Introducing the Configuration Assistant: AI Accelerated Way to Configure IBM Sterling B2B Integration SaaS

Configuring B2B integrations has traditionally been a complex, manual, and error-prone process. From onboarding new trading partners to managing connectivity on a daily basis, integration specialists and B2B operations teams often spend significant time dealing with configuration details instead of focusing on higher-value work.

Today, we’re excited to introduce a new product innovation designed to accelerate connectivity with AI: the Configuration Assistant for IBM Sterling B2B Integration SaaS.

What is the Configuration Assistant?

The Configuration Assistant is a new capability in the IBM Sterling B2B Integration SaaS platform that simplifies how configurations are created and managed in self-service mode. It is designed specifically for integration specialists and B2B operations teams who are responsible for onboarding trading partners and maintaining B2B connectivity.

In its first phase, the Configuration Assistant focuses on connection management, one of the earliest and most critical steps in the onboarding journey.

Why we built it

B2B connectivity configuration is often:

• Highly manual
• Prone to errors
• Time-consuming to validate and troubleshoot

Our goal with the Configuration Assistant is simple: Use IBM watsonx powered AI agents to guide users through configuration steps, validate inputs along the way, and reduce manual effort and errors.

The result is:

• Faster onboarding of new trading partners
• Higher internal productivity
• More consistent and reliable configurations

How it works

The Configuration Assistant provides an intuitive, guided experience for creating and managing connections. For example, when creating an AS2 connection, users can:

• Choose the target environment
• Provide configuration details either through guided input or by uploading a JSON file
• Download templates to accelerate setup when needed

Once connections are created, users can easily list them, search by keywords, and update connection details. Beyond AS2 and SFTP connection management, the assistant also includes agents to manage keys and certificates, allowing users to import, export, or even generate them directly within the system.

See it in action

To better illustrate how the Configuration Assistant works in practice, we’ve prepared a short demo video that walks through the end-to-end creation of an AS2 connection and highlights the key capabilities of the assistant.

👉 Watch the demo video

This is just the beginning

The Configuration Assistant represents the first step in a broader vision to help organizations modernize their B2B operations effortlessly with continuous releases that bring the latest AI, compliance, and self-service enhancements. Over time, we’ll introduce additional capabilities to make setup, management, and operations even more intuitive and efficient.

We’re excited to share this first milestone and look forward to what’s coming next.

Stay tuned.