In recent months we have seen an increased interest from Tier 1 and Tier 2 automotive suppliers wishing to outsource the management of their B2B infrastructures. Automotive OEMs are asking their key Tier 1 suppliers to take on more solution based work, for example producing entire transmission, drivetrain and suspension systems for delivery to their customers. As a result, a shift of responsibilities is occurring in the automotive supply chain where the original Tier 2 suppliers are now being asked to undertake work previously carried out by the Tier 1 suppliers. In order to manage this shift in the supply chain, many of the lower tier automotive suppliers are having to re-evaluate their B2B e-Commerce strategies so that they can remain competitive and support their customers with their global expansion plans.

Many of these suppliers will have never implemented a B2B platform before, or know how to manage their B2B environment effectively. In addition, these suppliers may be in a different country or located in a region where B2B expertise is limited and IT infrastructure cannot support global trading partner relationships.  These smaller suppliers are expected to embrace new B2B technologies and at the same time change business practices in order to implement these solutions and services. Also, they will not have extensive inhouse expertise to run a complex B2B environment and more importantly they must be allowed to focus on their core competency, manufacturing automotive components for their customers.

GXS hosts its Managed Services environment on GXS Trading Grid®, GXS’ secure, scalable, high-performance B2B integration services platform that spans best in class data centres around the world. If required, GXS can provide a web form based trading environment, community enablement programs and support for a multitude of communication protocols and document formats.

So if you are an automotive Tier 1 or Tier 2 supplier and you want to stop pulling your hair out trying to think about how you will implement a best in class global B2B trading environment, simply visit our Managed Services microsite for further information.