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 Situation
Solution
Benefits
SituationBusiness-to-business integration presents a number of challenges for manufacturers attempting to automate transactions with smaller trading partners. Larger businesses often have an ERP system that provides a single integrated software system for purchasing. Their smaller suppliers, however, are unlikely to have systems with the same level of sophistication and capabilities because the size and cost of a full ERP system is prohibitive. Fully integrating all suppliers is impractical for other reasons as well, including: | • | Small trading volume: Even for those partners with appropriate B2B systems, integration can be costly and time-consuming. The volume of business between partners might not warrant full integration. | | • | Disparities among partners: All partners might not be using the same protocols or technologies. Full integration with multiple, differing systems invites inconsistencies, which negates the value of integration. |
From the large manufacturer’s perspective, the challenge is to provide the benefits of full integration to all suppliers—regardless of a supplier's system infrastructure and business volume—within a system that is efficient, cost-effective, and consistent. From the small supplier’s perspective, the challenge is to implement industry-standard communication protocols and processes for a minimum investment. Only when both perspectives are satisfied can complete small partner integration function in an optimal fashion.
SolutionIntegrating all trading partners into a buyer's B2B environment can take years. A solution built on the Microsoft Office System saves time because it requires little integration at the small-supplier level. Small suppliers who have Microsoft Office 2003 with Microsoft Office InfoPath 2003 can be up and running and communicating with a manufacturer within hours. InfoPath enables a manufacturer to quickly design and customize business forms for use within its environment. Additionally, InfoPath forms can provide data validation for accuracy. Microsoft SharePoint Products and Technologies provide the means for manufacturers and small suppliers to store and view the InfoPath forms. Adoption time is minimal because, in many cases, tools already deployed within an organization are used in the integration solution. An integration solution based on Microsoft Office also addresses problems faced by small suppliers. For example, small suppliers are often unable to reuse data in their own systems when the data is transmitted through sources such as fax and e-mail. A Microsoft Office-based solution can take advantage of standards such as XML to provide order information to small suppliers. The XML format enables small suppliers to save the data to their systems for reuse and integration. This reduces the need for time-consuming re-keying of data from multiple sources and reduces transmission errors.
BenefitsA small supplier integration solution provides significant benefits when built using the Microsoft Office System. These benefits include: | • | Reducing the time and cost of order management, shipping and receiving logistics,
invoicing, and payments. | | • | Cutting order transaction time from days to hours. | | • | Saving money by eliminating manual processing. | | • | Decreasing errors—and the cost of correction—that result from entering the same data multiple times. |
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