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.
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