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For most enterprises, conducting business today means managing an increasingly complex set of relationships with the ‘Extended Enterprise,” an ecosystem which has grown to include suppliers, distributors, partners and other key entities. And, while these relationships continue to grow in complexity, they are also increasingly important to a company’s overall success. As a result, a new era of enterprise technology is upon us, an era that is centered not only around connecting businesses but also enabling easier and more efficient communication and interaction across entire supply chains.
Since those early years, where “command-and-control” models were preferred, enterprises have grown into complex and global organizations with extended supply chains to match. These supply chains have evolved into intricate and interdependent businesses relationships that necessitate closer connectivity between trading partners.
This is where B2B networks come in. Ardent defines a B2B network as a web-based platform that enables interconnected buyers and sellers to trade, communicate and collaborate with each other. We are still in the early stages of ‘B2B network’ growth and development and many enterprises must overcome some basic technical hurdles like having highly manual-intensive or paper-based processes that limit connectivity and/or poor legacy experiences like unsuccessful supplier enablement initiatives that limit an enterprise’s appetite for technology investments.
One thing is certain, if connecting business is going to drive the next wave of value for enterprises, there is a lot to be learned from the technologies and networks that have very successfully connected people. For example, Facebook connects over 1 billion users worldwide and allows them to share information, interact, communicate and much more. It is also a platform where users can access millions of apps that add value to their experience and where businesses can conduct targeted advertising. Social networks/platforms have been extremely successful and have forever changed the way that people connect, communicate, interact, share information, shop, recommend, review, learn, among other things – can B2B networks do the same fro business?
To date, traditional procure-to-pay (P2P) solutions (which include eProcurement, eInvoicing, ePayments, etc) have been focused on driving more efficient processes and transactions for buying organizations through basic connections to their suppliers. The fact is that these solutions continue to face challenges around supplier enablement and now that there is an increased need for connectivity across the extended enterprise, many of these systems are not equipped to effectively overcome this major hurdle.
- Can existing technologies successfully leverage more ‘social’ capabilities to overcome some of the biggest hurdles to B2B connectivity?
- What is the market’s perspective on the role of B2B networks?
- What key aspects of social networks/platforms should be incorporated into B2B networks?
Find out the answers and much more by reading the full report
The above is a snapshot of a report that Ardent Partners completed for Tradeshift.
