Dear Group,

I am looking for any inputs and thoughts if any one has implemented Partner Engagement Manager (PEM) recently? How much does it will help to automate the on-boarding process as whole? It is really worth (ROI) for small orgs with less than 100 partners volume onboarding per year?

Appreciate any inputs... Thank you.
Srini

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Srini Parise
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#B2BIntegration
#SupplyChain

Srini,
PEM can handle the automation for your partner on-boarding after you configure it to work with your as deployed solution. If all the steps in your companies on-boarding process can be automated with REST APIs you could accomplish 100% automation. PEM can also help with the maintenance of the partner, such as updating passwords, keys and certificates, so you do get some additional value in the long term to consider for the whole partner population beyond just the new partners.

You also need to consider how many types of on-boarding scenarios you have it you offer multiple types of services for various types of partners (supply chain, financial, etc.).

Looking at total cost of ownership most customers see ROI kicking in somewhere around the 200-300 partner range depending on the complexity of their specific on-boarding process and procedures. You may need to work out the hours saved with your own internal costs to calculate your actual ROI point.

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Mark Murnighan
Solution Architect
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Mark Murnighan,

Thank you much for giving your insights about PEM.  One more quick question from your email, does password managment and SSH key handling can also be automated?  If partner accounts are maintained local and SSH keys are stored in SSP, I guess  B2B/SSP APIs can be used to automate, but if they stored in external SDS/TDS server ( We are using SEAS) can PEM talk to them with out having custom API?

Also, Thank you about ROI , that makes perfect sense.

-Srini

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Srini Parise
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Original Message:
Sent: Thu April 01, 2021 01:23 PM
From: Mark Murnighan
Subject: Thoughts on PEM implementation and its use

Srini,
PEM can handle the automation for your partner on-boarding after you configure it to work with your as deployed solution. If all the steps in your companies on-boarding process can be automated with REST APIs you could accomplish 100% automation. PEM can also help with the maintenance of the partner, such as updating passwords, keys and certificates, so you do get some additional value in the long term to consider for the whole partner population beyond just the new partners.

You also need to consider how many types of on-boarding scenarios you have it you offer multiple types of services for various types of partners (supply chain, financial, etc.).

Looking at total cost of ownership most customers see ROI kicking in somewhere around the 200-300 partner range depending on the complexity of their specific on-boarding process and procedures. You may need to work out the hours saved with your own internal costs to calculate your actual ROI point.

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Mark Murnighan
Solution Architect
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Hi Srini,

Yes , you can automate the passwords and SSH keys in PEM. PEM can integrate with external password management system by doing  API calls. PEM can talk to any external system using APIs only.

Hope the above helps.

Thanks,
RadhaKrishna Gajula

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Radhakrishna Gajula
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Original Message:
Sent: Thu April 01, 2021 02:37 PM
From: Srini Parise
Subject: Thoughts on PEM implementation and its use

Mark Murnighan,

Thank you much for giving your insights about PEM.  One more quick question from your email, does password managment and SSH key handling can also be automated?  If partner accounts are maintained local and SSH keys are stored in SSP, I guess  B2B/SSP APIs can be used to automate, but if they stored in external SDS/TDS server ( We are using SEAS) can PEM talk to them with out having custom API?

Also, Thank you about ROI , that makes perfect sense.

-Srini

------------------------------
Srini Parise
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: Thu April 01, 2021 01:23 PM
From: Mark Murnighan
Subject: Thoughts on PEM implementation and its use

Srini,
PEM can handle the automation for your partner on-boarding after you configure it to work with your as deployed solution. If all the steps in your companies on-boarding process can be automated with REST APIs you could accomplish 100% automation. PEM can also help with the maintenance of the partner, such as updating passwords, keys and certificates, so you do get some additional value in the long term to consider for the whole partner population beyond just the new partners.

You also need to consider how many types of on-boarding scenarios you have it you offer multiple types of services for various types of partners (supply chain, financial, etc.).

Looking at total cost of ownership most customers see ROI kicking in somewhere around the 200-300 partner range depending on the complexity of their specific on-boarding process and procedures. You may need to work out the hours saved with your own internal costs to calculate your actual ROI point.

------------------------------
Mark Murnighan
Solution Architect

PEM Standard comes with out-of-box maintenance activities to update user account passwords, certificates, SSH keys in B2BI. These activities, when started by a sponsor admin user, looks for passwords, certificates, keys expiring in the X days (X is configurable in the activity) and automatically rolls out one or more campaigns to partners to get them updated.

PEM integrates with other applications over REST APIs and so the only way for PEM to track keys stored in other apps would require a custom API to process the key data and rollout activities.

- Anshul

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Anshul Garg
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Thu April 01, 2021 02:37 PM
From: Srini Parise
Subject: Thoughts on PEM implementation and its use

Mark Murnighan,

Thank you much for giving your insights about PEM.  One more quick question from your email, does password managment and SSH key handling can also be automated?  If partner accounts are maintained local and SSH keys are stored in SSP, I guess  B2B/SSP APIs can be used to automate, but if they stored in external SDS/TDS server ( We are using SEAS) can PEM talk to them with out having custom API?

Also, Thank you about ROI , that makes perfect sense.

-Srini

------------------------------
Srini Parise
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: Thu April 01, 2021 01:23 PM
From: Mark Murnighan
Subject: Thoughts on PEM implementation and its use

Srini,
PEM can handle the automation for your partner on-boarding after you configure it to work with your as deployed solution. If all the steps in your companies on-boarding process can be automated with REST APIs you could accomplish 100% automation. PEM can also help with the maintenance of the partner, such as updating passwords, keys and certificates, so you do get some additional value in the long term to consider for the whole partner population beyond just the new partners.

You also need to consider how many types of on-boarding scenarios you have it you offer multiple types of services for various types of partners (supply chain, financial, etc.).

Looking at total cost of ownership most customers see ROI kicking in somewhere around the 200-300 partner range depending on the complexity of their specific on-boarding process and procedures. You may need to work out the hours saved with your own internal costs to calculate your actual ROI point.

------------------------------
Mark Murnighan
Solution Architect

Srini,

PEM Standard comes with out-of-box maintenance activities to update user passwords, certificates, SSH keys stored in B2BI. These activities can automatically find user account passwords, certificates, keys that are near their expiry date (configurable) and roll out campaigns to partners to get them updated.

For other applications, custom APIs are required for PEM to identify the expiring passwords, certificates, keys and roll out campaigns to partners.

- Anshul

------------------------------
Anshul Garg
------------------------------

Original Message:
Sent: Thu April 01, 2021 02:37 PM
From: Srini Parise
Subject: Thoughts on PEM implementation and its use

Mark Murnighan,

Thank you much for giving your insights about PEM.  One more quick question from your email, does password managment and SSH key handling can also be automated?  If partner accounts are maintained local and SSH keys are stored in SSP, I guess  B2B/SSP APIs can be used to automate, but if they stored in external SDS/TDS server ( We are using SEAS) can PEM talk to them with out having custom API?

Also, Thank you about ROI , that makes perfect sense.

-Srini

------------------------------
Srini Parise
------------------------------


Original Message:
Sent: Thu April 01, 2021 01:23 PM
From: Mark Murnighan
Subject: Thoughts on PEM implementation and its use

Srini,
PEM can handle the automation for your partner on-boarding after you configure it to work with your as deployed solution. If all the steps in your companies on-boarding process can be automated with REST APIs you could accomplish 100% automation. PEM can also help with the maintenance of the partner, such as updating passwords, keys and certificates, so you do get some additional value in the long term to consider for the whole partner population beyond just the new partners.

You also need to consider how many types of on-boarding scenarios you have it you offer multiple types of services for various types of partners (supply chain, financial, etc.).

Looking at total cost of ownership most customers see ROI kicking in somewhere around the 200-300 partner range depending on the complexity of their specific on-boarding process and procedures. You may need to work out the hours saved with your own internal costs to calculate your actual ROI point.

------------------------------
Mark Murnighan
Solution Architect

Hi Srini,

Nice to meet your acquaintance. From my perspective, the jury is still out on whether PEM can deliver on ROI.

Admitting freely that there have been some problems internal to our team, we have identified and shared with the IBM team a number of issues with the PEM product that have prevented us from realizing the full value proposition of the solution. Will note that IBM has communicated a desire to work through these issues with us. That being said, I would be interested in sharing some of our experiences with you and learn a little bit more about how your project is going.

Will reply privately with my contact information.

Look forward to speaking with you.

Richard Oliver-Goodwin


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Richard Oliver-Goodwin
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Hi Srini,

Nice to meet your acquaintance. Based on my almost two years of experience with PEM, I'd say the jury is still out on the ROI for PEM.

Admitting freely that our project team made some mistakes along the way, we encountered a number of issues on our ~50 partner implementation with the product that we've shared with IBM in great detail. Noting that our IBM account and services teams have communicated a desire to work with us through the issues, it has taken much more time than we planned, has delayed the onboard of additional partners and not allowed us to realize the full value proposition of the solution.

I would be happy to share more about our experience as well as learn about yours.

I'll reply privately with my contact information if you would like to discuss further.

Thanks,

Richard Oliver-Goodwin

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Richard Oliver-Goodwin
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