First project at IBM. Zero B2B experience. 10 months later, we'd transformed a legacy enterprise system that took weeks to onboard trading partners into a self-service platform that does it in hours.
Result? 3x faster partner activation and 70% reduction in unplanned outages
Reduction in onboarding time
15 days → 2 days
Faster partner activation
First transaction time
Trading partners onboarded
In first 6 months
Reduction in security incidents
Auto-managed PGP keys
IBM Sterling Data Exchange is a B2B integration platform that handles electronic data interchange (EDI) and API-based transactions between enterprises and their trading partners. The platform connects over 3.1 million businesses globally, processing billions of transactions annually across supply chains. When I joined IBM, Sterling was experiencing critical challenges that were impacting customer retention and growth.
The industry was also shifting - Gartner predicted that by 2023, more than 50% of B2B transactions would be conducted through APIs, while in 2015, 85% of supply chain transactions were managed through EDIs. Sterling was at risk of becoming obsolete if it couldn't adapt quickly.
"One of the limitations of EDI transactions is that once a supplier sends an Advance Shipping Notification (ASN) to a customer, there isn't a foolproof way to know that the customer's system received it."
This led to costly manual resets when ASNs failed.
"Without robust transformation and validation tools, data accuracy suffers" - customers struggled with "inconsistent formats, missing fields, and duplicate entries."
The platform's "legacy nature" required updates in "speed, scalability, and GUI," with users demanding "enhanced API management" and "improved governance for communication channels."
Users highlighted challenges with "ease of use during onboarding" and the need for "streamlined interfaces with modern technologies." Only senior IT staff could manage partner configurations.
Effortless PGP key creation for secure and compliant exchanges.
A unified panel delivering real-time updates and partner connection insights.
Quick snapshots of key status, version history, and precise error resolutions for faster recovery.
“It was a phased & seamless approach... We had a weekly cadence call during which IBM would explain to us what they were planning to do. We would give feedback, and they would hear us and adjust the design. We attended meetings, understood the design and did some testing. But everything else was taken care of by IBM.”
Senthil Kannan
IT Manager, Hendrickson USA
Hendrickson facilities unified
Single B2B gateway deployment
ASN availability achieved with Zero customer-facing downtime
