HOUSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--New research released today from the University of Tennessee’s Global Supply Chain Institute, in collaboration with leading B2B integration provider DiCentral, discovered the supply chain trends, issues and challenges expected in 2016 and beyond. The survey of over 200 organizations from a wide range of industries asked respondents to weigh in on such issues as inventory visibility, supply chain costs, new ERP integration, responsiveness to customer demands, and more.
The study indicates that more organizations today are investing in B2Bi (business to business electronic integration) to cut costs and increase business flow efficiency. Of those surveyed, 94% saw significant improvement in their electronic connectivity capabilities and 68% reported that their clients said they were easier to do business with after using cloud-based B2Bi Managed Services.
Another major finding suggests that the opportunities for streamlining processes are richer than the resources to achieve it, as increased pressures on internal IT departments to meet core business objectives can lead to potential gaps in knowledge and technology.
Ninety-six percent of those surveyed said they are linked electronically in some way with at least one of their trading partners, yet the average organization spends just over 5% of its IT budget on electronic connections. Electronic connections are expected to increase more than 20% over the next three years, and 69% of those surveyed said that they intend to increase the number of customers they trade with electronically.
“Successfully collaborating with your business partners requires many things. But as we show in this white paper, technology plays a major role, a role that will only grow larger in the future,” said Dr. Paul Dittmann, executive director of the Global Supply Chain Institute at the UT’s Haslam College of Business.
The study presents several examples of successful collaborations that achieved impressive results. For instance, an office supplies retailer surveyed for the study invested time and technology to collaborate more effectively with a major supplier, and as a result, in-stock fill rates rose significantly to nearly 99% from below 95%. Lead times reduced nearly 60%. Forecast accuracy improved by more than 30%, and inventory turnover increased 9%.
Although B2Bi has been around for more than 30 years, many of those surveyed felt that considering the proliferation of the Internet of Things and cloud-based applications, it is still in an early stage, especially, globally. Technology integration tools are widely implemented in some industries and sparse in others.
“Trading partner collaboration in the supply chain environment is essential in today’s hyper-competitive and technological business world,” said Thuy Mai, President and CEO of DiCentral. “We at DiCentral help thousands of organizations take on this daily challenge, and for the first time we wanted you to hear from these organizations and share their perspectives. Our hope is that the reader will utilize this study as a tool to improve trading partner collaboration, lower total operating costs, and enhance corporate agility,” continued Mai.
The study provides a framework for developing a strategy for technology-enabled collaboration and includes a self-evaluation to determine how well organizations are using technology to collaborate with their suppliers and customers, as well as a checklist for selecting a third party to manage electronic transactions.
About the Study
The study encompassed a quantitative survey of more than 200 professionals from a wide range of industries including consumer products, retailers, discrete manufacturers and process manufacturers. Companies ranged in size from $50 million to more than $2 billion. Download a copy of the full study online at http://edi3.dicentral.com/b2bi-study or contact Yehuda Cagen, DiCentral (O: 281-480-1121 x295) for more information. You can also visit the University of Tennessee’s Global Supply Chain Institute website: http://globalsupplychaininstitute.utk.edu/
About DiCentral Corporation
Founded in 2000, DiCentral is a leading global provider of B2Bi Managed Services headquartered in Houston, Texas with 10 offices worldwide supporting customers in over 27 countries.
DiCentral’s services and solutions are singularly focused on B2B integration and used by many of the Fortune 1000, processing over $200 billion in transactions for over 30,000 organizations worldwide. The company’s vertical expertise transcends Automotive, Retail, Distribution, Manufacturing, Pharmaceutical, Health Care, Energy and Financial Services. DiCentral provides turn-key Cloud based B2Bi Managed Services, which allows organizations to connect and exchange critical business documents with their trading community. The core components of the Managed Services offering include: ERP Integration, Secure B2B Communications, Data Transformation, Business Rule Analytics, Inventory Management and Trading Partner Community Management. The company develops and markets a complementary suite of supply chain applications. For more information, please visit www.dicentral.com.
