As more and more business-to-business gateway software platforms are able to take on the basic tasks of consolidating and transforming electronic data interchange (EDI) and other types of inter-enterprise business communications, vendors are beginning to add a wide variety of new features in order to differentiate their products, according to a recent report by Gartner.
Leading B2B integration platforms, for example, are adding business activity monitoring features that generate reports and alerts when specific business events take place. And these products are increasingly conforming to services-oriented architecture technologies and principles, and featuring simplified administration features that enable users to more easily support multiple external business partners. And, the report says, some are beginning to tailor their products to be used in cloud computing scenarios where manufacturers may tap into B2B gateway functionality as an online service.
Even as B2B integration products take on new capabilities, however, they are also expected to continue to do a good job of supporting well-established inter-business communication protocols such as EDI.
“Despite industry-wide predictions of its demise in the late 1990s, EDI use in many industries (such as automotive, retail, and manufacturing) continues to increase,” the Gartner report says.