Supply Chain Collaboration Technology, Part 2: The Role of Managed Services

Business-to-business (B2B) integration in the supply chain is complex business, as we discovered in part 1 of this article - which helps explain why most companies either don't bother to build strong integratinos, or, only do it for customers who demand it.

But nearly a third of companies (30%) have opted for B2B integration as a managed service, and they report reaping considerable benefits, among them:

• Suppliers find the cost of processing an order electronically is nearly 25% less expensive than via email, fax, or phone;
• By sending electronic invoices, suppliers speed up cashflow by nearly 4.5 days;
• Customers that integrate EDI into their operations reduce the expense associated with processing a PO by nearly 20%.

Those results are from a new survey by the University of Tennessee's (UT) Global Supply Chain Institute, in collaboration with B2B integration provider DiCentral. For the report, Transform Your Supply Chain with Collaboration, UT surveyed over 200 organizations ranging from consumer products, retailers, to discrete and process manufacturers. Companies ranged in size from $50 million to more than $2 billion.

Some other findings for managed B2B integration (which DiCentral and others call B2Bi):

• 94% of suppliers saw significant improvements in electronic connectivity capabilities
• 68% reported that clients said they were "easier to do business with" after implementing B2B integration managed services, and
• 69% said they could respond more quickly to changes in their clients' environments.

What is involved in B2B integration managed services?

B2B integration goes far beyond electronic data interchange (...