Incorporating your applications and data flows isn’t really simply a technology problem, it’s a business problem– a big one. B2B processes such as order fulfillment, shipping, invoicing, and payments can have significant business impacts across the board, from profits and expenditures, to risk management and compliance, to growth strategies and multi-national M&A. If your B2B and EDI facilities are disjointed and outdated, then they are essentially a cost center doing little to aid your business in expanding, enhancing efficiency, responding rapidly to problems, or applying modifications during windows of opportunity.
When your B2B business procedures are automated and deals are flowing digitally (usually leveraging EDI and XML), you will have to have visibility into those transactions in order to accelerate your decision-making, respond quickly to altering customer and market demands, and optimize your business processes. This type of actionable business insight into your B2B deal flows is precisely the type of information you need within your reaches to continue to be a competitive leader in your market.
There are a number of types of information– analytics– to which you need quick and easy access in order to make informed and actionable business decisions. According to a current Aberdeen Group report, 65 % of business indicated that they have to improve their analytics ability. And half of all the companies stated they are not spending enough on analytics capabilities. The research study also showed that high-performing companies are three and a half times most likely to use analytics than low entertainers.
Imagine that you are the buyer in a purchasing deal. The analytics capabilities you want will supply answers to questions such as:
- When will the goods I bought be provided?
- Will there be a delivery delay?
- What percent of my B2B suppliers are sending me advance ship notices on-time?
- What are the top document types I’m exchanging with my suppliers?
- Who are my top suppliers and the number of transactions have I finished with them?
- Who are my top- and bottom- performing providers based on specific KPIs (such us total orders, accurate deliveries, on-time deliveries).
Now, think of that you are the provider in a buying transaction. You want answers to questions such as:
- Has my customer sent the order I’ve been awaiting?
- Was my order accepted? Has my bills been paid?
- Which of my clients sent me the most orders during the holiday season?
- Which of my consumers send me lots of changes to their purchase orders?
- Which of my customers pay on time; which ones pay late?
- For which customers has the order volume increased or decreased by more than 20 % over the last 6 months?
Armed with the understandings from these capabilities you can:
- Immediately react to exception conditions to prevent issues, such as late shipping that would negatively impact your customer service, enhanced costs due to expedited service requirements or enhanced inventory.
- Examine the performance of suppliers versus KPIs and after that proactively work together with them to improve performance and lower costs.
- Award more business to your high performers, based upon quality, timeliness, and other vital performance signs.
- Ensure that future sourcing arrangements take performance and quality into account– e.g. when you are the purchaser you can work out for lower prices in return for more orders with your best suppliers; as a provider you can highlight exceptional performance in requesting more business from your customers.
- Manage more partners more effectively with automated procedures and scoring/analysis tools.
