IBM® Sterling Connect:Direct provides security-hardened, point-to-point file transfers to lessen dependency on unreliable File Transfer Protocol (FTP) transfers. It is optimized for high-volume delivery of files within and among enterprises and is heavily adopted across many industries to handle their mission critical managed file transfer needs. The two use cases below show how IBM Sterling Connect:Direct z/OS is utilized.
Use Case #1: Global Auto Manufacturer – Automotive Industry
This global auto manufacturer is the largest automaker based on market share in the United States and one of the largest investors in the U.S. automotive industry. They operate manufacturing, assembly plants, and distribution centers not just in the U.S., but world-wide. It’s critical that there aren’t disruptions to their manufacturing processes due to negatively impacting their company, the automotive industry, and economy.
The global auto manufacturer has deployed few thousand Connect:Direct instances across zOS as well as distributed Operating Systems. They primarily use it to send internal files that are critical in the manufacturing process within the company. Such file transfers include, and not limited to, inventory reports, information exchange with finance, treasury, engineering, data feeds to and from the manufacturing system, bill of sequencing, cadence numbers, and tag numbers. The file transfer supports business vital functions of the assembly line, providing service parts for the vehicles, retail fulfillment (Amazon, AutoZone, etc.), where parts are coming from, and more. C:D is the foundation of new interfaces as they are built and scaled to support additional business functions across the company. They also use Connect:Direct to transfer files with banks in certain geographies.
The global auto manufacturer has transformed their adoption of Connect:Direct from a consistent means of internal file transfer to scaling Connect:Direct as the foundation of new interfaces for other business functions across their company. Connect:Direct provides market-leading reliability, security, automation, and visibility capabilities. Connect:Direct provides mission critical file movement that is the horsepower in the engine of business operations for the company to be successful.
Use Case #2: Brazilian Banking Organization – Banking Industry
IBM® Sterling Connect:Direct provides security-hardened, point-to-point file transfers to lessen dependency on unreliable File Transfer Protocol (FTP) transfers. It is optimized for high-volume delivery of files within and among enterprises and is heavily adopted across many industries to handle their mission critical managed file transfer needs.
This Brazilian banking organization is the largest bank in Southern Brazil with a network of over 365 cities and has more than 1,312 service points in other localities within Brazil. The Brazilian banking organization also interfaces with other banks internationally. It’s critical that file transfers are efficient, reliable, and secure, to protect customer information, meet industry regulations, and meet customers’ expectations.
Every time there is a bank transaction for a customer, the customer financial information must be validated by SIP, an industry regulatory agency in Brazil. Such financial transactions include and not limited to, applying for a loan and online bill payment. All customer financial information for every bank in Brazil must be sent daily in a consolidated file. This Brazilian banking organization must ensure that their enterprise system can reliable ingest 550 giga. Otherwise, they lose critical customer financial information to continue to do business.
To stay fully compliant, there are six other industry regulatory agencies that this Brazilian banking organization must also transfer files for other segments of customer information such as financial marketing and personal information.
The Brazilian banking organization continues to choose Connect:Direct as their preferred solution to meet industry regulatory compliance and efficiently and reliably move files from systems that create data to the ones that consume it. They know that the proprietary “never been breached” protocol increases security compared to more common methods while also growing reliability and performance. Support across leading enterprise operating systems include workhorse z/OS and zLinux environments. Flexibility in triggering transfers automatically, via batch, schedules, or with external system integration means that the Brazilian banking organization can adopt a “hands-off” approach to their ongoing data movement needs while upstream and downstream integration provides the ability to edit and/or update data pre- or post- copy or to trigger ingestion by relevant systems.