Improving ERP appetite via B2B

Last month in a post I had mentioned about SAP’s new B2B-EDI exchange solution – SAP Inteformation Interchange by Crossgate. I just learned that SAP Information Interchange allows companies to exchange electronic purchase orders, forecasts, invoices, delivery notes, and other documents directly from their SAP applications, eliminating the need for legacy B2B translators and EDI mapping tools.¹

In the light of data – a) one third of all enterprise data to ERP systems comes from external sources and b) large install base of SAP – from folks like AMR and IDC It is interesting to note that SAP’s Information Interchange can effectively mitigate issues around ERP implementation time frame. Therefore, it is likely to increase the ERP appetite of enterprises.

What do you think?

1- http://www.crossgate.com/solutions-amp-services/sap-information-interchange-by-crossgate/

SAP + Crossgate = B2B-EDI Samurai (may be?)

Crossgate (co-owened by SAP), the global expert in business-to-business integration (B2B), announced that SAP will resell Crossgate’s B2B engine and associated partner profiles under the name SAP Information Interchange application. This announcement indicates SAP’s desire to ride into battle with the B2B-EDI players.

Theortically, this will allow existing SAP clients to easily connect their SAP ERP system with their trading partners. Being in the business of B2B integration we know the importance of trading partner integration with ERP systems.

My view is congruent with Kevin Benedict’s assessment – this is SAP’s direct response to the recent M&A activity (GXS+Inovis, Tibco+Foresight) and incursion of these B2B players into SAPs territory.

The full press-release is available here.

3 short retail supply chain links

1. Financial view of Pharma supply chain. Generic drugs carry both better margins and higher profit dollars per prescription than brand-name drugs for all of the supply-chain middlemen. Read More
2. Is on-premise ERP dead? ZDNet blogger, Brian Sommer, explains why he thinks on-premise ERP is going the way of the dodo. Watch the 4.5 min video.
3. SAP Influencer event. Follow the Twitter hash tag (#sapsummit) feed on SAP Influence Summit. To read first impression visit here.