
Sterling commerce is considered by some to be the Rolls Royce of B2B Integration platforms. BizTalk is the cheaper option but a strong contender in terms of essential features and value for money. Here is a comparison we did against high level capabilities between the two products.
Note that the data in the report below is not complete. Please contact us to get a full version of the report via the contact link above.
Customer Weightage |
Sterling Commerce |
Microsoft BizTalk |
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Standards Support |
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EDI | 10 | 2 | 2 | ||
Rosettanet (Multiple versions) | 0 | 6 | 6 | ||
SWIFT | 9 | 9 | |||
ebXML | |||||
EDIFACT | |||||
X12 | |||||
EDI x | |||||
EDI y | |||||
????? | |||||
File | |||||
HTTP(S) | |||||
FTP | |||||
FTPS | |||||
SFTP | |||||
SOAP/WS | |||||
???? | |||||
RNIF | |||||
SMTP/POP | |||||
Web Services |
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SOA Compliance | |||||
XSLT | |||||
XPATH | |||||
XML | |||||
Flat Files | |||||
(S)MIME | |||||
BPML | |||||
XFORMS | |||||
Process Designer |
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BPML Compliance | |||||
Extensibility | |||||
Comprehensiveness | |||||
Support for human interaction | |||||
BPEL Compliance | |||||
State Based workflows | |||||
Configurability per partner (code lists) | |||||
Data Transformation |
|||||
Performance | 10 | 8 | 8 | 6 | |
Ease of development | 0 | 5 | 0 | 8 | |
Data manipulation functions | 5 | 2 | 1 | 10 | |
Data representation diversity | 10 | 8 | 8 | 2 | |
Standards Support | 5 | 8 | 4 | 7 | |
Support for Lookups | 10 | 2 | 2 | 6 | |
XLST Support | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 | |
Speed of development | 10 | 5 | 5 | 8 | |
Trading Partner Management |
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Code lists | |||||
Metadata | |||||
Party definition | |||||
Transport association with party | |||||
Document exchange for each transport | |||||
Interaction profile | |||||
Contract | |||||
Business Rules and Policy Management |
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<Restricted> | |||||
Adapter |
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SQL | |||||
<Restricted> | |||||
Business Activity Monitoring and Business Intelligence |
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<Restricted> | |||||
Administration |
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Step wise visibility | |||||
State visibility | |||||
Performance dashboards | |||||
Correlation visibility | |||||
Messaging Layer |
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Publish subscribe | |||||
ESB | |||||
Other |
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– Sourcecode K2.net product which is based updon windows presentation foundation and enables defining and executing human workflows through web applications and it uses biztalk for System workflows | |||||
Biztalk has extendable architechture so it can be extended at point where users want more richer functionality. Following are some of the products which have extended existing feature of biztalk | |||||
– Ascentn AgilePoint, built on the .NET Framework and other Windows technologies, is focused entirely on human workflow., Ascentn’s Visio-based tool for defining processes, called Envision, can include a BizTalk orchestration directly within an AgilePoint | |||||
Biztalk can communicate with any application, with little or no change at all to source application | |||||
Through biztalk business process work flows can be exposed as web service which can consume by any SOAP complient client. | |||||
Performance |
|||||
SQL Server 2005 Transaction Processing Performance Council(TPC-C) benchmark | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | |
Long running transactions | 0 | ||||
0 | |||||
0 | |||||
Scalability |
|||||
Scale Up (processor limits, memory limits…) | 0.5 | 5 | 2.5 | 5 | |
Scale Out (how many machines, terabytes… ) | 0.5 | 5 | 2.5 | 5 | |
Partioning | 0 | ||||
0 | |||||
0 | |||||
Availability /Reliability |
|||||
Fault tolerance | 0.8 | 4 | 3.2 | 4 | |
Recovery from errors | 0.9 | 3 | 2.7 | 3 | |
How quickly does the system recover from errors? | 0.9 | 3 | 2.7 | 3 | |
0 | |||||
Ease of development |
|||||
Availability of rapid development tools | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | |
% of code that needs to be authored??? | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | |
Consistency of IDE design | 0 | ||||
0 | |||||
0 | |||||
Deployability |
|||||
Multiple servers, remote users… | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | |
0 | |||||
0 | |||||
Maintainability |
|||||
How easy are patches to install, how frequently are they available | 0.7 | 4 | 2.8 | 4 | |
Quality of documentation | 0.5 | 4 | 2 | 4 | |
Size of the developer community | 0.5 | 4 | 2 | 4 | |
Verbosity of the developer community | 0.6 | 3 | 1.8 | 3 | |
0 | |||||
Security |
|||||
Authentication | 1 | 4 | 4 | 4 | |
Authorization | 1 | 4 | 4 | 4 | |
Confidentiality | 1 | 4 | 4 | 4 | |
Identity Management (integration with existing.. ) | 1 | 4 | 4 | 4 | |
Auditing | 1 | 4 | 4 | 4 | |
Non repudiation | 0 | ||||
<thread analysis> | 0 | ||||
SSO | 0 | ||||
Accessibility |
|||||
Localization | 0 | ||||
Support for the disabled | 0 | ||||
0 | |||||
0 | |||||
Extensibility/Customization |
|||||
Availability of SDKs | 0.5 | 3 | 1.5 | 3 | |
Quality of documentation of SDKs | 0.5 | 3 | 1.5 | 3 | |
Range of SDKs available | 0 | ||||
Coupling of subcomponents | 0 | ||||
Infrastructure |
|||||
Hardware usage | 0 | ||||
Network usage | 0 | ||||
Datacenter considerations?? | 0 | ||||
0 | |||||
0 | |||||
External Factors |
|||||
Product Maturity | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | |
Vendor Strategy | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | |
Vendor’s ability to execute strategy | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | |
Market penetration/Existing customers | 0.8 | 4 | 3.2 | 4 | |
0 | |||||
0 | |||||
Support |
|||||
Email support response times | 0 | ||||
Phone | 0 | ||||
Urgent Onsite support | 0 | ||||
0 | |||||
0 | |||||
Compliance to standards / Interop |
|||||
Interoperbility with other applications | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | |
Compliance to technical standards (XML, SOAP) | 0.7 | 5 | 3.5 | 5 | |
Compliance to architectural standards (SOA.. ) | 0.5 | 5 | 2.5 | 5 | |
Interoperability/Dependence on other applications (e.g. MS Office, SQL server.. ) | 0.9 | 5 | 4.5 | 5 | |
0 | |||||
Key Financial Metrics |
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ROI | |||||
Payback Period | |||||
ROA | |||||
Strategy |
|||||
Product Strategy | |||||
Corporate Strategy | |||||
Total Cost of Ownership |
|||||
License cost of ALL subcomponents | 1 | 5 | 5 | 5 | |
Cost of upgrades | 0 | ||||
Training costs (IT and end user) | 0 | ||||
Staff and administrative costs | 0 | ||||
Hosting costs/Environmental costs (air con, power backups, rent.. ) | 0 | ||||
Migration costs (costs to incorporate older systems) | 0 | ||||
Cost of non availability (productivity losses, security breaches, opportunity costs ) | 0 | ||||
De-installation and disposal | 0 | ||||
Pricing model (cost for new standard edition) | |||||
Market Presence |
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Installed Base | |||||
Revenue | |||||
Revenue Growth | |||||
Systems Integrators | |||||
Services | |||||
Employees | |||||
Technology partners | |||||
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