Orchestrating multi-enterprise architecture on Sterling Order Management System

Sterling™ Order Management System supports multiple enterprises on a single Sterling Order Management System instance and enables to separate the corresponding data and configurations. A single instance can serve multiple enterprises that have unique business needs, such as different process flows, enterprise-specific extensions, and rules.

As part of enterprise onboarding, Administrators can separate configurable resources such as templates and user exits based on the enterprise. Administrators can also add new enterprises without impacting the existing enterprise resources.

The granular Participant Modeling capabilities provide perfect isolation at the enterprise level and help in separating the existing organizations from newer organizations, and reduce the incidence of various organizations interfering with each other.

The transaction and configuration data are stored in the common persistence tier (Db2). However, data access is governed by the enterprise-level data security policies, which enables Administrators in restricting the data access at the enterprise level and ensures that an enterprise cannot access data of any other enterprises.

Supported multi-enterprise versions

IBM Sterling® Order Management System provides multi-enterprise support for the following versions:
  • Multi-Enterprise support is available as a part of the core IBM Sterling Order Management System. However, the new solution components including Sterling Intelligent Promising Inventory Visibility, Store Inventory Management, and Order Hub are enhanced for multi-enterprise support.
  • Users who want to use the multi-enterprise support can use the core IBM Sterling Order Management System with Global Inventory Visibility until support is provided for Sterling Intelligent Promising Inventory Visibility and related components. Currently, users who are configuring core IBM Sterling Order Management System in the multi-enterprise mode cannot use Sterling Intelligent Promising Inventory Visibility, Store Inventory Management, and Order Hub.
Note: The core IBM Sterling Order Management System on the next-generation platform is presently available in North America data centers, and shortly made available in European data centers too. Until such time, the European users can continue to use IBM Sterling Order Management System on the legacy platform and later migrate to the next-generation platform.

Supported solution models

The supported solution models are available at both Hub and individual Enterprise levels.

  • The following supported solution models are available at the Hub level:
    • Environment access to users within an enterprise (Adding to the allowlist (legacy platform), Mutual trust (next-gereration platform)).
    • Participant modelling and data security configurations to avoid cross-enterprise data access.
    • Enterprise-specific rules, events, and user-exits configurations.
    • Agent server, Integration server, and associated schedule or trigger management through Self Service.
    • Purge and data retention management.
    • Enterprise-specific customization (templates, specific UI customization, and so on).
    • Environment Management through Self Service.
    • System and enterprise-specific property management through System Administration Tool (SMA).
    • Customization, Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery (CI/CD), and deployment through Self Service.
    • System Logging and Monitoring through Self Service.
    • Configuration data movement across environments through Self Service via Configuration Deployment Tool (CDT).
    • Cognos Operational Reporting to create and schedule reports.
    • Authentication policy (IBM ID) that is common for all tenants.
  • The following supported solution models are available at the individual Enterprise level:
    • Applications Manager
    • IBM® Sterling Business Center (SBC)
    • Application Console
    • Sterling Store Engagement1.0 (without Store Inventory Management)
    • IBM Sterling Call Center
    • API Tester
    However, the individual Enterprises do not have access to the following tools:
    • Self Service
    • Developer toolkit
    • Cognos
    • Logging and Monitoring tools
    • Hub level configurations in the Applications Manager
    • MQ, Agents, and Integration Server
    • DB Query client and Data Extract tools