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1. THINKstrategies
A Whitepaper for
Business and IT Decision-Makers
Examining the Business Value
of SaaS Integration
How A Cloud-Based Integration Platform
Streamlines and Accelerates Workflow
Processes Across Enterprises and
Business Entities
An Independent analysis published on behalf of Hubspan.

2. Whitepaper Examining the Business Value of WebSpan
© THINKstrategies, Inc., 2009 www.thinkstrategies.com p.2
Introduction: The New Business Integration Challenges
Companies of all sizes are facing escalating business integration challenges. While these
challenges are being heightened by today‟s financial crisis and tough economic environment, they
involve more fundamental competitive, organizational and technical challenges.
The competitive landscape has been reshaped by globalization and eCommerce, which have
lowered barriers to entry in nearly every industry, undercut customer loyalty levels, and reshaped
the way businesses must operate in order to survive.
The workplace is also being redefined by an increasingly dispersed and mobile workforce, which
is demanding new ways to communicate and collaborate internally and externally.
These market trends are making it essential that companies of all sizes automate their business
processes and transmit critical information inside and outside the four walls of the organization
more effectively and economically, and track the movement of this data more easily in order to
build and maintain stronger relationships with their customers and business partners.
This growing requirement is fueling the demand for a new generation of integration solutions
delivered in a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model.
SaaS-oriented integration solutions are available ”on-demand” via the Web in a turn-key form that
enable users to accelerate their deployment and more quickly and easily generate a greater return
on investment (ROI) at a lower total cost of ownership (TCO).
This whitepaper will examine how Hubspan and IBM have combined to create a powerful new
integration solution, called WebSpan, to address today‟s integration challenges so companies of
all sizes can achieve their business objectives.
The power of WebSpan to pull together the various elements of a company‟s “value-chain” is
illustrated in Figure 1.
Figure 1
WebSpan tightly
integrates your
critical business
processes with
your supply chain,
demand chain and
other integration
communities.

3. Whitepaper The Business Value of SaaS Integration
© THINKstrategies, Inc., 2009 www.thinkstrategies.com p.3
The Shortcomings of Traditional Integration Solutions
Integration is the key to making business information flow effectively across and between
corporate entities possible. Yet, in too many cases, the complexities and costs associated with
integrating and tracking multiple data sources, especially across numerous business entities,
has been an obstacle to success rather than an enabler of more effective workflows.
Traditional integration tools do not fully address today‟s business integration challenges, as
many were intended for highly centralized work environments with very structured information
requirements. While there is still a place for these traditional solutions, it is becoming
increasingly important for corporate data be able to flow throughout an organization or across
various business entities in an „on-demand‟ fashion to fully support critical business processes
and satisfy customer or partner requirements.
Organizations with limited budgets and/or minimal internal expertise are having a difficult time
keeping pace with the demands of their rapidly changing corporate operations or process
workflows across multiple entities in an increasingly „on-demand‟ environment. Even larger
enterprises are looking for new methods and mechanisms to meet their escalating integration
needs in a more flexible and cost-effective fashion.
The Benefits of a SaaS Approach to Business Integration
There are many benefits of a SaaS-based approach to business integration, including:
A turn-key approach for meeting enterprises‟ data integration needs that accelerates the
deployment process and reduces the implementation risks.
SaaS solutions leverage the ubiquity of the Internet to allow users to share data and
improve common workflow processes internally and externally.
SaaS integration solutions eliminate many of the up-front acquisition costs and deployment
risks of traditional integration tools.
SaaS solutions also shift some of the burden of success from the customers to the vendor
who assumes the responsibility of making sure the solution is available, scalable and up to
date.
The SaaS-based approach allows additional workflows to be provisioned quickly and easily.
SaaS solutions include strict access control rules to alleviate concerns regarding security
threats and ensure corporate compliance.
Put together, the SaaS approach can reduce the total cost of ownership, accelerate the time to
value and alleviate potential problems associated with integrating complex business processes.
THINKstrategies‟ most recent survey of more than 100 companies worldwide, conducted in
October 2008 in conjunction with Cutter Consortium, found 63% of the companies had adopted
a SaaS solution—nearly double the percentage in 2007! (See Figure 2)
Not
Considering
32%
Currently
Considering
36%
Currently
Using
32%
2007
Not
Considering
9% Currently
Considering
28%
Currently
Using
63%
2008
Source: THINKstrategies/Cutter Consortium.
Figure 2
Research
shows a
growing
number of
companies are
using and
considering
SaaS
solutions.

4. Whitepaper The Business Value of SaaS Integration
© THINKstrategies, Inc., 2009 www.thinkstrategies.com p.4
WebSpan – A New Approach to Integration
Hubspan, Inc. and IBM have partnered to deliver a new SaaS integration platform, called
WebSpan, which helps businesses reduce the complexity and costs associated with traditional
integration and business process automation efforts.
WebSpan is a single instance, multi-tenant SaaS integration platform, which enables
organizations to more cost-effectively integrate their business processes and dataflow across
internal and external communities. In essence, WebSpan represents a “middleware-in-the-
cloud” solution that eliminates the need for costly hardware, software and staff resources to
deploy, maintain and support cross-entity integration.
Companies can utilize WebSpan‟s integration platform to connect their applications, customers
or suppliers regardless of data models or existing EAI technologies, and without worrying about
compromising security. WebSpan provides a single, transparent connection to link enterprises
internally or externally, without forcing them to change their systems or processes, as it
mediates various data formats, validation methodologies, security protocols, routing, and
business rules. As a result, true business connections are created that enable a deeper level of
integration between applications, business entities, or trading partners.
WebSpan builds on and integrates the unique integration capabilities and proven deployments
of the Hubspan platform and the middleware capabilities of IBM WebSphere, as well as IBM‟s
industry experience and global reach. IBM‟s WebSphere Application Server (WAS) ND,
Process Server, WTX and MQ capabilities complement the functionality in the Hubspan
software solution as well as Hubspan‟s underlying infrastructure.
Figure 3 illustrates how Hubspan and IBM software and hardware assets are combined to
address the enterprises‟ multi-entity, business process integration.
Figure 3

5. Whitepaper The Business Value of SaaS Integration
© THINKstrategies, Inc., 2009 www.thinkstrategies.com p.5
The WebSpan integration platform is composed of a set of core services that include
the following foundational components:
Connectivity: This is the communication or transport layer, essential for creating and
managing connections among disparate systems. WebSpan supports all transport
protocols and delivers information how each integration party requires it. IBM WebSphere
MQ technology provides Asynchronous message management and delivery services as
part of the overall WebSpan queuing and message delivery capability.
Transaction: At the transactional level, WebSpan ensures all messages are in the
proper format and quality along with exception handling actions. WebSpan transforms the
message, mediating the various standards and formats, to meet the needs of various
applications and systems, managing multi-party routing across the many members of an
integration community. As part of WebSpan‟s overall mapping capability, WebSphere TX
provides an established set of tools to efficiently create and modify maps that illustrate
the transactional workflow.
Business Process: One of WebSpan‟s key differentiators is its focus on automating the
unique business processes that exist between entities. WebSpan provides sophisticated
data transformation and process choreography based on business rules that allows each
system to get the exact information it needs without manual intervention. This approach
not only delivers greater accuracy with information exchange, but also speeds up
completion of the business processes.
Security: Hubspan has maintained its focus on security with the WebSpan platform, not
only at the software layer but across its data center and infrastructure layer, adhering to
both SAS 70 and PCI compliance security requirements. At the solution layer, WebSpan
provides data protection, identity management, security audits, and access controls
based on role, organization or other filters, adhering to security policies established in the
business rules.
Administration: The overall administrative and management services layer includes
activity monitoring, process visibility, reporting and configuration. WebSpan provides both
system and business process visibility with predefined and configurable event monitoring,
including summary reports as well as drill-down detailed views of connection information
flows.
In addition to the versatile technology platform, WebSpan leverages the Hubspan integration
services organization, which provides a full suite of professional services, and leverages over
15,000 existing connections with companies in over 40 countries. Hubspan applies a best
practice methodology to activities like on-boarding and change management.
By bringing these pieces together, WebSpan not only reduces costs, it also provides greater
interoperability and compatibility across multiple systems and connections. This permits
enterprises to extend the reach of their existing application and infrastructure investments, and
accelerate their service oriented architecture (SOA) initiatives.
The WebSpan integration platform can handle all major enterprise applications, transports, and
data formats, as well as core business processes such as e-procurement, demand/supply chain,
logistics, e-payments, and e-commerce integration. WebSpan can also enable unique real-time
business processes, special handling requests, bi-directional information flows, and exceptions to
meet specific customer requirements.

6. Whitepaper The Business Value of SaaS Integration
© THINKstrategies, Inc., 2009 www.thinkstrategies.com p.6
Conclusion
In today‟s increasingly challenging competitive climate, it is
essential for businesses to establish closer working relationships
with their customers and partners externally, and across their
various operating entities internally.
As these parties become more dispersed, it becomes more difficult
for them to satisfy their business integration requirements using
legacy approaches. This is especially true as enterprises face
serious financial constraints, which prevent them from making the
hardware, software and staff investments of the past to satisfy their
current requirements.
These market forces are driving a growing number of enterprises to
investigate and adopt SaaS-based alternatives that can reduce their
upfront and ongoing costs, accelerate their deployment processes
and time to value, and deliver additional functional capabilities
which can improve the quality of their operations and give them a
competitive advantage.
Hubspan and IBM are delivering a joint solution to address the
business process integration needs of their mutual corporate
customers. By combining Hubspan‟s SaaS-based integration
capabilities with IBM‟s WebSphere middleware capabilities,
WebSpan gives companies a more cost-effective and scalable
approach to business process integration across multiple corporate
entities and partner communities.
***************
This independent analysis was sponsored by Hubspan.
Hubspan is the leading provider of business integration solutions, helping companies automate business
processes and provide strong collaboration among internal and external communities. WebSpan is a joint
solution combining the Hubspan on-demand integration platform and key components of IBM WebSphere
integration software. WebSpan provides integration packages that are cost-effective, scalable and reliable.
With its any-to-any integration, WebSpan ensures seamless interoperability across systems, standards,
applications and protocols. For more information, go to www.hubspan.com/webspan.
WebSpan provides
businesses with:
A scalable SaaS integration
platform to meet enterprises‟
evolving needs.
A unique focus on
automating key business
processes.
Basic to complex business
rules to choreograph various
integration processes and
properly manage how they
are applied.
Strict security and access
controls to meet users‟
specific requirements.
More economical and flexible
approach to satisfying
ongoing processes.
About THINKstrategies, Inc.
THINKstrategies is a strategic consulting services company formed specifically to address the
unprecedented business challenges facing IT managers, solutions providers and investors today as the
technology industry shifts toward a services orientation. The company‟s mission is to help our clients re-
THINK their corporate strategies, and refocus their limited resources to achieve their business objectives.
We help enterprise decision-makers with their sourcing strategies, IT solutions providers with their
marketing strategies, and venture firms with their investment strategies. THINKstrategies is also the founder
of the Software-as-a-Service Showplace (www.saas-showplace.com), the largest vendor-independent,
online directory and information resource center with SaaS solutions in 80 application and industry
categories. For more information regarding our unique services, visit www.thinkstrategies.com, or contact
us at info@thinkstrategies.com.