A lot of internal divisions inside the company want to use private exchanges to help the internal process. Getting suppliers and distributors online, or getting marketplace liquidity, continues to be a problem for companies that want to gain some efficiencies through e-procurement and electronic catalogs. Just because you build a supplier marketplace doesn't mean they will come. You have to make it easy. The push to get partners online easily and to link internal and external business processes is making integration technology a top priority for further product development, the panelists said.
Standards are a bit of a joke.
The problem with EDI is extending it. Addressing the economic slowdown, the panelists recommended that businesses focus on applications that have a clear ROI and cut costs. Martin LaMonica is InfoWorld's executive editor. Click to Download. Harness the power of your network.