This is Part 2 of SAP Mentor Kevin Benedict's video podcast interview with Hubwoo's CMO Rinus Strydom. You can listen to Part 1 here. Last week Hubwoo and Crossgate announced a strategic partnership that involves both companies sharing their EDI/B2B business networks, and utilizing each other's services. I am reading between the lines here, but this seems to be much more strategic than the average "strategic" alliance. To me this seems like a direct competitive challenge to Ariba. Both companies are in SAP's investment portfolio. Both run managed services hubs, although with different primary focuses. Both are SAP partners, and both companies have products sold by the SAP sales teams.
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Kevin R Benedict EDI and e-Invoicing Veteran, SAP Mentor, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro
*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Monday, April 25, 2011
EDI and B2B Expert Podcast Series: Hubwoo's Rinus Strydom, Part 1
This video podcast is with Hubwoo's CMO Rinus Strydom and covers a wide range of topics from e-invoicing and EDI to cloud procurement. Hubwoo and Crossgate, both companies that SAP has invested in, announced an alliance last week that is also discussed in detail. The fact that SAP resells both of their solutions also hints at the strategic importance of this new partnership.
This is Part 1 of this video podcast, you can listen to Part 2 here.
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Kevin R Benedict EDI and e-Invoicing Veteran, SAP Mentor, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro
*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.
This is Part 1 of this video podcast, you can listen to Part 2 here.
************************************************
Kevin R Benedict EDI and e-Invoicing Veteran, SAP Mentor, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro
*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Business Network Transformation and EDI Revisited
In today's world of multi-enterprise supply chains, 3PL (third party logistics providers) and discrete manufacturing environments, companies can no longer be satisfied with business processes that stop inside the four walls. These business processes are extended outside the four walls through various EDI and B2B messages that can be sent in real-time to their relevant business network partners. The visibility provided by real-time data exchanges ensures that management can make decisions based on accurate and timely information and analytics.
Often the ability to communicate and extend business processes to your business network partners is inhibited by out-dated EDI/B2B methodologies and strategies. EDI and B2B data exchanges are more important today than ever before but need to be considered in a new light. New and different strategies must be adopted to ensure that quick and cost effective methodologies are implemented that enable large numbers of new business network partners to be quickly added or changed as markets and products change. Traditional, costly, multi-year on-boarding EDI projects have not well and are not the answer today.
In an article by Scott R. Sykes, Principal of Supply Chain Solutions at SAP America, Understanding and Managing Supply Chain Risks, Sykes writes about companies taking greater risks nowadays with increasingly complex and extended supply chains. Sykes describes them as follows, "Supply chains today are growing continuously more complex, interconnected, and global." Extended supply chains are no longer the concern of one company but rather all participants.
For decades SAP has been focused on developing business solutions that work together to form one large homogeneous ERP solution. Much of this goal has been accomplished, and they now seem to be focusing significant amounts of attention on the next frontier - making one large homogeneous business network. This involves making it easier for their solutions to speak to the world. This is likely the reason they initially partnered with and invested in both Hubwoo and Crossgate.
SAP solutions are fueled by business data. SAP solutions both produce and consume business data. The data required is not all self-generated. Much of the business data is produced by external business network participants (trading partners) in the form of Purchase Orders and Invoices (just two examples of thousands of different business documents that are exchanged between business network participants).
Over the last decade we have all witnessed the transformation of SAP solutions from many disparate components, to an integrated system based on a defined set of standards and technologies. The process of transforming a trading partner community into a homogeneous business network will follow a similar path. Utilize a defined set of standards and technologies and organize them in a manner that can be cost effectively implemented in a reliable and seamless manner.
This week's announcement that Hubwoo and Crossgate have formed an alliance to, "combine their B2B networks so that enterprises can gain access to hundreds of thousands of active trading partners globally through a single connection" is a giant step toward SAP's vision of business network transformation. This is relevant to SAP customers because SAP is a significant investor in both companies and resells both of their solutions.
*********************************************
Kevin R Benedict EDI and e-Invoicing Veteran, SAP Mentor, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin: .
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro
*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.
Often the ability to communicate and extend business processes to your business network partners is inhibited by out-dated EDI/B2B methodologies and strategies. EDI and B2B data exchanges are more important today than ever before but need to be considered in a new light. New and different strategies must be adopted to ensure that quick and cost effective methodologies are implemented that enable large numbers of new business network partners to be quickly added or changed as markets and products change. Traditional, costly, multi-year on-boarding EDI projects have not well and are not the answer today.
In an article by Scott R. Sykes, Principal of Supply Chain Solutions at SAP America, Understanding and Managing Supply Chain Risks, Sykes writes about companies taking greater risks nowadays with increasingly complex and extended supply chains. Sykes describes them as follows, "Supply chains today are growing continuously more complex, interconnected, and global." Extended supply chains are no longer the concern of one company but rather all participants.
For decades SAP has been focused on developing business solutions that work together to form one large homogeneous ERP solution. Much of this goal has been accomplished, and they now seem to be focusing significant amounts of attention on the next frontier - making one large homogeneous business network. This involves making it easier for their solutions to speak to the world. This is likely the reason they initially partnered with and invested in both Hubwoo and Crossgate.
SAP solutions are fueled by business data. SAP solutions both produce and consume business data. The data required is not all self-generated. Much of the business data is produced by external business network participants (trading partners) in the form of Purchase Orders and Invoices (just two examples of thousands of different business documents that are exchanged between business network participants).
Over the last decade we have all witnessed the transformation of SAP solutions from many disparate components, to an integrated system based on a defined set of standards and technologies. The process of transforming a trading partner community into a homogeneous business network will follow a similar path. Utilize a defined set of standards and technologies and organize them in a manner that can be cost effectively implemented in a reliable and seamless manner.
This week's announcement that Hubwoo and Crossgate have formed an alliance to, "combine their B2B networks so that enterprises can gain access to hundreds of thousands of active trading partners globally through a single connection" is a giant step toward SAP's vision of business network transformation. This is relevant to SAP customers because SAP is a significant investor in both companies and resells both of their solutions.
*********************************************
Kevin R Benedict EDI and e-Invoicing Veteran, SAP Mentor, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin: .
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro
*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.
Big News in the World of SAP EDI and B2B!
It is not every day that you read big news in the EDI world, but today is one of them. Here is the news.
PARIS, April 18, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Hubwoo , a leading global provider of Cloud Procurement services powered by SAP® software, and Crossgate, a global leader in business-to-business (B2B) integration and e-Invoicing compliance, today announced a strategic global alliance. Read more
Why is this big news? Here it is - Under the terms of the alliance, Hubwoo and Crossgate have combined their B2B networks so that enterprises can gain access to hundreds of thousands of active trading partners globally through a single connection. SAP's co-CEO Jim Snabe has been preaching the gospel of business network transformation for several years, and this is a big step in that direction - dare we say tipping point?It gets even better. SAP is a major investor in both of these cloud-based EDI/B2B companies. Both utilize SAP technologies. Both are resold by the SAP sales force. You can bet that SAP was a match maker in this union.
Ariba has the potential to be the big loser in this new alignment. It is very difficult and expensive to be an independent B2B HUB in a world dominated by large ERP vendors. Think about the expense of trying to be all things to all people, rather than all things to one SAP. This is a definite move by SAP to compete with Ariba and to make it difficult for Ariba to compete in the SAP ecosystem.
Jason Busch who writes for Spend Matters also wrote about this announcement today and added his analysis here.
Learn more about the SAP Information Interchange from SAP's Carter Johnson:
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Kevin R Benedict EDI and e-Invoicing Veteran, SAP Mentor, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro
*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.
New SAP Information Interchange by Crossgate Training Video
This video quotes a report that emphasizes the amount of data coming from outside and enterprise:
- 34% of the data your company uses comes from outside sources
- 56% of companies have consolidated EDI/B2B systems
- 47% of companies are expanding their trading partners and B2B transactions
- 47% observe customer service escalation demand
- 45% see increased complexity in their business networks
- 23% see increased supply chain risk exposure
The emerging demands for e-invoicing in many countries around the world are also a big motivator for companies to seek a managed service to support all of these global requirements.
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Kevin R Benedict, EDI and e-Invoicing Veteran, SAP Mentor, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro
*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
EDI and B2B Expert Podcast Series: SAP's Carter Johnson, Part 2
This is Part 2 of a very interesting discussion with SAP's Carter Johnson on the latest developments in the world of SAP EDI/B2B. You can listen to Part 1 here. We are discussing EDI, B2B, SAP Information Interchange, cloud computing, business networks and why SAP is now getting involved in EDI/B2B.
Be sure to follow me on Twitter @B2B_Benedict.
************************************************
Kevin R Benedict
EDI and e-Invoicing Veteran, SAP Mentor, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro
*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.
Be sure to follow me on Twitter @B2B_Benedict.
************************************************
Kevin R Benedict
EDI and e-Invoicing Veteran, SAP Mentor, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro
*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.
EDI and B2B Expert Podcast: SAP's Carter Johnson, Part 1
I had the good fortune of being able to record a two part interview with SAP Labs, VP, Line of Business Solutions, Carter Johnson on the subjects of EDI, business networks, cloud computing, on-demand solutions, B2B e-commerce and the SAP Information Interchange by Crossgate solution. You may remember that I tried before but my recording service failed. This time it succeeded!
My first question for Carter was, "EDI has been around for decades, so why is SAP getting involved with EDI/B2B in 2011?" Listen for the answer.
Listen to Part 2 of this interview here.
************************************************
Kevin R Benedict
EDI and e-Invoicing Veteran, SAP Mentor, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro
*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.
My first question for Carter was, "EDI has been around for decades, so why is SAP getting involved with EDI/B2B in 2011?" Listen for the answer.
Listen to Part 2 of this interview here.
************************************************
Kevin R Benedict
EDI and e-Invoicing Veteran, SAP Mentor, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro
*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.
Webinar on Mexico's New e-Invoicing Compliance Requirements
I saw the announcement for this upcoming webinar that may be important for those companies worried about the fact that the Mexican government is ceasing to issue folios.
In this webinar e-invoicing expert Jason Jones will examine the difficult situation that many companies doing business in Mexico are experiencing due to the new 2011 legislation removing government issued folios from the e-invoicing equation. Jason will walk participants through:
- The 2011 Mexican e-invoicing architecture
- The Crossgate e-invoicing solution process
- Explain how the Crossgate solution solves the issues that many companies are experiencing
The webinar is planned for 1 hour and will include a Q&A session at the end of Jason's presentation.
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Kevin R Benedict EDI and e-Invoicing Veteran, SAP Mentor, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:
*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.
Friday, April 8, 2011
Best in Class Financial Performance and Electronic Invoicing
I am always intrigued when I discover an interesting new niche business. Here is an example - McKesson offers technology and services designed to help improve financial performance, reduce regulatory risk and save time managing the revenue cycle. The article goes on to say McKesson has 4,000 people focused on this business.
Electronic invoicing is part of the revenue cycle, so it caught my attention. McKesson also focuses on improving financial performance which can also involve e-invoicing. Why would a company use this kind of service? Here is how Pat Leonard, senior vice president and general manager of McKesson Revenue Management Solutions describes it, "Physician practices are experiencing unprecedented change, with growing pressures from federal payment reform, quality initiatives and tough economic challenges."
The McKesson folks spend much of their time focused on helping companies improve their billing and invoicing processes so they can collect faster. This is a big deal to many companies and medical practices as Abdul Naushad, M.D. states here, "With increasing federal mandates and reimbursement cuts, we understood the amount of time, resources and administration required to protect the financial health of our practices." They are now clients of McKesson's services.
Electronic invoicing can improve financial performance and save time managing the revenue cycle.
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Kevin R Benedict Independent e-Invoicing/EDI Consultant, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro
*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.
Electronic invoicing is part of the revenue cycle, so it caught my attention. McKesson also focuses on improving financial performance which can also involve e-invoicing. Why would a company use this kind of service? Here is how Pat Leonard, senior vice president and general manager of McKesson Revenue Management Solutions describes it, "Physician practices are experiencing unprecedented change, with growing pressures from federal payment reform, quality initiatives and tough economic challenges."
The McKesson folks spend much of their time focused on helping companies improve their billing and invoicing processes so they can collect faster. This is a big deal to many companies and medical practices as Abdul Naushad, M.D. states here, "With increasing federal mandates and reimbursement cuts, we understood the amount of time, resources and administration required to protect the financial health of our practices." They are now clients of McKesson's services.
Electronic invoicing can improve financial performance and save time managing the revenue cycle.
************************************************
Kevin R Benedict Independent e-Invoicing/EDI Consultant, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro
*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Market Growth Numbers for European E-Invoicing
In a new report on e-invoicing, written by Bruno Koch, an independent and internationally renowned industry analyst and owner of the consulting company Billentis, it is estimated that over 150 billion invoices per year are exchanged worldwide, and these are to a large extent still paper-based. However, a rapidly increasing number of companies and consumers are adopting electronic invoicing. This is true especially in Europe and Latin American where government mandates for supporting e-invoicing exists.
It is also estimated that approximately 5 million European invoice senders and 75 million recipients exchange electronic bills/invoices. Since practically all large European companies are using this new electronic process, e-Invoicing is quickly spreading among medium-sized and small companies. Therefore, market growth rates of 30-35% are expected in the coming years.
As small to medium sized companies begin to support electronic invoicing, I predict a big up swing in cloud based electronic invoicing services as many SMEs, like many large enterprises, simply don't have the knowledge or internal IT resources to support it in house.
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Kevin R Benedict Independent e-Invoicing/EDI Consultant, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro
*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.
It is also estimated that approximately 5 million European invoice senders and 75 million recipients exchange electronic bills/invoices. Since practically all large European companies are using this new electronic process, e-Invoicing is quickly spreading among medium-sized and small companies. Therefore, market growth rates of 30-35% are expected in the coming years.
As small to medium sized companies begin to support electronic invoicing, I predict a big up swing in cloud based electronic invoicing services as many SMEs, like many large enterprises, simply don't have the knowledge or internal IT resources to support it in house.
************************************************
Kevin R Benedict Independent e-Invoicing/EDI Consultant, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro
*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.
10 Plus Benefits of Electronic Invoicing
I often focus on global e-invoicing on this blog, but I recently came across two good articles on general e-invoicing written by Steve Keifer with EDInomics. The focus of Part 1 is managing inbound supplier invoices. To me, this is an interesting area. There are many different names for these processes including transactional content management and vendor invoice management. Much of the transactional content coming into an average company is still on paper, and these articles address the benefits of automating these processes.
The Ten Business Benefits of E-Invoicing – Part 1
The Ten Business Benefits of E-Invoicing - Part 2
In Part 1, point 4 - the topic is vendor self-service and I want to highlight this section. If a company cannot efficiently manage, process and track the status of inbound invoices, then the cost of processing them jumps. Why? Because your call center begins to receive phone calls from suppliers wanting to know the status of their invoices. Often it is more than one phone call. If an answer is not quickly provided on the status of an invoice, it gets escalated up the chain, and the number of people involved and costs also escalates. I know this from personal experience having been on both ends of this process.
There are many hidden advantages to automating your electronic invoicing systems. Customer service, reputation, cost reduction, good will and professionalism are sometimes overlooked.
************************************************
Kevin R Benedict Independent e-Invoicing/EDI Consultant, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro
*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.
The Ten Business Benefits of E-Invoicing – Part 1
The Ten Business Benefits of E-Invoicing - Part 2
In Part 1, point 4 - the topic is vendor self-service and I want to highlight this section. If a company cannot efficiently manage, process and track the status of inbound invoices, then the cost of processing them jumps. Why? Because your call center begins to receive phone calls from suppliers wanting to know the status of their invoices. Often it is more than one phone call. If an answer is not quickly provided on the status of an invoice, it gets escalated up the chain, and the number of people involved and costs also escalates. I know this from personal experience having been on both ends of this process.
There are many hidden advantages to automating your electronic invoicing systems. Customer service, reputation, cost reduction, good will and professionalism are sometimes overlooked.
************************************************
Kevin R Benedict Independent e-Invoicing/EDI Consultant, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro
*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.
Friday, April 1, 2011
Is e-Invoicing too Hard?
YouGov recently conducted research on e-invoicing adoption and perceptions in the UK and released their findings this week. They found 36% of UK respondents would take up e-invoicing if there was a standard approach to this type of technology.
I have been involved in e-invoicing for many years and I can tell you that e-invoicing is very difficult. It seems every country has e-invoicing mandates and requirements that change yearly. In addition, all seem to have penalties for failure to be compliant and require an increasing amount of real-time B2B data exchanges with tax authorities. Just take a look at all the various dynamic requirements for e-invoicing in Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Argentina).
As a former EDI Manager, I know my employers would not have been willing to continually expand my budget to support each countries' increasingly complex e-invoicing environment. My only remedy, which I would have been very happy to accept, would be to find a global e-invoicing service provider. As an SAP user I would have looked at the SAP Information Interchange first since this service provider is sold and supported by SAP.
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Kevin R Benedict Independent e-Invoicing/EDI Consultant, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro
*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.
I have been involved in e-invoicing for many years and I can tell you that e-invoicing is very difficult. It seems every country has e-invoicing mandates and requirements that change yearly. In addition, all seem to have penalties for failure to be compliant and require an increasing amount of real-time B2B data exchanges with tax authorities. Just take a look at all the various dynamic requirements for e-invoicing in Latin America (Mexico, Brazil, Argentina).
As a former EDI Manager, I know my employers would not have been willing to continually expand my budget to support each countries' increasingly complex e-invoicing environment. My only remedy, which I would have been very happy to accept, would be to find a global e-invoicing service provider. As an SAP user I would have looked at the SAP Information Interchange first since this service provider is sold and supported by SAP.
************************************************
Kevin R Benedict Independent e-Invoicing/EDI Consultant, Analyst and Blogger
Join the SAP EDI and SAP Information Interchange group on Linkedin:
http://www.linkedin.com/groups?about=&gid=2884582&trk=anet_ug_grppro
*Full Disclosure: I am an independent consultant that has worked with and for many of the companies mentioned.
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