effectively
against larger competitors. In order to go head-to-head with its
powerful rivals, Juniper Networks needed business-to-business (B2B),
business-to-consumer (B2C) and EAI capabilities, to create a realtime,
'continuous commerce' environment. To build this competitive
advantage, Juniper selected the webMethods B2Bi solution suite, a
comprehensive offering that enables business integration within the
enterprise and externally with trading partners.
Matching a Competitor's Capabilities
Juniper Networks designs, develops and markets a new class of
integrated silicon- and software-based routing systems for wide-area
network (WAN) solutions. The company's Internet backbone routers
enable Internet service providers and other telecom service providers
to meet the demands of the rapidly growing Internet. For long-term
success, however, Juniper must continue to offer its customers not
only superior products, but also e-business capabilities that match or
exceed those of key competitors.
In formulating its e-business strategy, Juniper established several
goals. They included creating a reliable, scalable, secure system of
integrated applications; ensuring rapid deployment that leverages their
Internet protocol infrastructure; matching the capabilities of their
competitor's customer-facing applications; and eliminating batch
processing of information in favor of real-time processing to increase
responsiveness to customers.
But several obstacles stood in the way of Juniper reaching its
goals. Common data between applications was not synchronized and
there was no method for building a multi-step business process that
would span the company's mission-critical applications. Those
applications include QAD for order management and distribution,
Clarify for customer service, Selectica for product configuration, a
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