It’s 7:15 AM and Gabe is already reviewing overnight alerts on his phone while his coffee brews. At 52, with his MSc in Software Development from twenty years ago and two decades climbing the IT leadership ladder, he’s learned that problems don’t wait for business hours.
Several files weren’t delivered, a couple connections have timed out, and he needs to analyze a few alerts whose origin and impact are unclear. Tuesday is starting just like Monday ended.
Any of this sounding familiar? Let’s continue down this not-so-imaginary path, if you’ll indulge me for a minute.
Walk a mile in an IT decision-maker’s shoes
8:30 AM
By 8:30, Gabe’s in the office fielding the first call of the day. “We need to onboard five new suppliers by month-end,” his VP of Operations announces, as if Gabe could simply wave a magic wand. He thinks about his team – already stretched thin from spending hours reviewing logs and applying updates, hoping they won’t disturb existing flows. Each new partner means custom configurations, different protocols, compliance requirements that don’t quite fit their current setup.
And proper setup doesn’t mean all problems are solved. Sometimes, partners simply send bad data in EDI files: missing fields, wrong codes, you name it. And he’s the one who has to deal with it.
The irony isn’t lost on him. What should be a business win – new partners, growing ecosystem – becomes his team’s bottleneck. He’s watching his senior engineer, Alexandra, manually configure yet another connection between their cloud applications and the mainframe that’s been the backbone of their operations since 2010.
It’s the same dance every time: promising timelines to the business, then scrambling to deliver without breaking what’s already working.
10 AM
By 10 AM, Gabe’s in his third meeting about “cloud migration strategy,” while mentally calculating how many critical processes still depend on systems that were cutting-edge when he first became a manager.
The ERP team is happily reporting another migration milestone to the cloud – meaning B2B/EDI should be next. The compliance team wants iron-clad security. The business demands cost-efficiency and unbreakable reliability. And he’s the one who has to make it all work without bringing the house down.
His phone buzzes with a Teams message from his team lead: “Connection to the XYZ Group keeps timing out. They’re asking about their purchase orders.” Gabe sighs, knowing this is exactly the kind of ripple effect that keeps him up at night.
One connection fails, and suddenly there are delayed shipments, frustrated partners, and executives asking why their “state-of-the-art” infrastructure can’t handle basic file transfers. A minute of downtime means losing mega-dollars for all partners involved. Gabe knows that, his management too – and so does XYZ Group management.
12:30 PM
Lunchtime arrives, but Gabe’s eating a sandwich at his desk while reviewing security reports. Last month’s ransomware attack on a competitor is still fresh in everyone’s mind. He stares at the diagram of data flows across their network – some on-premises, some in Azure, and some still running through that reliable (right up until someone tries to change something) mainframe.
Each connection point might be a potential vulnerability, each integration a possible weak link.
The afternoon brings a call from a new trading partner who needs their own specific connection setup. “How long will this take?” they ask. Gabe promises two weeks, knowing it might take three if they hit the usual snags. He doesn’t like to overcommit but he know that his management won’t accept three. So, he’s building resilience into his estimates now – learned that the hard way after too many late nights fixing “quick” integrations that turned into complex debugging sessions.
4 PM
By 4 PM, he’s reviewing budget proposals for next quarter. The security team is pushing to renew certificates more frequently – which will require additional resources on his side. The network team needs infrastructure upgrades. The business wants to implement a new AI tool for forecasting supply chain disruptions — meaning new requirements for the B2B/EDI ecosystem he manages.
Every solution promises to solve their problems, but Gabe’s been doing this long enough to know that each new tool can create as many challenges as it solves – especially when it has to play nice with fifteen other systems.
His desktop pings with an urgent email from one of their biggest customers: “We lost connectivity! Nothing’s coming in or going out. When will this be resolved?” Gabe forwards it to his team while mentally running through their contingency procedures.
This is what keeps him awake some nights – not just the immediate fix, but the knowledge that their infrastructure is held together by expertise and prayer rather than robust, integrated systems – and only a few people understand the full landscape.
5:30 PM
As 6 PM approaches, Gabe finally has a moment to think strategically. He pulls up the architecture diagrams he’s been sketching for months – what their infrastructure could look like with the right platform, the right partner, the right approach to modernization. Not rip-and-replace, but smart evolution, building on what works while gaining the flexibility and security they need.
His phone shows a text from his teenage daughter asking about dinner plans, reminding Gabe that he has a life beyond servers and integrations. But as he packs up his laptop, he knows he’ll probably check alerts once more before bed. Because tomorrow, there will be new partners to onboard, new connections to secure, and new challenges that require the careful balance of innovation and stability that defines his role.
The elevator ride down gives him a moment to reflect. Twenty years in IT, and the fundamental challenge hasn’t changed: enabling business growth while keeping everything running smoothly. What has changed is the complexity, the speed of business demands, and the stakes.
Gabe is all of us, sometimes
Did this story ring at all true to you? Leaders like Gabe represent a growing segment of IT decision-makers who’ve built their careers navigating constant change.
You carry the weight of organizational expectations while managing the practical realities of complex, hybrid infrastructures. You’re a strategic thinker who has to be a tactical problem-solver AND a visionary, delivering results today while building for tomorrow.
Having worked with technical decision-makers like yourself, we get it. CIOs, CTOs, VPs of IT, IT services leaders… we understand the unique challenges you face and the strategic initiatives that drive your investments.
Drivers & considerations in your B2B decisions
Safeguarding critical data
With the threat landscape evolving, global security spending is expected to grow by over 12% this year. To that end, you need enterprise-grade B2B solutions with rock-solid, end-to-end security. With data moving across multiple environments, that security must extend across hybrid, cloud, and on-premises architectures.
Enabling future growth
As your business grows, your cloud or hybrid solutions must grow with you. While it’s about the flexibility to scale up (or down) based on workload, it’s about being able to pivot, too. You want the option to switch cloud providers or even move back to an on-premises environment at the drop of a hat if your business demands it.
Empowering your teams
You can’t afford to have staff spending time trying to find or fix problems. With MFT or B2B self-service capabilities, you can empower your staff to be more productive. Seeing as how 58% of IT workers feel overwhelmed by their daily workload, this relieves pressure on IT resources and gives staff back more time for strategic work.
Hear it from other technical decision-makers like you
Although written from a combination of lived experiences, Gabe was a figment of our imagination.
Bérangère Tomsin, though, is 100% authentic: she’s the Supply Chain and Purchasing IT Platform Manager at Moët Hennessy, the wine and spirits division of LVMH that operates in 160 countries.
With Axway B2B Integration, Moët Hennessy streamlines critical processes, including order management, invoicing, and logistics partnerships.
“The B2Bi solution is critical for the Moët Hennessy businesses,” says Bérangère Tomsin, “because it’s a key tool for piloting our operations from the supply chain…
And if you have a crisis and you don’t have EDI working, that means our supply chain could be disrupted, meaning we cannot send goods or even invoices to our customers, making it truly critical.”
With 200 partners and customers, and 5.5 million messages exchanged annually, Axway B2Bi ensures operational efficiency and business continuity.
Watch the full interview below with Bérangère Tomsin and Julien Vigier about how Axway enhances security, transparency, and collaboration, making it a strategic partner for Moët Henessy’s evolving distribution needs.
Scott Marshall, Senior Director, IT Product Lead, EDI Technology at Cencora, echoes similar sentiments. The leading global pharmaceutical solutions provider exchanges thousands of EDI messages and files with its vast network of trading partners every day.
“We rely on our B2B integration infrastructure to process over $140 billion in annual revenue,” says Scott Marshall. “For that reason, it’s crucial that we can send and receive EDI messages 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
Learn how Cencora scaled EDI, boosted reliability, and freed up their teams’ time.
Smart moves start with the right foundation
Yes, you’re managing infrastructure, but you’re also navigating the pressure to modernize without risking stability, maintain airtight security, and prepare for the future. You need solutions that help you build on what works, extending the life of your legacy investments while gaining modern capabilities.
You’re in the market for solutions backed by decades of success and a vendor that understands the complexity of your environment and the agility your teams require. Whether you’re scaling operations or upgrading aging systems, you have to be confident that today’s investments won’t limit your options tomorrow.
That’s why companies like Moët Hennessy and Cencora chose Axway. With a future-proof, secure, and flexible B2B integration platform – and a partner with over 20 years of success – you’ll be ready for whatever your business needs next.
Assess your company’s B2B maturity and take the next step toward smarter, more secure integration.