December 2024: What’s new OpenText Business Network Cloud Edition 24.4
As the year winds down and the holiday season draws near, we’re excited to reflect on another year of growth and innovation at OpenText. November brought us our largest OpenText World event to date in Las Vegas, with a record number of Business Network customers in attendance. It was a fantastic opportunity to connect with so many of you and showcase our latest advancements. And just in time for the holidays, we’re thrilled to announce the release of Business Network 24.4, packed with new features to streamline your operations and add even more value to your business.
If you missed OpenText World, don’t worry—you can still catch the general and Business Unit keynotes. This includes the legendary Business Network keynote, featuring Simon Ellis, Group VP at IDC; Deepti Sharma, VP of Engineering; and Mark Morley, Senior Director of Product Marketing, all available on demand until December 23. Unfortunately, we didn’t receive customer permission to share the panel with Denise Hemmert (VP of IT at Cardinal Health), Estelito Mendoza (Director of Global Delivery at SC Johnson), and Andrew Fitzpatrick (CEO of Washington Publishing Company), but the session is very worth watching!
New year: New OpenText Business Network Cloud
As we move into the new year, we’ve also rolled out new product names across our OpenText Business Network portfolio. These new names are now available on our website and product UIs. Next year, we’ll update SKU descriptions and the quote-to-order process. Check out the table below for the new product names:
| Old Name | New Name |
| Active Access | OpenText™ Core Collaboration Access |
| Active Catalogue | OpenText™ Trading Grid Catalogue |
| Active Intelligence | OpenText™ Trading Grid Intelligence |
| Active Invoice with Compliance | OpenText™ Trading Grid e-Invoicing |
| Active Orders | OpenText™ Trading Grid Supplier Hub |
| Active Risk Monitor | OpenText™ Command Center Risk Monitor |
| BizManager | OpenText™ Data Integrator |
| Business Network Cloud Enterprise | OpenText™ B2B Integration Enterprise |
| Business Network Cloud Foundation | OpenText™ B2B Integration Foundation |
| EMR-Link | OpenText™ EMR Integration |
| Freeway Cloud | OpenText™ B2B Integration Essentials |
| Global Product Authentication Service | OpenText™ Core Product Traceability Service |
| Identity and Access Management (IAM) | OpenText™ Core Secure Access |
| Internet of Things (IoT)/Aviator IoT | OpenText™ Aviator IoT |
| Lens | OpenText™ Trading Grid Insights |
| STP Financial Hub | OpenText™ Financial Hub |
| SWIFT Service Bureau | OpenText™ SWIFT Service Bureau |
| Trading Grid | OpenText™ Trading Grid |
| Trading Grid API Connectors | OpenText™ Trading Grid Connectors |
| Trading Grid Command Center | OpenText™ Trading Grid Command Center |
| Trading Grid Messaging Service | OpenText™ Trading Grid Messaging Service |
Now, let’s dive into the latest highlights in Business Network 24.4:
OpenText™ Trading Grid Command Center – Integration Monitor
At OpenText World, we introduced one of our latest innovations: the Integration Monitor, a key app within Command Center. This tool provides critical insights into the health of your integration platform, tracking transaction flows and interactions with trading partners. A standout feature is Aviator, which empowers non-technical users to interact with business data through natural language queries. The MVP was demonstrated during OpenText World, showcasing dashboards for documents, partner information, and integration data.
Stay tuned for the general release of Integration Monitor in Q1 CY25!
OpenText™ Aviator IoT
The latest release of OpenText™ Aviator IoT 24.4 brings powerful new features to optimize IoT solution deployment. Updates include preconfigured templates and dashboards for asset tracking, enhancements to the IoT App Builder for easier customization, and improved integration with OpenText Core Intelligence for better data persistence and event tracking. The new Terraform provider simplifies solution configuration, making IoT solutions more accessible and efficient. To learn more about what’s new in Aviator IoT, read the blog here.
e-Invoicing Mandates Update: EU and France
The European Union’s ViDA (VAT in the Digital Age) proposal has been approved, introducing reforms such as mandatory cross-border e-Invoicing and single VAT registration. These changes will require multinational companies to comply with new regulations by mid-2030. OpenText’s Trading Grid e-Invoicing solution will help businesses navigate these changes with ease. In France, new e-Invoicing reforms set deadlines for large businesses by September 2026, and OpenText offers seamless integration as a registered Partner Dematerialization Platform (PDP) to help companies stay compliant. The most recent news are in the ViDA announcement blog and in the change to the French regulations blog.
OpenText™ Trading Grid Insights (formerly Lens)
This release introduces customizable cross-reference tags and enhanced support for functional group-level customization, allowing greater flexibility in managing transaction details and trading partner facades.
OpenText™ B2B Integration Enterprise (formerly BNCE)
With new self-service features in TG Quick Connect, this update enhances company and user onboarding, improving connectivity and transparency for AS2 direct connect partners.
Security and Platform Enhancements
The latest updates improve tracking with PEPPOL ID display and strengthen platform security with advanced encryption, user data entitlements, and audit capabilities. These enhancements are tailored to meet the needs of robust use cases, like Bank of America.
Adapter enhancements
New features include support for MS Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations Procure-to-Pay (P2P) processes, critical for Just-in-Time (JIT) manufacturing. Transactions like EDI 830, EDI 862, and EDI 867 streamline demand forecasting, inventory management, and supply chain communication. Additionally, Trading Grid Aviator Knowledge Training offers B2B Integration Foundation (former BNCF) customers interactive guidance on API adapter configuration, feature usage, and troubleshooting.
OpenText™ Core Collaboration Access & Core Secure Access
These features now offer advanced security with Core Share integration and enhanced user management capabilities, including batch mode group management via CSV files.
OpenText™ Trading Grid Intelligence (formerly Active Intelligence)
The new features include a new “Days to Onboard” column in Onboarding Members, enabling customers to track and report the time taken for certification on Compliance Link, helping measure the success of their Vendor Onboarding program.
B2B software
The latest updates include a Tomcat-only update to address vulnerabilities and improve system security. Additionally, TLi now supports GUI over TLS, offering customers a more secure and flexible user experience.
As we approach the new year, I want to wish you all a joyful holiday season. We look forward to what 2025 will bring, with even more exciting innovations on the horizon, especially in AI technology. Our commitment to delivering new releases every 90 days will ensure that your solutions remain cutting-edge. Here’s to a prosperous and successful New Year, filled with new opportunities and growth!
July 2024: What’s new OpenText Business Network Cloud Edition 24.3
The Olympic Games 2024 in Paris – the grand celebration of human athleticism, determination, and the occasional synchronized swimming routine that makes me question the laws of physics – will end in a few days. In the high-stakes world of Olympic competition, success is not just the result of individual athletes’ strengths. It is also the result of seamless coordination and the support of their teams. This dynamic mirrors the challenges and triumphs experienced by supply chain, IT, or finance organizations. Just as athletes strive for gold, businesses aim for efficiency, precision, and excellence. Therefore, the Business Network team delivered a feature-rich release, CE 24.3, to help you stay competitive, resilient, and ready for whatever comes in the following weeks and months.
Here is a brief overview of new and enhanced capabilities in Business Network CE 24.3:
Trading Grid with Aviator
Trading Grid with Aviator is a new conversational, generative AI-based self-service virtual advisor. It integrates seamlessly with the OpenText™ Business Network, providing users with instant, human-like, contextually relevant responses and support. Trading Grid users gain autonomy to find the information they need instantly instead of opening support tickets or reading product documentation. You can find more information in this blog post.
Aviator IoT
Aviator IoT combines AI and advanced analytics with our IoT platform to allow companies to innovate like never before. It simplifies IoT sensor data access and analysis with our custom application builder and intuitive user experience. It integrates with OpenText Magellan MBIRaaS for fast, AI-driven insights and data visualization. The pre-packaged apps help customers quickly leverage data and monitor digital twins of physical assets. For more information, read this blog post.
Active Invoices with Compliance (AIC)
To help customers increase the reach of global e-Invoicing implementation, AIC supports the new B2B e-invoicing mandate in Malaysia, as well as the existing e-Invoicing mandate in Columbia. AIC extends the capabilities for SAF-T e-Reporting in Romania and brings enhancements to support changes in Saudi Arabia, Romania, and Turkey. For more details about the mandate in Malaysia, read the blog update here.
Lens Enhancements
- Configurable Bulk Redelivery Limit at User Level: Users with this role can simultaneously redeliver up to 60 transactions, up from the previous limit of 30.
- Enhanced Partner Transaction View: Suppress internal documents and files. Users can exchange and view transactions between customers and partners using two new quick filters for Partner transactions and Partner transactions, including errors. We also added a new active filter attribute to filter out Partner transactions, excluding internal documents, control messages, and 997 EDI types.
- Support for Live Search and Reporting for Active Document Customers Moving to Lens: Customers using AD can only access 93 days of data for their reports. However, with the transition to Lens, customers can run reports on 13 months of data and carry out live searches on historical data after Lens collects data for a 13-month period.
Business Network Cloud Enterprise (BNCE) Enhancements
- Trading Grid Cartographer: Integrates business processes and applications, allowing customers to programmatically retrieve and update XREF tables, dramatically simplifying table update processes for users, ensuring accuracy, and reducing time to production.
- Developed SCIM APIs for Company and User Management: SCIM standardizes the exchange of company and user identity information, simplifying access to cloud applications. Adding SCIM APIs to BN allows customers to integrate identities between their platform, the Trading Grid portal, and its applications.
- Deprecated gxs.com: All customers and communities on the Trading Grid will use Trading Grid Online to access and manage their Trading Grid solutions.
- AS4 CEF Certification: The Connecting Europe Facility (CEF), a key EU funding instrument to promote growth, jobs, and competitiveness through targeted infrastructure investment, has certified Business Network Cloud Enterprise for the AS4 message exchange protocol, ensuring secure data exchange regardless of sector.
- Peppol End User Statistics Reporting: Collects statistics and informs OpenPeppol and other Peppol authorities worldwide.
- Common Mailbox for PEPPOL Outbound Receiver: Better fits BNCE solution to Peppol dynamic discovery and connections.
Business Network Cloud Foundation and Adapter Enhancements
- MS Dynamics 365 Finance and Operations (F&O) Order-to-Cash (O2C) Support for Just-in-Time (JIT) Manufacturing: The Planning Schedule with Release Capability (EDI 830) and Shipping Schedule (EDI 862) transactions are crucial in JIT manufacturing, enabling efficient demand forecasting, inventory management, and logistics coordination between buyers and sellers. The Product Transfer and Resale Report (EDI 867) adds additional value by providing insights into downstream sales and inventory, supporting refined demand forecasts and improved supply chain communication. Together, these transactions ensure the responsiveness and efficiency essential for JIT operations.
- Self-Service Onboarding Dashboard for Customers: Get a single dashboard to view and manage tasks required to provision Trading Grid solutions.
- Self-Service VAN Passthrough Workflow for Partner Onboarding: BNCF customers can now onboard VAN-connected trading partners to their solutions.
Freeway Enhancements
- Expanded Supported Trading Partner Kit Portfolio: Offers Freeway more trading opportunities in new markets, geographies, and industries.
- UI Enhancements for Streamlined and More Automated User Experience: Helps users save time while moving through their supply chain steps.
- ASN Labels as a Service API Creation: Helps integrated customers to integrate and automatically generate shipping labels for their merchandise.
Active Access Enhancements
- Added Subscription Actions to Bulletins: Active Access will provide specific messages for actions and automatically close the subscription pop-up after saving. Clear messages will further boost engagement and reduce errors and support needs.
- Ability to Send Bulletins to Security Administrators: A streamlined notification process will automatically inform security personnel directly, without delays, about events they need to know.
Identity and Access Management Enhancements
- Sign-In Policy for Geographical Region and Step-Up Authentication: This policy ensures additional authentication when users log in from unknown locations, enhancing security posture of enterprises.
- Authentication IP Address Reputation Policy API: Prevents access from IPs flagged for suspect activity or low reputation.
- Known Breached Password Policy Rule for Sign-In: Ensures weak or compromised passwords are flagged appropriately.
Active Intelligence Enhancements
- Support for French Language in Compliance Link and Trading Partner-Facing Screens: This feature enables customers to access the application in multiple languages and Professional Services to configure rules and data sets in the preferred languages.
- Duplicate Index Constraint Check Verification for XML Format: This allows checking of elements in XML documents from trading partners for duplicates over a rolling period. This feature is in addition to the previously introduced capability for X12 documents.
B2B Software Enhancements
- BizManager Integration with API and PaaS Object Storage: This feature enables customers looking to build and extend integration flows to API-based services such as Azure Blob, Amazon S3, etc. It also helps developers build, deploy, and manage applications faster.
- BizManager OAuth2.0 Support: Provides a secure, flexible, and user-friendly method for authentication and authorization.
- BizManager PostgreSQL Support
Credits: https://news.sky.com/story/simone-biles-makes-history-yet-again-as-she-becomes-oldest-female-gymnast-to-win-all-around-olympic-gold-13189052; https://www.yardbarker.com/tennis/articles/novak_djokovic_hails_paris_olympics_gold_victory_as_the_biggest_sporting_success_in_his_career/s1_17325_40702410
Just as Olympic athletes depend on their teams to achieve greatness, supply chain, finance, and IT professionals rely on robust tools and features to reach their goals. We designed the new additions in Business Network CE 24.3 to help you push the limits of efficiency, precision, and excellence in your operations. Stay ahead of the competition and ensure your business is ready for the future with these powerful updates.
Looking for information from previous releases? You’ll find them here.
