I have been watching the evolution in the SAP mobility ecosystem with keen interest and pondering what it means to the EDI/B2B industry. The mobility space is changing rapidly and dramatically as online mobile application stores take over much of the responsibility for connecting buyers and sellers of mobile applications. Many of the traditional ways buyers and sellers connect and work together are being standardized in pre-defined business processes on these sites. This is a great example of "business network transformation." There are lessons here for those involved in EDI as well.
In the past, mobile application vendors each set up their own proprietary processes to upload software and/or update their customers' devices. They all had different ways of marketing and selling their enterprise mobile applications and employed their own unique ways of developing applications and synchronizing data between mobile devices and backend databases.
Today in the enterprise mobility world there is a great deal of standardizing going on. Apple and RIM have now defined many of the ways mobile applications work and move data. What are the lessons for the EDI/B2B industry?
Companies like SAP are now developing and launching their own EDI/B2B hubs with solutions like the SAP Information Interchange. These are exchanges that define standardized ways for buyers and sellers and other trading partners to connect and share data. This process is equally as interesting to watch evolve as it is in the mobile application industry.
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Author: Kevin Benedict
Principal Consultant/Founder
SAP EDI Consultant, Mobile Industry Analyst and Web 2.0 Marketing Consultant
Netcentric Strategies LLC
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
***Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.
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