Enterprise Data Supply Chain
Management
What You Need to Know
July 2015
www.stonebranch.com
Abstract
Of all the assets a company owns, perhaps the most valuable is its data. This data has its highest meaning and value when it is processed in conjunction with other relevant data residing within applications. This means the data must be transported and processed for its value to be fully realized. When you consider that data volumes are growing rapidly at a rate of over 23% annually1, this is an increasingly complex process to manage.
How well managed is your data in transit, or when it is processed? While your managed file transfer (MFT) solution may provide some of the essential elements to transport and secure your data you need to ensure the success of the process. MFT may not offer enough to truly give you holistic data management. The enterprise data supply chain management model provides a lens through which you can track, analyze, and plan for better management of your in-flight data, ensuring security, compliance, data lifecycle management, accuracy, and timeliness throughout your enterprise.
Your Business Runs on Data
When managing your business, great focus is put on managing and protecting the products you produce, but data, perhaps the most valuable asset you possess, is often not as carefully managed.
Companies process, collect and report on large volumes of data. Companies transform their data into actions and valuable information through the processing and transmission of data, including data shared with trading partners such as customers, employees, vendors, and suppliers.
1
Many different servers, platforms and applications access this data. Long ago, a single mainframe provided access to a limited number of disk and tape volumes and this data was only available to trusted employees. Critical data is now populated across mainframes, UNIX and Wintel environments, accessed from private networks and increasingly in the cloud. The complexity makes data management a real challenge, but one that must be solved. When business dictates that you can’t lock down your data and must share it, file transfers must be managed as competently and securely as you can possibly manage.
Most MFT solutions offer security, at least for most platforms. But companies really need a holistic solution that offers more than just the basics. The first challenge is that no matter how much you wish to control all file transfers, business needs often dictate that you support a variety of file transfer protocols. You need a way to mandate and monitor the security and compliance of each data transfer.
But a bigger concern is one that most MFT solutions don’t handle; the ability to monitor every phase of data movement, from where the data originates throughout the transfer and to the point of receipt. Complex processes are involved at each point and you must have visibility into every aspect. Your solution must show you which processes and transfers are active, which have failed, which are delayed and which are complete. Only a holistic tool with an enterprise view of your systems can reveal this information.
A New Model: The Enterprise Data Supply Chain
When data is considered as a key asset, it can make sense to see it through the lens of
enterprise data supply chain management. Classic supply chain management (SCM) involves the oversight of the products, information and money as these items move from one
organization to another in an architected process. The benefits expected from SCM software include the following advantages, which are also relevant to file transfer and processing management:
• Business cost reductions • Competitive edge
• Processing efficiencies • Customer loyalty
• Better service level compliance • Reduced risk
• Compliance assurance
• Visibility into product movement and transaction completion success
Companies have the opportunity to reduce data flow management costs and penalties with a prudent choice in file transfer management software. At
the same time, automation can ensure that service levels can be met, which increases customer value. Applying Enterprise Data Supply Chain
Management strategies to file transfer and processing management, you will see reduced risk and an enhanced ability to meet with
competitiveness. When customers know that their data is safely and accurately managed and still accessible as needed, your company can stand out as a leader.
File transfer management most closely represents the ‘logistics’ aspect of SCM. Data doesn’t just get transferred between sources. It also gets extracted, transformed, loaded. When it comes to data management, security and compliance must also be included in logistics. This requirement includes having comprehensive auditing. All activities must be recorded, especially changes made to file transfer jobs. In traditional SCM, logistics always involves visibility into every aspect of supply movement. You need to know how the product is sourced, where it is on every phase of its journey, any delays or problems along the way and finally, the successful receipt at the endpoint. Data transfer requires the same level of auditing.
Another key aspect of the Data Supply Chain is centralization. None of this will work if management is distributed across lines of business or across IT disciplines. Data moves from one platform to another, between departments and to partners and customers; a centralized approach ensures the most efficiency, least cost and lowest risk. Centralization also means that relating business transactions to IT processing will be easier.
In the area of total cost of ownership, SCM solutions are generally a major investment, so customers want to see some good returns. Examples of these include processing efficiencies, where significant volume increases can be managed because of the elimination of labor-intensive activities. Automation of all aspects of file transfer management can help you achieve the same kind of goal. Eliminating manual intervention to restart an interrupted transmission is simply one example. Another goal is often intelligent demand management, which for file transfers translates to efficient and automated handling of transfer traffic. Using criteria similar to those you would use to evaluate SCM solutions, you can more clearly articulate to vendors your requirements for managing file transfers.
File Transfer ‘SCM’ Software Requirements
To find the right file transfer ‘SCM’ solution, you need to clearly identify the problems you are trying to solve and the benefits you hope to achieve. Software solutions have been crafted to help companies manage the complexity of the SCM challenge. The best solutions include some fundamental features designed to address the needs of large, complex companies. First, the software must include as much automation as possible. Automation not only reduces the risks of human error; it also can make all business transactions relying on file transfers far more efficient and error-free. Very often, file movement has to be coordinated with other application activities. If any manual intervention is required, time delays are inevitable and mistakes are possible. The solution also should be easy to implement, customize and deploy. Lost time in learning new capabilities slows the return on investment possible.
The solution must be enterprise-grade, which includes the ability to transfer files between all required platforms as well as the ability to scale to handle high volume demands. This allows you to standardize and centralize file transfer management. Supporting a variety of file transfer protocols may be essential, but you need the same level of visibility into every option and you need it on a single pane of glass. Management must be centralized to ensure SLAs are met; silo management leads to disaster. And the benefits in terms of cost, efficiency, performance and compliance can only be achieved if the solution is widely utilized.
Security is a huge concern for most enterprises. No one can keep all data locked down; you can’t do business without some amount of data sharing. But companies have to ensure that customer data is securely transported. Too many have already paid the price for not having robust data security protocols in place; you can’t afford the loss of customers and revenue as well as the imposition of fines if you can’t control data-in-flight. Incidents are generally widely reported, so not only do you risk losing existing customers. It is likely new customers will be deterred from working with you based on the news reports of a breach.
Though most companies might rank security as the most essential part of an FTM solution, in fact, the most critical factor is to ensure that data transfers and processing work. When you factor in the complexity of selecting data, packaging it, transmitting it across networks, reformatting it and then processing it, there are many possible points of failure. The solution you select must have a way of providing real-time information on a dashboard, so you can track the flow of your data, detect problems and delays and ensure successful completion. Nothing really matters if you can’t move the data. This capability, too often simply assumed, must be a key aspect of your MFT solution. In addition, the MFT solution must have a way to detect issues and automatically resolve them, ensuring that every file transfer is complete, accurate and timely.
The next most critical item is compliance. Government directives, as referenced above, require that certain classes of data be tightly controlled. Along with the costs of security breaches, failure to abide by the government mandates impacting your industry will result in significant fines.
A final, highly desirable feature is the ability to coordinate file transfers with business transactions, understanding dependencies and allowing for a variety of triggering and scheduling mechanisms.
A Strategy for the Data Supply Chain –
Universal Automation Center
Many solutions claim to manage file transfers, but unless the software can achieve all of your goals, you will find yourself dealing with problems at some point in the future. All of the requirements listed in the preceding section must be answered in the solution. Data movement is simply too critical not to take the time to find an answer that delivers all the capabilities you need.
“Creating and managing a
fully integrated enterprise
supply chain is one of six key
IT trends in Accenture’s 2014
Technology Vision”
- Accenture
Stonebranch offers Universal Automation Center, a highly automated software solution that responds to every requirement for robust file transfer and processing management.
Universal Automation Center unifies and centralizes the movement and processing of your data. Enterprise-grade by design, Universal Automation Center orchestrates your Enterprise Data Supply Chain activities and Provides Real-Time Operational Intelligence regardless of what transport mechanisms are used or what applications process your data.
The solution also provides dynamic triggering and application event integration to respond automatically to business events and transactions. Using a web services interface, the process supports SOAP, JMS and MQ Series protocols.
It is designed to focus attention on only the processes requiring attention with expert guidance to drill down to root problem causes.
If you haven’t analyzed the efficacy of your current file transfer management system, or you have many varieties deployed, it may be time to review what you could gain if you
implemented an enterprise automation solution that marries FTM to Workload Automation to reduce security and compliance risks, meet or beat service levels, reduce costs, ensure file transfer success and improve customer satisfaction. Stonebranch’s Universal Automation Center will help you transform your file transfer management by implementing SCM
capabilities into managing data. By understanding what is possible in this sphere when you integrate Workload Automation with MFT, you can see a new way to enhance the delivery of business services and products to your customers.
Next Steps
To effectively create a strategy for implementing an Enterprise Data Supply Chain initiative, it is recommended to follow the following process:
Create a Center of Excellence. Create a team, sponsored with the necessary mandate and resources; that will provide leadership, evangelization, best practices, research, support and/or training for your Data Supply Chain initiative.
Implement a Tactical Solution as your Pilot Project. Start by identifying governance risks and complicated manual processes and obtain team buy-in. Identify operational silos and define SLA and reporting requirements between silos. Then prioritize the Data Supply Chains. It’s about Return on Automation.
Stonebranch can provide an end-to-end solution from installation through implementation.
To arrange for a discussion on how Stonebranch can help you
successfully achieve you Data Supply Chain initiative, please contact Stonebranch through your sales representative,
info@stonebranch.com or 1-678-366-7887.
