{"id":2350,"date":"2023-03-17T20:43:11","date_gmt":"2023-03-18T00:43:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog2wrkdev.wpenginepowered.com\/b2b-integration\/"},"modified":"2026-09-30T08:24:58","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T12:24:58","slug":"b2b-integration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog2workato.wpengine.com\/b2b-integration\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is B2B Integration? A Complete Introduction"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Modern businesses depend on a host of trading partners to function efficiently and transform their processes. These businesses must automate most of their processes and connect with their network of business partners in real time to enable key business functions such as communication and data transfer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business-to-business (B2B) integration is the technology that businesses use to connect their applications and internal systems with those of their trading partners, customers, and suppliers, enabling real-time connectivity and data transfer.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And technology companies aren\u2019t the only ones looking to transform their processes through integrations and automations. According to our analysis<\/a>, businesses that operate in industries like consumer goods and services, healthcare and pharma, internet software and services, retail, construction, and professional services have increased the number of automations they\u2019ve built year-over-year by more than 2X.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Given how organizations in these industries depend on a number of trading partners, the growing number of integrations and automations they\u2019re building likely work across multiple businesses. In other words, they\u2019re likely implementing an increasing number of B2B integrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ll cover why this is the case by breaking down some of the benefits of B2B integration and share some impactful use cases. Also, we’ll provide the best practices to help you succeed in your B2B integration. But to start, let\u2019s align on the basics. But first, we’ll discuss what B2B integration is and its use cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Definition of B2B integration<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Business-to-business (B2B) integration is a scenario where an organization connects at least one of their systems with any that belong to a 3rd-party in order to share certain types of information.<\/p>\n\n\n

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A look at some of the documents and information that can be shared through B2B integrations<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

It\u2019s worth noting that this is distinctly different than\u00a0application-to-application (A2A) integration<\/a>. A2A integration is the process an organization takes to connect their internal systems, typically by using application programming interfaces (APIs).<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Is a B2B integration platform?<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a 3rd-party platform that facilitates B2B integration use cases. This platform can take the form of an electronic data interchange (EDI) or a managed file transfer (MFT) tool. However, these are considered legacy approaches to B2B integration. An API integration platform is considered the modern approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related: <\/em>What is a hybrid integration platform?<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why APIs outperform EDIs for B2B integration<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While EDI is commonly associated with B2B integration, using it in this context can lead to several issues\u2014which APIs can help you avoid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Difficult to standardize records with EDI<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

A record at one organization likely has certain fields that use specific formats, names, value types, and so on, that look different than what their trading partners use. And while EDI standards try to account for this by offering prescriptive guidance on the record\u2019s fields, issues still crop up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For one, it\u2019s time consuming to understand and incorporate the guidance from an EDI standard. Moreover, each party will likely still make decisions that cause issues. For instance, one party might believe that they can add a space to a certain field in a file (as the EDI standard may not say that they can\u2019t), forcing the other party to build custom logic that requires removing the space before the file can be processed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Incorporating this type of nuanced complexity to process records forces organizations to rely on specialists, which is expensive and, for many businesses, unsustainable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

APIs offer a simpler means of connectivity<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Companies can clearly lay out their fields and formats via their APIs. This allows trading partners to use a low-code\/no-code API integration solution<\/a> to easily connect to those API endpoints and make use of that data without having to perform any customizations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, there are many more solutions that support API integration<\/a> than EDI integration. When you couple this with the fact that the former doesn\u2019t require an advanced skill set to use, it\u2019s clear that it\u2019s easier to find and use an API-based solution that meets your requirements.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

B2B Integration Examples<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Here are a few impactful B2B integration use cases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Escalate incidents from a call center seamlessly <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s imagine that a company contracts a 3rd-party to serve as their contact center. This third party can address the majority of issues that come in, but a small percentage needs to be escalated to specific teams at the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To ensure that escalated tickets get routed to the appropriate teams on time, you can build a B2B integration that connects the contact center\u2019s ticketing system with the company\u2019s. From there, you can build a workflow where once someone in the contact center escalates an issue in their respective ticketing system (e.g.\u00a0ServiceNow<\/a>), the company\u2019s ticketing system (e.g.\u00a0Zendesk<\/a>) retrieves the escalated issue, along with key details on it.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, as the company goes on to resolve the issue and marks the ticket as such in their system, the contact center\u2019s ticket within their respective system gets updated accordingly\u2014allowing everyone to stay on the same page.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"A<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Related: <\/em>A guide to implementing two-way syncs<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Enable vendors to view your purchase orders in near real-time<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s say that a retail store needs to procure certain products from one of its vendors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

To facilitate this transaction, you can use B2B integration to connect their respective ERP systems and then build a data flow that works as follows: Once the retail store\u2019s ERP system creates a purchase order, a corresponding purchase order gets created in the vendor\u2019s ERP system in near real-time\u2014all but ensuring that they\u2019re able to review and fulfill the order quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Keep tabs on the status of deliveries<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Using the previous example, let\u2019s assume that another company performs the work of shipping the products that the retail store ordered from the vendor. By using B2B integration to connect the supply chain partner\u2019s shipment management system with both the vendor\u2019s and retail store\u2019s ERP systems, everyone can stay abreast of the shipment\u2019s status. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More specifically, any time the delivery status changes in the shipment management system, the corresponding fields in both the vendor\u2019s and retail store\u2019s ERP systems are updated accordingly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"By<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Benefits of B2B Integration<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Here are just some of the benefits of B2B integration:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Enables trading partners to work together effectively<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Using B2B integration, organizations can easily and quickly engage in data exchanges with business partners. This ultimately allows them to meet their respective needs, whether that\u2019s getting paid on time, receiving orders as soon as possible, resolving incidents with little delay, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Prevents costly human errors  <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

B2B integrations allow each party to perform fewer error-prone, manually-intensive tasks, whether that\u2019s entering in data or uploading a document to a specific system. As a result, there\u2019s likely to be fewer human errors that lead to serious issues, such as a vendor providing the wrong set of goods to a retailer because they made a mistake when re-entering the order in their ERP system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Related: <\/em>The top benefits of cloud integration<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Offers scalability<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Assuming you and your partners use low-code\/no-code tools and plan to connect to each other\u2019s systems via APIs, the work of building and maintaining B2B integrations may be easier than expected. This can be true both from a resourcing perspective (as more employees can participate) and a cost perspective (as these less-technically-savvy employees that get involved may not earn as high of a salary).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Challenges of B2B Integration<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Realizing the benefits of B2B integration, unfortunately, isn\u2019t always easy. Here are some of the challenges to keep in mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Failing to work with APIs<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Even if your organization is fully committed and able to integrate with a business partner\u2019s applications through APIs, you won\u2019t be able to do so if the business partner can\u2019t make API endpoints available. In this case, you\u2019re likely forced to use a legacy B2B integration approach<\/a> (i.e. EDI or MFT).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Engaging in extensive coordination <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Your organization likely needs to work with numerous 3rd-parties in order to address all of its B2B integration requirements. And for some use cases, you might need to work with more than one party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Couple this with the fact that each B2B integration requires consistent dialogue between your organization and the 3rd-party and the following becomes clear: You\u2019ll have to commit considerable time to communicating with third-parties in order for your B2B integrations to get implemented effectively and work as intended over time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3. Disrupting existing integrations <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Your trading partners will inevitably change their tech stack over time. And while most of these changes won\u2019t affect your relationship, it would if it involves an app that\u2019s involved in one of your integrations. In this case, you\u2019d have to work quickly in integrating to the trading partner\u2019s newly-adopted application in order to minimize any downtime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some changes, however, require you to find a new trading partner. For instance, if one of your vendors stops offering a certain item you need, you\u2019ll be forced to search for a new vendor who can provide it (and in the meantime, your business can be put on pause).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best Practices for Successful B2B Integration<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Below are the main points to consider when implementing B2B integration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Define B2B integration needs<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Define the current scalability and performance demands that the business requires to run efficiently while keeping future demands, such as an increase in transaction volumes and peak loads, in mind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Determine the data types and formats the business and its partners need to exchange to ensure seamless interoperability. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Analyze the business partners varied ecosystems, including their technological and operational environments and tailor the integration to accommodate them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Choose the right B2B integration method<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Ensure you choose an integration method that aligns trading partners’ ecosystems with your business objectives, such as high scalability and real-time data exchange.<\/p>\n\n\n\n