So after a brief sabbatical, I thought it was time to start blogging again

In recent weeks we have been running a series of Executive Briefings across Europe to showcase a recent study that we conducted with Stanford University.  Late last year we completed a research study with Stanford which looked at the area of B2B outsourcing and why companies look to outsource their B2B infrastructures.

Last week I presented at two Executive Briefings in Paris and Munich, the feedback we have received from those companies that attended was that they found the briefings very informative and that it had changed their perceptions as to why they should consider outsourcing their B2B infrastructure.  The briefings were very interactive with a good mix of companies from a variety of industries talking openly about the challenges they faced with managing their B2B infrastructures on a daily basis. These briefings, held over dinner in exclusive hotels in the heart of Paris and Munich, provided the ideal informal environment to discuss B2B best practices and it also provided a chance for the guests to learn from each other as to how they manage their respective B2B environments.  I certainly found the events useful to understand, at first hand, why companies consider going down the outsourcing route and the challenges they faced in today’s tough economic climate.  Based on both the feedback from the attendees and the results from the research, I believe B2B outsourcing will pick up more momentum across many different industries over the next 12 months. 

B2B outsourcing is no longer reserved for large global corporations, many mid market companies are also starting to take an interest in B2B outsourcing as well.  In fact, nearly 25% of the respondents to the Stanford research were from mid-market size companies.  The research confirmed that these smaller companies are keen to leverage the B2B outsourcing services that have been used by the larger companies for many years.  The research showed that many of the smaller companies were able to implement new B2B technology very quickly,  provide connectivity and support to global trading partners and more importantly significantly  improve customer satisfaction. 

The research with Stanford was conducted by Dr. Hau Lee who heads up Stanford’s Supply Chain Management Forum.  He is regarded as one of the world’s leading authorities on developing supply chains.  He is famous for developing his ‘Triple A’ theory that says that nearly all supply chains are made up of three key characteristics.  He says that supply chains need to be AGILE, in other words they need to be designed in such a way that they can be flexible to certain market conditions.  They need to be ADAPTIVE, in order to change according to differing supply chain patterns and they need to be ALIGNED to the incentives applied to all trading partners involved in a supply chain. Recently, Dr. Hau Lee suggested that his theory could be extended by the addition of a further ‘A’ and that is ensuring that supply chains are ARCHITECTED properly to ensure that maximum value is obtained from the supply chain management process. 

For me, as part of my preparation for presenting at these events, it was a great opportunity to take a more in depth look at the results from the Stanford research.  For example, of the companies that took part in the research, just under half had only been using B2B outsourcing for the last year.  This was probably due to tough economic conditions, a need to globalise their supply chains or possibly a need to update their B2B infrastructure to support new connectivity standards or electronic document formats.  Whatever the reason, B2B outsourcing is here to stay and GXS expect many more companies to go down the B2B outsourcing route over the next few years. 

If you would like to find out more about why companies are looking to outsource their B2B infrastructures then please feel free to download a copy of the Stanford report from our website. Alternatively if you are based in Europe and would like to join us at one of our Executive Briefings in the near future then please keep a close eye on the events section of our UK website , as we will be running a number of other briefings over the next few months.