B2B Integration: What is B2B managed services? How can it help?
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B2B Managed Services promises to reduce the complexity, cost, and risk in your B2B integration programs and projects. But what, exactly, is it? And how does it do that? I encourage you to view the webinar version of this presentation http://bit.ly/mD3xWS
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B2B Integration: What is B2B managed services? How can it help?
- 1. B2B Managed Services: What Is It, Really – And Will It Work for Me? A “Knowledge is Power” Primer
- 3. Why are companies considering this approach
- 4. How does this approach address business challenges
- 5. How are companies benefiting
- 8. Eight years with GXS leading the team responsible for strategy, development and execution of GXS’s portfolio of B2B managed service
- 9. Global speaker and actively involved in several B2B e-commerce industry organizations and standards bodies
- 10. Prior to GXS, held senior positions at webMethods, Porter Novelli, BMC Software, PricewaterhouseCoopers
- 11. Holds MBA from University of Maryland
- 12. Avid runner along side “Tucker,” his brown lab and best buddyRyan Kraudel DirectorGlobal Product Management GXS
- 13. B2B Managed Services What is it?
- 15. Mapping and data translation
- 18. Transaction monitoring and reporting
- 21. B2B Managed Services A Better Approach for Better B2B Execution
- 23. Business partner satisfaction is increased with a 75% improvement in B2B capabilities
- 24. New sales are accelerated by a 4-fold increase in customer implementation timeframes
- 25. On average, customers reduce total costsof integration by 20-40%versus in-house operationsTotal B2B Market Size $3,896 $2,771 $2,786 $2,967 9.0% 2.1% 20.8% B2B Middleware Software IaaS (VAN) B2B Outsourcing Other B2B Software (4.2%) Source: Gartner, Market Trends: Multi-enterprise/B2B Infrastructure Market, Worldwide, 2009-2014, 14 July 2010 3 yr CAGR Sources: B2B Outsourcing Value Study conducted by Stanford University – Global Supply Chain Management Forum Total Cost of Ownership Study and Financial Model conducted by Hobson & Company ERP Projects Create Significant Opportunities by AMR Research
- 26. B2B Managed Services Why are companies like mine considering this approach?
- 28. Rapidly Growing Storage Footprint
- 29. Labor-Intensive
- 32. Very Large File Transfer
- 35. ERP Upgrades
- 36. Dynamic Trading Partner Community
- 43. Modernization
- 44. Cost Reduction
- 45. Workforce OptimizationAddressing B2B Challenges in a Dynamic World “A Knowledge is Power” Primer
- 46. B2B Managed Services So how does this approach address these challenges and provide value to my organization?
- 48. ERP project delays due to complexities
- 50. Robust testing and implementation processes
- 51. ERP “firewall” to ensure data quality & compliance“A Knowledge is Power” Primer
- 54. Delayed revenue
- 56. Quickly on-board new partners…any size, any location, any technical capability
- 57. Access global network of trading partners “A Knowledge is Power” Primer
- 59. Fragmented B2B networks and infrastructure—costly and inefficient
- 61. One connection to entire trading community
- 64. Consistent services across regions and business units“A Knowledge is Power” Primer
- 68. Established global trading network
- 70. Multi- language support “A Knowledge is Power” Primer
- 72. Higher costs to support
- 75. Enable successful growth objectives
- 76. Immediate access to latest technologies “A Knowledge is Power” Primer
- 80. Connect with diverse partners regardless of size, location, technical capabilities
- 81. Access to skills you need, when you need“A Knowledge is Power” Primer
- 83. Poor customer satisfaction, delayed IT projects
- 84. Inability to meet on-boarding requirements
- 86. Access skills you need, when you need
- 87. Gain B2B specialists/expertise on your team
- 89. Lower operating costs “A Knowledge is Power” Primer
- 90. B2B Managed Services How are companies benefiting, and why should my organization be considering it?
- 92. Deployed in 35 markets
- 93. 700 trading partners and 300 maps
- 94. Multiple local VAN providers
- 96. Enable localized support for country specific requirements (e.g., e-invoicing)
- 97. Deploy SAP Global Trade Services to connect to country customs authorities
- 98. Connectivity services for partners not capable of using AS2Other Retailers Other Retailers Exchanges & Data Pools Direct Retailer Connections Internet Direct Connection AS2 Direct Connection B2B Integration Internet Communications & Document Translation Internal Integration Plant-to-Plant and Plant-to-HQ Global Europe Americas Asia Pacific
- 100. 4 different VAN providers globally
- 101. Existing B2B systems did not support customers demands
- 103. Connection to 61 trading partners
- 104. Localized support for country specific requirements
- 105. Support for EDIFACT, Tradacoms, IDOC,and flat file formats over AS2, X.400, FTP, SFTPORDERS, DELJIT, DELFOR, DESADV, INVOIC X.400, AS2, FTP, SFTP Activity Monitoring Community On-boarding Technical Support ERP Integration Map and Forms Dev Change Management
- 106. B2B Managed Services What should I be looking for when selecting a B2B Managed Services provider?
- 110. Further Information Additional Resources www.b2boutsourcing.co.uk www.b2bmanagedservices.com http://blogs.gxs.com/
- 111. Thank You for Your Participation For More Information Phones US: 1-800-334-5669, option 3 EMEA: +44 (0) 1932 776047 ASPAC: +852 2884 6088 Japan: +81-3-5574-7545 GXS Web Sites US: www.gxs.com EMEA: www.gxs.eu ASPAC: www.gxs.asia.com Japan: www.gxs.co.jp Presenters: Ryan Kraudel, Ryan.Kraudel@gxs.com Ruth-Ann Femenella, Ruth-Ann.Femenella@gxs.com
Editor's Notes
- Managed Services promises to reduce the complexity, cost, and risk in your B2B operations. But what, exactly, is it? And how does it do that? Attend this webinar to discover the answers to these questions so that you can decide for yourself if this is the best approach to help reduce costs, increase B2B capabilities and improve customer satisfaction
- Managed Services provides a comprehensive portfolio of B2B outsourcing services, to help manage the day-to-day operations of your B2B e-Commerce program including mapping, on-boarding and technical support…all on your behalf. Typically, a managed services provider can assume responsibility for an entire complex, multi-national B2B program or handle a smaller subset of selected projects, regions or trading partner relationships. Includes:B2B (Hardware, Software, Network) infrastructure managementMapping and data translationTrading community implementationTransaction monitoring and reportingTransaction error resolutionCustomer and Trading partner support
- GXS’s B2B Managed Services is a strategic partnership that empowers your business with the most comprehensive technology to automate and streamline your B2B e-commerce transactions, combined with the best people and processes for managing your B2B programs and connecting with your entire trading community—no matter the location, size or B2B technical capabilities of your business partners. B2B Managed Services include: Global Systems Management—GXS performs all day-to-day management of the B2B infrastructure, including systems health monitoring, data backups, network management, systems administration, database management and application support. Visibility and Alerting—Gain enhanced visibility into your B2B transactions utilizing a comprehensive suite of Software as a Service (SaaS) products that provide better visibility and collaboration between customers, suppliers and business partners. Services consist of business activity monitoring for error alerting and reporting, usage reporting, document and acknowledgement tracking, problem detection and resolution, and root cause analysis. ERP Integration—GXS provides a range of services for enterprise integration from complex document mapping, such as SAP IDoc format, to managing trading partner relationships and monitoring data quality. We offer B2B and ERP integration to any of the following ERP systems: SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics AX and more including Ariba, Infor and Epicor. Data Quality and Compliance—Drive data quality and business process integrity by automatically monitoring in-flight data and identifying errors within individual transactions and across long running business processes, such as order to cash. This rule driven service uses compliance guide and business rule modeling to capture business impacting exceptions and track key performance indicators (KPI’s). The service includes validation, exception management, and analytics and reporting to deliver a heightened level of visibility.Mapping and Translation—B2B mapping specialists manage all data-mapping and translation tasks, perform change management and issue resolution and process critical production map changes on-demand to ensure map quality. GXS performs mapping of data structures from the format of internal applications such as Microsoft Dynamics, SAP or Oracle ERP to the formats required by external trading partners such as EDI (ANSI X12, Tradacoms, EDIFACT), XML and RosettaNet.Partner On-Boarding—GXS provides the ideal combination of experienced implementation professionals and robust tools to rapidly on-board all your trading partners on your behalf to ensure full participation in your company’s e-commerce programs, including data synchronization, AS2/Internet EDI, VAN migrations, EDI and supply chain visibility. Program Management— Experienced B2B Service Delivery Managers work with you to ensure implementation success and will also provide day-to-day project management activities ranging from oversight of all production activities including status reports and resource orchestration to help manage change request activity and production incidents. 24X7 Monitoring and Resolution Support— GXS provides you with a dedicated Production Services team to proactively monitor all processes and business transactions that flow through your production system. 24X7 support includes translation monitoring, exception management and incident management, in addition to monitoring system availability, capacity, performance and utilization, file latency and conducting server, application and interface health checks.
- B2B Managed Services is the high growth segment in B2B
- With a clear understanding of B2B Managed Services, you can begin to address whether your organization can benefit from this approach. Every organization is different with different business priorities, trading communities and supply chain strategies. However, based on 3rd party validation, analyst research, our own experience and knowledge derived from our customs, some key drivers for using Managed Services have emerged.ERP ProjectsCost Reduction RequirementsCustomer Integration Centralization/ConsolidationNew Markets/ChannelsModernization
- OverviewAn AMR Research study revealed that over one third of data in ERP systems originate from outside the organization. Today, the effectiveness of your ERP strategy is dependent on the quality and timeliness of information you receive from customers, suppliers and trading partners. At the same time, many organizations are attempting to create a single real-time view of enterprise information by consolidating numerous ERP instances or systems that are currently located throughout the globe. Effective integration of your B2B and ERP systems is essential to the successful implementation of these strategies.The ChallengePut simply, it is easy to overlook the importance of B2B systems when approaching ERP projects. AMR's research produced some stark results. Almost 80% of respondents had an error rate of over 1% for B2B data – imagine the effect of this data flowing through all your other business systems. Over half experienced ERP production outages due to a lack of B2B connectivity. Worryingly, 65% of respondents admitted inadequate testing of B2B integration prior to their ERP launchesAreas to address: Data and process qualityThere is little doubt that poor B2B data quality compromises ERP value. Inaccurate information from suppliers will affect the entire supply chain, reduce customer satisfaction and hit the bottom line. At the least, external information will not be clean enough to be processed by your ERP system so will have to be manually re-entered. Worse, something as simple as an incorrect part number could lead to delays in manufacture and so delays in payments or cancelled orders. There has to be a way to build a 'firewall' between your ERP and external systems.Areas to address: Trading partner integrationOnboarding of new partners is a well-established challenge for B2B systems. Each will have their own level of B2B capabilities, support different communications protocols and have their own technical infrastructures. Global partners will be subject to their own local regulation and compliance issues. However, one area that can easily be overlooked is the creation of new document maps which will normally form a major part of an ERP upgrade program. Very few companies have access to the specialized mapping skills to achieve all the new maps required in a short period of time. An issue that is multiplied as the AMR research showed that almost 50% of companies attempt to onboard more partners or accept more transaction types as part of their ERP integration program.Areas to address: Supply chain visibilityReal-time views of enterprise information cannot be achieved if data has to be re-worked or re-entered. To benefit from near real-time business decisions or improved inventory management or demand-driven production, the data from your trading partners must be made available immediately and you must have confidence that it is accurate and complete. In addition, your ERP system requires extremely high B2B availability. You need a stable B2B infrastructure with proven and responsive disaster recovery built in.Areas to address: Program managementERP to B2B integration requires an immense amount of coordination across your extended enterprise. If you use your program to extend the functionality of your ERP systems then this must be carefully managed so that the correct amendments are introduced into your B2B solutions. But, implementation is only the beginning. Change management and global support begin to be important factors as soon as the initial system is delivered. This will require a large, permanent and highly specialized group of IT staff.The role of B2B Managed ServicesIn effect, outsourcing the B2B element of your program allows you to concentrate on where the value to your business resides – with the ERP system. By connecting to a global B2B infrastructure, you create that firewall to provide assurance on the quality of data you receive from partners. Trading partners can be onboarded quickly without worrying about geographical location or technical capabilities. Most importantly, you gain access to the skills and human resource – from mapping experts to local language technical support – that can ensure timely program implementation without the cost of retaining full time employees to fulfill all the necessary roles.Issues to considerHow confident are you of the data quality within your ERP system?Is the volume and type of your B2B transactions likely to increase during the ERP project?Are you consolidating ERP instances or seeking to extend your ERP capabilities?Have you the right mix of skills and experience within your organization?What testing and business continuity strategies do you have in place? Can your ERP project give you the opportunity to better manage the performance of your trading partners?
- OverviewEvery commercial organization wishes to continually increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. It is essential to increase sales and enhance the profitability of each sale. Implementing B2B solutions allows an organization to become more and more responsive to customers while eliminating the errors that detract from the services it provides. More than this, integrating with customer systems can help cement the customer relationship.The ChallengeIn order to respond effectively to customer requests requires a fully integrated supply chain where data is available and visible in real time. Your B2B systems must be able to address your customer's internal business processes and have the flexibility to accommodate changes as they occur. This gives you the foundation to automate entire supply chain processes where a customer order immediately triggers inventory replenishment from a supplier without any input from you.Areas to address: Removing barriers to tradeAs with any trading partner, onboarding customers is a significant challenge. You are extremely lucky if you have a blank sheet on which to build your B2B infrastructure with a new customer. More likely, they will already have their own B2B documents; they will want to using a variety of communication protocols; and they comply with different technical standards. This is further complicated as your customer is likely to have deployed their own unique version of that standard.Areas to address: Increasing customer satisfactionA single error in the data within a purchase order can easily lead to the wrong items being delivered to customers – or delays occur in the supply chain as the error is identified and rectified. This can be costly in terms of call-offs, penalties and cancelled orders. The paradox is the more documents that you automate – PO, invoice, ASN, etc. - the more responsive you are to customers but the more easily and quickly an error can permeate throughout your supply chain and other business systems. Ensuring the quality of data is essential but, once in place, you have the information you need to better manage the performance of your suppliers in delivering higher customer service levels.Areas to address: From supply to demand drivenThe traditional approach to processing a customer order is highly inefficient and costly in terms of inventory management and over-stocking. But the ability to fully implement an on-demand order process relies on just-in-time processes throughout your supply chain. Once you receive a new customer order, the data must immediately populate all the necessary systems and each must have the autonomy to complete its part of the process while communicating with other systems to ensure the most efficient route for raw materials to customer door. This requires both the technical capabilities and a high degree of trust with your trading partners.The role of B2B Managed ServicesUsing B2B Managed Services helps you reduce and control the cost and complexity of integrating with your customer's business processes. The real benefit is that outsourcing this element can let you concentrate on the customer relationship rather than the underpinning technology. As you look to increase customer satisfaction or move to a demand-driven approach, you can concentrate on the business strategy with the knowledge that you have access to a global network of trading partners – manufacturers, suppliers, logistics providers, financial institutions – that allows you to quickly onboard new customers and gain end-to-end visibility to the supply chain that will support them.Issues to considerDoes the technical integration overhead stop you doing business with some customers?Can you trade electronically with customers anywhere in the world?Are errors and problems within your B2B systems adding to your cost of sale?Are delayed or inaccurate shipments affecting your customer satisfaction?Do you have visibility across your extended supply chain?Do you have real-time B2B data available to make informed business decisions? Could your supply chain support a demand-driven business strategy?
- OverviewMany organizations are consolidating back office functions across business units, companies and geographical locations. Some establish Shared Service Centers to provide non-strategic roles such as accounting or HR to the entire organization. The benefits come not only from cost reduction but more frequently from increased productivity and quality of service. By centralizing or consolidating functions such as B2B e-commerce the organization becomes more agile as it can grow quickly without the expense of re-inventing or extending their back office functions.The ChallengeMost medium and large organizations will have developed piecemeal B2B solutions over time. This is very often on a national or business unit level. The result is a trading community supported by a number of different solutions from a number of different suppliers on a number of different platforms. Merger and acquisition adds further to the challenge by introducing the necessity to consolidate an entire new set of B2B systems.Areas to address: Increasing complexityMost B2B infrastructures have developed on a national basis. There can be very good reasons for this: a devolved business strategy or the ability to identify and select suppliers with the correct local market solutions. However, once the organization begins to consolidate its B2B solutions, it soon discovers that it is supporting a huge range of document types, communications protocols and technical standards. In addition, the expertise on each of these areas is held locally. Even consolidating in a few regional centers takes extremely careful planning and implementation.Areas to address: Multiple suppliers, multiple service levelsOne key goal of consolidation must be to benefit from economies of scale. Yet, it is likely that different business units and countries have their preferred suppliers – especially where they are using Value Added Network (VAN) providers. Each business unit will have their own service levels and cost structures. In some cases, a VAN can be working with two separate business units and charging different pricing to different SLAs. The organization will have to manage a series of different contracts. By consolidating on a single supplier, you can ensure you receive the highest level of service at the keenest prices on a single central contract.Areas to address: Global supply chain visibilityThe piecemeal trading networks that many organizations have today make it almost impossible to know what is happening across their entire supply chain. There is little or no possibility of the real time data flow or decision making needed to fully capitalize on the business opportunities in supply chain optimization. By consolidating onto a single B2B infrastructure, you gain much more control over all aspects of your supply chain. You can begin to better manage supplier performance and service customer demand.The role of B2B Managed ServicesOften to properly consolidate operations give you the opportunity to start afresh. You have the alternative of integrating all your disparate B2B networks, trading partners and supplier contracts into a centralized operation or selecting a third party with global reach that can quickly onboard your internal systems and trading partners onto their infrastructure. In most occasions, the costs associated with the second option are significantly less than maintaining the B2B systems in-house, while giving access to the advantages a Managed Service provider delivers in terms of future-proofing and disaster recovery.Issues to considerHow many B2B networks are there within your organization?In how many countries do you have trading partners?How are your trading partners currently supported?How many VANs does your organization currently use?Are you getting the best price for your B2B transactions? Do you have complete view of your global supply chain?
- OverviewRecent years has seen an increasing trend towards offshoring production to where it is most cost-effective or convenient for target markets. In addition to India and the Far East, industries such as automotive have looked towards suppliers within emerging markets such as Eastern Europe. Whether recruiting global partners to control costs or shorten supply chains, effective B2B solutions are required to ensure that customer service is not impacted by the transition.The ChallengeTo take full advantage of the opportunities involved in new markets or trading communities worldwide requires the smooth on boarding of a new group of local trading partners. Organizations within emerging markets will often have very limited technical capabilities and even less experience or understanding of what is involved in trading electronically.Areas to address: Speed of entryYour speed of market entry depends on how quickly new partners can become productive members of your extended trading community. Within developed markets such as North America and Europe, this requires being able to accommodate the latest technical standards – especially where they are industry specific – and communications protocols. Elsewhere you will have to explore B2B solutions that overcome the technical limitations of trading partners. Even the simplest Web-based forms may not prove successful in an area whose telecommunications infrastructure is not reliable.Areas to address: Local market supportIt is unlikely that you will have a physical presence in every country or geographical region in which you have customers or trading partners. Yet, if you wish to trade electronically with your entire trading community you must be able to provide effective partner support that understands the local market and can communicate in the local language.Areas to address: Cross-border tradingTrading globally would be challenging enough if trading regulations were created only on a geographical basis. But in most regions, legislation is often at a national or even individual state level. Your B2B solution must be able to accommodate all these different regulations as well as meeting all the compliance rules of your trading partners. Legislation is not the only issue involved in cross-border trade. You must also find an effective means to expedite and ship parts and orders country to country. Your business will suffer if important items take weeks or months to clear local customs.The role of B2B Managed ServicesB2B Managed Services is very often the ideal route to entering new markets. Primarily because the B2B supplier already has an established trading network within your target location. The provider can supply all the local knowledge and support you require. Its infrastructure has developed in line with local capabilities to ensure it is as robust as possible. As importantly, the supplier itself can give you access to local logistics and financial partners with experience of the best approach to cross-border trade in that region.Issues to considerAre you looking to offshore manufacturing or production in the next twelve months?Do you have a presence in every country in which you trade?Are you aware of all local regulations and compliance issues?Can you support B2B systems in the Far East or Eastern Europe?Can you onboard a new trading partner regardless of their IT infrastructure or readiness for B2B e-commerce?Do you amend your product range for local markets? Can you monitor and manage the performance of trading partners in regions where you don't have a physical presence?
- OverviewAll organizations will modernize to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of their business operations. This often requires implementing the latest IT systems – including their B2B solutions. However, the current economic climate is forcing organizations to abandon the process of replacing their existing critical systems. Instead they are looking to modernize these applications to meet their current and future business needs.The ChallengeEstimates suggest modernizing your current applications can be one tenth the cost of replacing them. Modernization makes more than financial sense. It makes business sense that if the application functions effectively, it remains in place as long as it meets three criteria: It does not place a heavy cost and resource burden to maintain. It can integrate with new services – such as web-based front ends – or new facilities – such as ERP or CRM systems. It allows a clear progression path when you are ready to replace the application.Areas to address: Legacy dataB2B technology – especially EDI – has been around for some time now. It is frequently mainframe-based and likely to make use of aged data systems such as DL/1. It is likely that any original documentation has long since vanished. But there are risks in changing this code, even down to putting you in breach of your compliance obligations. By understanding how the application works and its related data flows you can begin to integrate critical legacy systems with newer technologies that can drive competitive advantage.Areas to address: Widespread integrationUnlike internal applications that you may look to modernize, your B2B systems are complicated by the need to integrate with the business systems of your trading partners. The key lies in your ability to quickly and accurately design and develop the required document maps and support any-to-any data translation to convert data from your internal and legacy systems into the formats required by your trading partners, including EDI, XML or industry standards such as RosettaNet.Areas to address: Skills shortageCore to the modernization programs of many organizations is the fact that they are increasingly faced with a shortage of skills needed to adequately support the legacy systems. Many of the original staff are reaching retirement age or are amongst those asked to take voluntary redundancy as organizations look to reduce headcount. You can quickly become faced with legacy code that no one really understands and an IT resource who are reticent to re-train to simply maintain that code.The role of B2B Managed ServicesGiven the difficulties outlined above it is no surprise that many companies have turned to B2B Managed Services for a solution. They see that they can make legacy support and integration a controllable cost by passing it off to a resource that has in-depth experience of working with the entire range of B2B technologies. The key area to consider is whether the supplier has the skills and solutions to automate the mapping and translation processes.Issues to considerHow long have your EDI systems been in place?What platform are they hosted upon?Where – and in what format – is the data stored?Can you populate your ERP systems with this data?What other B2B standards and protocols do you also support? Do you have the correct skills to support an expanding B2B infrastructure?
- OverviewWhatever the economic conditions, it makes good commercial sense to drive cost from your business processes. This is mostly achieved by identifying inefficiencies and unproductive practices and taking action to reduce or eliminate their impacts. B2B solutions have the potential to do more. While increasing productivity, they give the opportunity to extend your business network and introduce new practices.The ChallengeThe business challenge is twofold. First, it is likely your B2B solutions will start small with a single process – such as invoicing – and then extend into different processes and document types. At the same time, the technologies available – such as communications protocols – are continually enhanced. The result is that your trading partners all use different document types, industry standards, communications protocols and technology infrastructures that you must seamlessly accommodate into your business network. That requires manpower.Areas to address: Maintaining an up-to-date infrastructureUnlike internal systems, your B2B solution is likely to be affected by every technology and communications development – simply because there is a high probability that at least one member of your trading community will implement this development. It is unlikely that any company could respond to every new advance or standard as they appear but, at the same time, can you allow your own technology refresh rates determine when you implement an advance that your partners are beginning to demand? When B2B is often seen as non-core it is not only securing investment for new infrastructure that can prove tricky, the rising maintenance costs associated with increasing transaction volumes within current systems can also be challenging. Areas to address: Reacting to business needsYou want to select suppliers and win customers regardless of geographical location or technical capabilities. You want to exploit the benefits of a global supply chain and enter new markets in an affordable and timely manner. The complexity of integrating with other B2B systems has made organizations question whether they should progress with new customer orders. Backlogs in onboarding trading partners negatively affect your entire B2B network. Let's not forget local regulations and compliance issues. Reducing the cost of business involved in cross-border transactions and establishing a smooth global supply chain becomes a critical success factor for every medium and large business.Areas to address: Internal resourceNone of the above can be achieved without a wide range of skills at your disposal – many of which are specialized, such as document mapping. These skills can be at a premium in the marketplace. Recruiting new staff with the correct skillset can be expensive. Retaining the skills internally to support legacy EDI systems can be equally challenging. The reality is that if you have been employing EDI staff for many years you are probably paying them well above market value for their services. Yet, other staff are unlikely to re-skill into an area they think will not enhance their CV. At a time when most organizations are looking to reduce rather than expand head count, internal B2B resources can quickly appear a major drain on resources that could be deployed elsewhere to achieve greater value.The role of B2B Managed ServicesB2B Managed Services should allow you to eliminate – or, at least, control – two major sources of on-going investment. You are outsourcing technical capabilities. Your B2B supplier should have a technology upgrade programmed that means that you can connect with partners regardless of document type, communications protocol or industry B2B standard. In addition, you have access to all the skills you need – including 24 hour local language support – to implement, change, extend and manage a B2B infrastructure that can encompass your entire trading community. This has two major benefits. You remove B2B as a capital expenditure from your balance sheet. You gain much greater control over B2B costs as most Managed Services charge based on monthly transaction rate so you can more carefully plan your B2B budgets.Issues to considerDo you have access to all the latest technology and communications?How much would you have to invest to ensure you are always up to date?Are you planning to expand your B2B capabilities into other business areas?Do you have the skills internally to make this happen?Do you have the budget available to make this happen?How much does it cost to maintain your current B2B solutions?What would the maintenance costs be if your transaction rate increased by 10% a year? What is the cost to your business of an outage with your B2B solution?
- Workforce Optimization - 30% of companies state that a lack of skilled resources is having a negative impact on their B2B projects.At a time when head count is carefully controlled, can you afford to dedicate resource to what many view as a non-core activity? OverviewB2B e-commerce is one of the most complex areas of IT, especially as you are integrating securely a range of internal and external systems. Any B2B program will involve a wide range of – often very specialist – roles. It is not just in the set-up and implementation phase but there is a constant change management and support burden. This can be true for every new partner you wish to join your trading community, as they are likely to have their own set of B2B document formats and communications protocols.The ChallengeB2B solutions have been around for some time and new advances in document types, technical standards and communications protocols are appearing all the time. For many organizations, this means maintaining older EDI applications while moving towards newer standards such as AS2 or XML. It is extremely difficult to retain the correct levels of skills in legacy applications while recruiting or re-training to cover skills gaps as new technologies emerge. Specialist B2B skills will command a premium in the marketplace. While an ageing workforce with the correct EDI skills may be paid more than market value due to their length of service and even be about to retire. All of which impacts your IT budget.Areas to address: Program set upAs the following diagram demonstrates, a standard B2B program will involve a very similar process to the creation of most business systems. Only, there are a number of individual areas. First, much more time has to be spent with external sources to understand their needs – at both a business and technical level. In addition, specialist document map and Web form developers are required to translate business requirements into systems that allow for data to travel effectively end-to-end.Areas to address: Program managementOn-going management and support is similarly complicated by the necessity to respond to trading partner needs. Unlike most business systems, your B2B solutions are undergoing constant change to accommodate new partners and new technologies. As your business becomes more global, the more complex the process. Beyond technical considerations, your management and support teams must be able to cope with the local languages and trading regulations that apply to the partners and regions with which you wish to trade.The role of B2B Managed ServicesResearch from the Stanford Group shows that many companies begin to investigate B2B Managed Services as they could no longer justify the cost of managing B2B solutions in-house in terms of the direct costs of retaining and training the staff. A B2B Managed Services provider gives you immediate access to all the skills required while removing the concerns over global support and compliance issues. However, it is always essential that you retain key management positions – such as a Program Manager – so you always maintain control of the strategic direction of your B2B investments.As more and more companies embrace B2B solutions it is becoming more difficult to create competitive advantage through the use of B2B technologies by themselves. It is simply the way that business is conducted today. Instead, competitive advantage is increasingly being found in how organizations re-deploy the IT staff whose time was previously absorbed amending or maintaining internal B2B systems.Issues to considerHow often do your B2B systems change?Are you using the latest B2B technologies?Do you have plans to implement B2B technology advances?Do you have the correct skills?Can you support trading partners wherever they are located?Does a lack of B2B skills affect your ability to conduct business? What happens when your EDI staff move on or retire?What's the business cost if
- Current Global PlatformRepresents only 25% of EDIDeployed in 35 markets700 trading partners and 300 mapsMultiple local VAN providers utilizedConnectivity to SAP ERPFuture Global B2B ProgramStandardize B2B platforms across all regionsIntegration with four major SAP ERP instances deployed regionallyEnable localized support for country specific requirements (e.g. e-invoicing)Deploy SAP Global Trade Services to connect to country customs authoritiesConnectivity services for partners not capable of using AS2Greater partner participation Improved product availabilityFaster problem resolution Improved customer service Delivered value added services at a lower cost across the company
- Business IssuesLegacy IBM AS400 B2B translator that was out of support4 different VAN providers globallyCustomers demanding B2B requirements that existing B2B systems could not supportConcerns over B2B impact on future growth plansB2B Managed Services ProgramDirect integration to SAP for IDOC transactionsConnection to 61 customers, distributors, logistics and suppliersLocalized support for country specific requirementsSupport for EDIFACT, Tradacoms, IDOC, and flat file formats over AS2, X.400, FTP, SFTP
- Selecting a B2B managed services provider is a strategic decision that has a profound impact on a company's ability to deliver on business objectives. In making that choice, a company needs to ask questions not just about the technology offered by the vendor but also about its processes and people.The key to deploying B2B solutions is flexibility and inclusiveness. Companies of all sizes should be able to take advantage of the benefits of B2B managed services—find a provider that offers solutions that fit the needs of your business. B2B projects struggle to take off when, because of the technical limitations on one side or the other, a business or its trading partners fail to automate B2B transactions. If it is too hard to automate critical B2B processes, a business may lose potentially lucrative customers or feel forced to abandon good suppliers. A B2B managed services provider should provide a range of options for a wide variety of trading partners—options that open up opportunities, rather than close them down.When it comes to technology, a vendor should have:A global infrastructure—Few companies transact only with trading partners in their own country or region. Working with a B2B managed services provider with a global presence will ensure communications with current trading partners and make it easier, when seeking new suppliers or customers, to exploit new geographies or industry sectors.Support for a broad range of B2B translation and communication standards—Connect to trading partners f and seek out new partners, without having to worry about technical limitations. Support for a broad range of integration mechanisms: web forms, integration to accounting or ERP packages, and direct connections—Bring a wider range of partners, including smaller partners or partners in emerging markets where the level of technological development is low, into an electronic trading network. Share data through web-based solutions.The ability to deliver every application in the process, including translation and transmission of data—Vendors should be able to offer flexible and customized services that mesh with a company's existing investments in B2B e-commerce and that provide the same flexibility to trading partners, rather than just replacing previous services.When it comes to process, a vendor should have:Full B2B program management, including both technical implementation and ongoing maintenance —Two things are certain about a B2B solution: it will be technically complex and it will be constantly changing, as standards evolve and as your many trading partners change their systems. A vendor should have strong processes for installing, rolling out and testing solutions, and for managing the introduction of new elements into the solution.Ongoing monitoring and reporting for specific events and for overall performance—A basic B2B solution will guarantee that transactions happen once and once only and will provide exception reporting for problem transactions. However, a B2B managed services provider should be able to offer much more in the way of audit and analysis. For instance, a B2B managed services provider can help gather and analyze information on the performance of trading partners, including important criteria such as speed of response, performance against delivery targets for suppliers, speed of payment for customers and other measures.Support of community management activities, such as trading partner ramping, synchronization of product data, synchronization of inventory information, and access to product catalogs.Flexibility to allow a business to outsource as much or as little of its B2B solution as desired, and still enable the business to take it back in-house, if that makes business sense for the company.Finally, a vendor should have the right people to enhance B2B capabilities. Look for a vendor with:Technical expertise to manage a complex technical solution and ensure it delivers robustly and securely to a service level agreement that meets business needs.Business process design expertise to ensure that robust, efficient processes are implemented to communicate with trading partners and internal processes are streamlined to achieve maximum benefit.Community management expertise to help bring on board new trading partners, negotiate protocols and processes and to manage change within an existing trading partner community.24x7 support in the native language(s) of your customer and its trading partners.Change management expertise to deal with the constant evolution of technology, data exchange standards, and turnover in a trading partner community.
- Selecting a B2B managed services provider is a strategic decision that has a profound impact on a company's ability to deliver on business objectives. In making that choice, a company needs to ask questions not just about the technology offered by the vendor but also about its processes and people.The key to deploying B2B solutions is flexibility and inclusiveness. Companies of all sizes should be able to take advantage of the benefits of B2B managed services—find a provider that offers solutions that fit the needs of your business. B2B projects struggle to take off when, because of the technical limitations on one side or the other, a business or its trading partners fail to automate B2B transactions. If it is too hard to automate critical B2B processes, a business may lose potentially lucrative customers or feel forced to abandon good suppliers. A B2B managed services provider should provide a range of options for a wide variety of trading partners—options that open up opportunities, rather than close them down.When it comes to technology, a vendor should have:A global infrastructure—Few companies transact only with trading partners in their own country or region. Working with a B2B managed services provider with a global presence will ensure communications with current trading partners and make it easier, when seeking new suppliers or customers, to exploit new geographies or industry sectors.Support for a broad range of B2B translation and communication standards—Connect to trading partners f and seek out new partners, without having to worry about technical limitations. Support for a broad range of integration mechanisms: web forms, integration to accounting or ERP packages, and direct connections—Bring a wider range of partners, including smaller partners or partners in emerging markets where the level of technological development is low, into an electronic trading network. Share data through web-based solutions.The ability to deliver every application in the process, including translation and transmission of data—Vendors should be able to offer flexible and customized services that mesh with a company's existing investments in B2B e-commerce and that provide the same flexibility to trading partners, rather than just replacing previous services.When it comes to process, a vendor should have:Full B2B program management, including both technical implementation and ongoing maintenance —Two things are certain about a B2B solution: it will be technically complex and it will be constantly changing, as standards evolve and as your many trading partners change their systems. A vendor should have strong processes for installing, rolling out and testing solutions, and for managing the introduction of new elements into the solution.Ongoing monitoring and reporting for specific events and for overall performance—A basic B2B solution will guarantee that transactions happen once and once only and will provide exception reporting for problem transactions. However, a B2B managed services provider should be able to offer much more in the way of audit and analysis. For instance, a B2B managed services provider can help gather and analyze information on the performance of trading partners, including important criteria such as speed of response, performance against delivery targets for suppliers, speed of payment for customers and other measures.Support of community management activities, such as trading partner ramping, synchronization of product data, synchronization of inventory information, and access to product catalogs.Flexibility to allow a business to outsource as much or as little of its B2B solution as desired, and still enable the business to take it back in-house, if that makes business sense for the company.Finally, a vendor should have the right people to enhance B2B capabilities. Look for a vendor with:Technical expertise to manage a complex technical solution and ensure it delivers robustly and securely to a service level agreement that meets business needs.Business process design expertise to ensure that robust, efficient processes are implemented to communicate with trading partners and internal processes are streamlined to achieve maximum benefit.Community management expertise to help bring on board new trading partners, negotiate protocols and processes and to manage change within an existing trading partner community.24x7 support in the native language(s) of your customer and its trading partners.Change management expertise to deal with the constant evolution of technology, data exchange standards, and turnover in a trading partner community.
- To find out further information about how B2B Managed Services can provide value to your organization please visit the dedicated microsites that are highlighted on this slide.GXS Insights contains a number of valuable resources including thought leadership articles, white papers and presentations. These will help you get a better understanding of some of the issues facing today’s customer centric supply chains and offers advice on how GXS Managed Services can help alleviate these issues.