Like it’s predecessors in the series, this latest white paper on how Content Enablement Technologies Enable e-Procurement 3.0 is about B2B 3.0 (Business-to-Business 3.0), the next generation of technology for the enterprise that generates value throughout the supply chain, and how it enables e-Procurement 3.0, which is the only implementation of e-Procurement technology that is guaranteed to deliver maximum value — and savings — to your organization.
As highlighted in the first two white papers in this series, B2B 3.0, which is the first generation of software technology that actually puts business users on the same footing as consumers (who have had “3.0” technologies at their fingertips for years), is the first technology to enable true commerce in the global marketplace. Returning to the fundamentals of e-Commerce, that have been lost for the last decade or so, B2B 3.0 gives us connectivity that is open and free to all, content that is managed once in a non-redundant fashion by the content owner, and an open community where buyers and sellers can come together for short periods of time through virtual networks that allow them to conduct the business they need to conduct — when, and how, they need to conduct it. No “technical” strings attached.
In addition, as highlighted in the second white paper in this series, B2B 3.0 is the first technology to level the playing field between buyers and suppliers and put them both on the same footing. Previous generations of B2B technology focused primarily on the buyer, the target customer, under the fallacy that ‘streamlining’ the process for the buyer would lead to the greatest cost savings. The reality is that this ‘streamlining’ resulted in increased work, and thus increased cost, for the supplier who had to ultimately increase their prices to cover their costs. B2B 3.0 streamlines the process for the supplier and the buyer, resulting in cost and process savings for both parties.
Furthermore, B2B 3.0 goes beyond simply streamlining processes and decreasing work, it also enables content in new and innovative ways which not only enable commerce, but enable one of the cornerstones of business e-commerce — e-Procurement. Unlike traditional e-Procurement solutions, which usually attack procurement in a piece-meal fashion, new e-Procurement 3.0 solutions are integrated commerce solutions that support each step of the various procurement cycles in your organization in a tightly-integrated fashion that seamlessly flow from one step to the next. An e-Procurement 3.0 solution, which integrates the m-way matching that eludes so many traditional piece-meal procurement applications at its core, ensures that the organization only pays for goods and services actually received — and only pays at contracted rates. E-Procurement 3.0 solutions succeed where previous generations of e-Procurement solutions failed because they are enabled by content and content management that was lacking before B2B 3.0 — and this makes commerce truly simple.
To download this paper, and the first two papers in the series, access the following links: