Business Community Management

Introduction
Many companies have realized significant value through automating their supply chain with B2B processes. B2B has made an impact and added value, yet inherent problems exist within the traditional model that prevent it from being a sustainable solution in today’s business environment. New business challenges arising from everexpanding communication standards, and changing customer expectations and the demanddriven economy have created a need for a new approach that goes beyond B2B.

Business Community Management is a strategic vision that creates a comprehensive view of the supply chain by integrating the technology, business processes and communication of the entire business community to facilitate end-to-end supply chain visibility. This white paper will examine the current state of B2B communication; detail the steps needed to mitigate the challenges created by B2B; and outline the concepts behind Business Community Management as a new way to approach your business-to-business communication.

The topics included in this whitepaper are:
I. The Current State of B2B
II. Business Community Management: A Comprehensive Approach to Supply Chain Communication
III. Inovis: Your Partner in Comprehensive Business Community Management

The Current State of B2B
After years of implementations, initiatives and mandates, various levels of supply chain communication processes are in place in the majority of large companies operating within the global economy. Companies have realized incredible value from B2B automation. For example:

- A global automotive company and Inovis customer reduced costs by 54% using Managed Services to automate the majority of its supply chain operations and customer communication.

- Another national retailer and Inovis customer realized savings of 40% after automating most of its trading community.

Although B2B has delivered significant value, there are a host of business challenges inherent to B2B automation. Combined, these problems prevent B2B automation from being a sustainable solution for moving ahead in today’s changing business environment.

Complex technology
Often, B2B initiatives were driven by the need to comply with a certain mandate or meet specific operational requirements, resulting in a piecemeal chain of systems and leaving communication gaps within the supply chain. Therefore, many companies are working with legacy applications and silo solutions that are not interoperable. There is no easy way to synchronize the data from each system to create a comprehensive view of the supply chain. Silo tools create barriers to working within multiple formats and standards, resulting in lost business, missed growth opportunities and further eroding value.

Additionally, B2B technology itself has built-in complexities arising from communication issues with AS2, AS3 and VAN mailboxes, erroneous data exchange as well as trading partner connectivity problems. These problems are commonplace and drain resources. In fact, according to a 2006 GS1 study, most businesses spend between $40 and $80 per error to resolve problems with item data and invoicing data.

Furthermore, connectivity issues are typically recurrent which creates a reactive environment, shifting focus from core business operations toward lower impact issues, wasting time and creating unnecessary productivity costs.

Implementation challenges
Implementing B2B initiatives places large demands on time and resources. Often, implementations run into challenges and time delays created by disparate systems and outdated, inaccurate data. Additionally, each trading partner presents a unique set of circumstances and technology capabilities, which requires additional time and resources to solve. These issues place constraints on already tight budgets and timeframes.

Automation demands and limitations
Today there is a clear business mandate for automating 100% of your supply chain. However, companies face several hurdles in meeting this goal. The first limitation is budget, as companies are being asked to automate more partners with fewer dollars and cycle initial realized savings through several rounds of automation. Another limitation comes from the fact that companies must drill down to the second and tertiary level of suppliers and partners to achieve complete automation. Partners at these levels often lack the willingness or the technology sophistication to tie in to an automated supply chain.

Business Community Management: A Comprehensive Approach to Supply Chain Communication
Considering the challenges that have arisen from B2B processes and the additional business demands posed by changing customer expectations, volume increases and multiple communication formats, companies must reevaluate their supply chain communication processes and adapt. It has become clear that an evolutionary B2B development cannot solve for these multiple issues; companies must make a revolutionary change to achieve an optimized communication solution.

A new view on supply chain automation widens the focus to include the business community of partners and customers that actually make the supply chain operate. Business Community Management (BCM) integrates the technology, business processes and communication of the entire trading community to create end-to-end supply chain visibility.