[News brief] It: forging the way to a successful B2B integration

The key benefits IT can bring to the table

If you were to look into the internal workings of any traditional business setting, you would probably notice a mix of different applications, with each application assigned to one specific process and data pool. You would observe a web of business processes working alongside each other, but never actually colliding and fusing together. Even in this era of rapid digital transformation, we are still seeing silos of information that are not being shared across an organization effectively. But times are changing, and companies are beginning to see the great benefits of extracting and managing data in a company-wide collaborative manner, thus making data management more automated and reliable. The respondents in our recent IDC survey voted that the main benefits IT can bring to business today are improving data security (84%) and making data governance more reliable (73%).

IT: forging the path to a more collaborative future

While the two benefits listed above were the most often cited, there are many other IT-related actions that can ensure a successful B2B integration. Businesses are well aware of these benefits. The ability to enable business process automation (76%), ensure compliance with regulatory requirements (74%), enable effective collaboration with all business partners (64%), create added value for business departments through higher levels of service (67%), and provide ideas and solutions to transform the client experience and satisfaction levels (66%) are also ways of forging a more collaborative and integrated path to the future.

Key words: standardize, integrate, connect

All of these examples of IT benefits come down to a few common and important action items for any business: standardize, integrate, and connect. Collaborative B2B integration is the future of business, and companies are looking to reconcile their IT footprint by reducing and optimizing the number of processes and interfaces they use via an “all-in-one” platform that will give them the visibility and agility to keep up with and bypass the competition. Integration will soon be the key differentiator between a successful business and one that is lagging on the sidelines.