Supplier Enablement

Supplier Enablement - DIY not always best

What can we learn from the mistakes of others?

Here is a story about B2B Consolidation published in Line56.com today. It tells the story of a major manufacturer deciding to DIY an online trading hub and fail. They then went down the route of outsourcing with a provider and succeed.

Given thousands of global suppliers, unique business systems, and more than 12 million procurement and financial transactions a year, a major commercial and military aerospace manufacturer decided that standardizing business integration would save millions of dollars annually. The company deployed an online trading hub designed to automate a wide range of financial and supply chain business procedures while reducing IT infrastructure costs.

The manufacturer decided to build support for e-business integration in-house. However, despite a massive investment in hardware, software, and dedicated IT teams, it was able to integrate only a handful of trading partners after 18 months of effort. Realizing the enormous complexity and cost of external integration, the company re-evaluated its approach and decided to outsource a solution.

IaaS (Integration as a Service) delivered the secure, seamless information exchange the manufacturer sought. A single connection links all the company's trading partners, whatever their technological sophistication, IT systems, or data models. Real-time transmission delivers the fast transaction turns the company requires.

The company deployed its trading hub in less than four months, connected with 100% of its business partners, and saved millions of dollars annually through dramatically reduced hardware and software costs as well as more efficient financial and supply chain processes.

The manufacturer is not identified but the story highlights some things that can be more difficult that you might imagine when implementing B2B eCommerce:

support for e-business integration in-house

the enormous complexity and cost of external integration

oh, and the cost in hardware and software and dedicated teams

for this manufacturer at least the wasted time and effort of a failed project

Not a pleasant lesson but perhaps a call to compare the options before setting off on your own DIY path.

Click here for help with IaaS and all things connected with B2B eCommerce

posted by FrankB @ Tuesday, October 03, 2006