Key Findings

• The value chain is highly complex and challenging
  The majority of the medium to large organisations interviewed as part of this study have a large number of business suppliers and customers, with over 40% of responding organisations having over 1,000 active suppliers and a similar number having over 5,000 active business customers. There is also a significant focus on ad hoc activity particularly with customers, where one off sales are common. Optimising trading activity across large numbers of partners with differing characteristics and capabilities is seen as a significant challenge.
• The complexity and dynamic nature of standards, technology and the international trading environment add to the challenge
  There is high complexity in the standards that companies need to implement and manage to facilitate B2B trading, leading to problems with managing the in-house technical solutions that are needed for further automation. The issues in this area are compounded by the rate of change of partners' technical solutions, with companies struggling to handle multiple versions of standards in the value chain. As French companies look to grow by crossing national boundaries, geopolitical issues create yet another level of complexity through the need to deal with local legal, native language and logistical issues.
• Problems of managing complexity are a barrier to fully exploiting automation capability
  Over 80% of companies have an internet-based system at their disposal for facilitating automated transactions. The combination of complexities described above, however, has led to real problems in applying this capability beyond the limited subset of trading partners where relatively stable mechanisms can be put into place. The end result is that most transaction and collaboration activity taking place today still depends on manual communications such as email, the telephone and the exchange of paper documents.
• Continued reliance on manual processes perpetuates business cost and risk
  Organisations generally understand the cost implications of continued reliance on manual processes. The lack of integration into companies' systems must also raise issues around the fidelity of information being acted upon, and how this may harm governance and audit.
• Outsourcing the tactical management of B2B complexity to a managed service provider can remove the barriers and drive business efficiency
  Working around the complexities to deliver broader automation capabilities that can cope with the differing and ever-changing standards via in-house solutions can be cost prohibitive. Confining capability to a limited subset of the standards and mechanisms used by trading partners is a possible compromise, but risks alienating customers and suppliers who may use a different approach. Outsourcing to a managed service provider who can use their economy of scale to support and maintain a much broader range of standards and mechanisms can create a more inclusive trading capability, allowing the benefits of automation to be significantly extended - benefits which are confirmed by over 74% of those that have gone down this route. Such users also highlight benefits associated with access to more up-to-date information from trading partners and increased business visibility in general.
CONCLUSION
Automation of transactions has long been touted as an enabler of efficiency in the B2B supply and demand chains. The irony is, however, that the more broadly organisations attempt to apply automation, the more they fall foul of the complexity and expense of dealing with the myriad of technologies and standards that exists across their customer and supplier bases. Few have the capability to solve this problem in-house cost effectively, so outsourcing options that leverage economies of scale are key to achieving broad and inclusive automation and realising the benefits that come from this.
Automation of transactions has long been touted as an enabler of efficiency in the B2B supply and demand chains. The irony is, however, that the more broadly organisations attempt to apply automation, the more they fall foul of the complexity and expense of dealing with the myriad of technologies and standards that exists across their customer and supplier bases. Few have the capability to solve this problem in-house cost effectively, so outsourcing options that leverage economies of scale are key to achieving broad and inclusive automation and realising the benefits that come from this.

Automation of transactions has long been touted as an enabler of efficiency in the B2B supply and demand chains. The irony is, however, that the more broadly organisations attempt to apply automation, the more they fall foul of the complexity and expense of dealing with the myriad of technologies and standards that exists across their customer and supplier bases. Few have the capability to solve this problem in-house cost effectively, so outsourcing options that leverage economies of scale are key to achieving broad and inclusive automation and realising the benefits that come from this.