Whirlpool consolidated its internal integration technology as a whole. This included refining its systems down to one SAP central platform for Master Data, EAI, and Trading Partner Integration. Older technologies made it difficult for the business to innovate and deliver newer more expansive services to our trade customers.

Besides standardizing product information through a GDS implementation of SAP, Whirlpool wanted to enable data exchange with more trading partners and at a lower cost. For this, Whirlpool installed the SAP Exchange Infrastructure as well as the SEEBURGER B2B solutions. This allowed the organization to migrate to one central SAP platform and off of older technologies. The installation also involved the implementation of AS2 with the larger trading partners to lower the standard VAN charges.

Additionally, in support of the goal of enabling more partners, Whirlpool is rolling out SEEBURGER Spoke Units to both trade customers and distributors that are currently unable to perform EDI or AS2 communication.

The spoke unit allows the company to give a non-EDI trading partner the ability to communicate with using AS2, to translate their application formats, and to integrate into their back-end systems via File ports, DB access or API.

Finally, the XI and SEEBURGER B2B components are necessary for the Maytag migration and infrastructure. The company is using this platform to integrate both internal systems as well as trading partner information. It is critical that Maytag migrate from an e-commerce standpoint smoothly.

The solution had to fit into the global SAP strategy. SEEBURGER solutions were embedded in the NetWeaver stack the company is using to standardize the integration on. The goal is to have a consolidated and common platform to allow IT to deliver agility, not projects. Additionally, Whirlpool wanted reusability around the globe. It desired to be able to integrate in the US just as easily and flexibly as China. The end goal was flexibility and simplicity in both the solution and vendors.

Platform is based on SAP NetWeaver and SEEBURGER embedded B2B Components. Existing application integration is via standard SAP interfaces such as Idoc/RFC. Additionally, the implementation uses web services to integrate into legacy application such as those based on AS/400. These were critical to interface with as they will not be taken out immediately and are part of the necessary infrastructure.

The result of these efforts has allowed Whirlpool to:

• Deploy new trading partners in days not weeks
• Reduce VAN charges
• Provide clean data to all parties
• Reduce manual processes with trading partners
• Consolidated platform that allows data to be distributed anywhere, anytime including mobile devices.