Ecosystem Integration 

The most powerful approach to run your B2B supply chain - so you can deliver on your commitments.

Ecosystem integration takes an "outside-in" approach to orchestrating end-to-end integrations with a dynamic network of trading partners, applications, suppliers, customers, and marketplaces.

Simply put, ecosystem integration is a strategy that connects and integrates a company's key revenue-generating business processes with those of its ecosystem partners by combining B2B and EDI, data and application integration, and secure file transfer technologies into a single software platform. It aids the development of automated systems that can quickly react to market disruptions.

This modern approach to multi-enterprise integration empowers organizations to drive business outcomes and value, such as faster partner or application onboarding, business process optimization, improved agility, and identification of new digital revenue streams.

Ecosystem integration diagram

Ecosystem Integration: your FAQs answered

No one connects your ecosystem like Cleo. Dive into our FAQs and discover why our unique approach to integrations unlocks unparalleled efficiency and agility.

What is ecosystem integration?

Ecosystem integration is an advanced approach to multi-enterprise B2B/EDI integration that subsumes internal application integration and ecommerce integration patterns, allowing for the creation of seamless end-to-end integrations that connect partners, applications, systems, and marketplaces.

What is “outside-in” and why is it important to my business?

Ecosystem integration requires an outside-in approach to solving complex and modern integration challenges. It is a way of focusing on revenue, growth, and opportunity to contextualize and prioritize integration around the core ecosystem components -- namely partners, systems, and applications -- that make up the majority of revenue-driving end-to-end business processes.

How does Cleo deliver ecosystem integration?

Cleo Integration Cloud, Cleo’s flagship ecosystem integration offering, is a powerful single platform that enables your business to connect, transform, integrate, orchestrate, and analyze B2B/EDI, application, and eCommerce dataflows. Cleo Integration Cloud offers businesses a rich blend of self-service and managed-service options available in the cloud or in private on-premise deployments.

What are the benefits of ecosystem integration?
  • Reduce complexity: Make integration easier, enhance visibility, and improve operational control and governance
  • Streamline integration processes: Consolidate B2B and application integration requirements to a single unified integration platform
  • Optimize core business processes: Design, implement, and automate critical processes including order-to-cash, procure-to-pay, load tender-to-invoice, and many more
  • Lower solution TCO: Improve the accuracy of your data to eliminate penalties due to integration errors and unreliable transactions
  • Accelerate time to value: Reduce effort and complexity of trading partner and application onboarding
  • Proactive exception management: Centralized exception management, collaborative support, and hands-on troubleshooting speed the time to resolution
What cost savings can an ecosystem integration approach yield for my company?

Research shows that companies can eliminate up to $500,000 year of lost revenue due to poor integrations by taking an ecosystem integration approach and consolidating to a single platform for integration.

How does ecosystem integration benefit users in various roles?

The unique approach to ecosystem integration facilitates real-time access to operational visibility across end-to-end integration flows with appeal to both business and technical personas.

  • Executive teams get a global view of all revenue-generating transactions in a single, consolidated dashboard to optimize and uncover new growth opportunities.
  • Line-of-business managers can onboard trading partners faster, assess the health of existing relationships quickly, and proactively act on errors through "one-click" transaction reprocessing.
  • Operational teams, integration specialists, and technical users can easily manage key revenue-driving integrations, with the ability to view, interact, and manage end-to-end integration processes that connect business partners, applications, and data to their internal enterprise ecosystems.
  • Customers, partners, and suppliers can be granted secure access to operational performance metrics and visibility to enhance the value and depth of insight into ecosystem data for improved transparency and trust between businesses.
Why is ecosystem integration essential in the supply chain?

Ecosystem integration helps position companies operating across the supply chain for success in a variety of ways. By implementing adaptive integration technology that allows for flexible and agile responsiveness to rapidly shifting business requirements, businesses can:

  • Rapidly grow their ecosystem of partners and applications
  • Scale new revenue-driving business models
  • Modernize integration to remaster business processes
  • Discover new ways to leverage the value in data for business benefit

Additionally, there are industry-specific benefits originating in ecosystem integration capabilities that companies can achieve. For example:

  • Retailers: Can diversify their business models and remain competitive through fully-realized omnichannel and unified commerce outcomes
    • Meet modern fulfillment requirements – including pick-up, drop-off, and in-store
    • Improve stock and inventory predictability
    • Expand ecosystem of logistics partners and services to operationalize digital selling
  • Manufacturers: Can optimize their supply chains and operationalize digital presence
    • Reduce dependency on traditional selling channels (e.g., big box retail)
    • Launch new business models through eCommerce/marketplaces
    • Enter new markets and expand regionally
    • Push products to market faster to reduce cost
  • Logistics: Can provide a scalable, flexible, and intelligent way to handle increased integration, informational, and operational complexity
    • Deliver information-centric services
    • Meet or exceed elevated expectations around accuracy and speed of services
What integration patterns does ecosystem integration support?
  • B2B/EDI integration: Multi-enterprise data movement and integration with extensive support for EDI and non-EDI formats, backed by any-to-any data transformation capabilities and industry, infrastructure and business protocols to support all file-based integration scenarios.
  • Application integration: Rich application connectors, platform APIs, and API integration management capabilities to support internal and cloud application integration across ERP, CRM, SCM, ecommerce platforms and digital marketplaces, as well as payment and financial management systems.
  • Data integration: Support a variety of data integration patterns tied to ecosystems that drive digital remastering of multi-enterprise supply chain interactions, including file-based data integration, data replication, storage, and integration to core business systems and applications.
  • Embedded integration: Embedded data movement and data transformation to power info – and data-centric SaaS offering. Enhance solution quality through seamless movement and integration of data between the customer base and the SaaS platform.
  • eCommerce integration: Operationalize and intelligently scale ecommerce and marketplace selling strategy, opening new business channels while reducing dependence on traditional customers to reach new markets and bring products markets faster and give brands an expanded global reach.
What business processes does ecosystem integration help to optimize?

The following high-frequency business processes are composed of interconnected interactions across multi-enterprise supply chain businesses, external applications, and internal systems – endpoints that require integration at various points in the end-to-end life cycle of the process.

  • Order-to-cash
  • Procure-to-pay
  • Load tender-to-invoice

As trends both big and small influence the standards, regulations, competitive forces, and operating models of businesses, new data sources, more complex data patterns, and more and more technologies are required to facilitate these critical business processes.

Ecosystem Integration helps bring the increased complexity under control -- optimizing the underlying integration of end-to-end business processes by streamlining and automating dataflows and strengthening the connective tissue between businesses, applications, and data.

How can I get started?

To learn more or request a personalized demo today, talk to us.

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