Today’s automotive Original Equipment Manufacturers  are trying to find ways of simplifying B2B infrastructures, make them easier to deploy on a global basis and at the same time ensure that all suppliers are able to use the same B2B solution, no matter what their B2B expertise may be or where in the world they may be located. 

In recent years, hosted supply chain management solutions have been seen as a possible way of simplifying B2B infrastructures, but how will this be achieved?  Software as a Service (SaaS) based environments have been around for a few years now but they have really only been used for specific functions within a company, for example in customer relationship management or human resources applications.  SaaS based environments have many advantages over traditional software implementations, for example  

• there is no upfront capital cost in purchasing software, it is delivered via a monthly or annual subscription model
• there is no software infrastructure to manage, all you need is a web browser to access the hosted SaaS application
• as the software is managed centrally you can be assured that all users of the SaaS application will be using the latest version

In order for automotive OEMs to expand into new geographically dispersed regions around the world and to ensure 100% involvement from their trading partner community, they will have to find new ways to support their supply chain. SaaS has the potential to transform today’s B2B platform used within the automotive industry, providing companies with access to the same information, anytime, any place and anywhere in the world at a lower cost using a simpler, easier to manage infrastructure.   

The new version of SaaS, version 2.0, includes capabilities to integrate seamlessly with other back office systems, and this could see more widespread adoption of SaaS based environments within the automotive supply chain. There are a number of building blocks that make up a SaaS based environment and GXS Trading Grid infrastructure provides the ideal platform to deploy a SaaS based environment.  The highly available and reliable nature of our Trading Grid  infrastructure means that applications can be deployed and used simply by using a web browser.  For a small supplier with no internal IT support or skills to deploy their own B2B infrastructure, SaaS has the potential to provide a new level of interaction with an automotive manufacturer’s supply chain. 

Moving forwards, Integration as a Service, (IaaS), will also grow in importance and you can be assured that through our partnership with Software AG and their webMethods solution we will be able to provide hosted integration solutions as well.

SaaS will form the basis of a presentation I will be giving at the Odette show at the end November in Prague, which will look at ‘Next Generation B2B Trading Platforms’.  For further information about this event please visit www.odette.org.

Over the last decade we have seen immense progress in the development of handheld computers.  One of the first ones I owned, way back in 1996, was the Psion5.  In its day it was being used by many companies for running basic office applications and allowing employees to keep in touch with the office via email whenever they were on the road.  The thing that made it appealing for me was the combination of full QWERTY keyboard  and touch screen interface.  The Psion range of handheld computers was actually a major achievement in packaging and in terms of usability it was up there with anything that Apple had to offer at the time.

Over the years we have seen a number of different handheld computers hit the market including the Palm, BlackBerry and various Windows Mobile based computers.  Each model has seen progress being made in CPU performance, screen resolution and increased hard drive capacity.  In fact many of today’s handhelds are nearly capable  of running full blown office applications.  One of the more significant developments to come out of Psion was the Symbian operating system, this was a joint venture with Nokia and Ericsson in 1998 with the aim of developing customised applications to run on mobile phones.  The only problem was that Symbian was way ahead of its time and unfortunately the mobile platforms back then were not able to fully utilise the powerful features of Symbian.  Symbian was very much regarded as one of the key enablers to allowing companies to develop their own mobile applications and allow integration with back office systems.

Today, both BlackBerry and Windows Mobile devices dominate the market and these handhelds are starting to allow the ‘mobilisation’ of enterprise systems. These devices have excellent ergonomics and perform very well, but there is a new competitor about to enter the market, a company that has a strong reputation for developing excellent user interfaces and stylish portable devices, Apple.  Apple developed the first graphical user interface running on their Apple Lisa computer, but more recently their iPod music player has become an industry leader.  Now, Apple are looking to repeat this success with their iPhone.

The iPhone has only just hit the streets in the U.S, but already we have seen a press release from Netsuite saying that they are going to port their enterprise applications to the iPhone.  This is significant as it means that users of the iPhone will be able to get access to enterprise solutions such as CRM and ERP packages.  Key to this is the delivery of applications via the iPhone’s Safari web browser and the ability to use these applications through a Software as a Service (SaaS) delivery model.  I will discuss SaaS in another post but it essentially allows you to use software via the internet or private network without having to have the application actually loaded on the computer.  Delivering applications in this way now means that handheld computers or ‘multi-use’ devices such as the iPhone can be used to integrate to back office solutions.

The press release from Netsuite, discussed over on silicon.com, is significant as you can guarantee that there will be many more companies out there looking to develop SaaS based custom applications for the iPhone.  So the question is, how long will it be before companies are able to get access to their B2B infrastructure via the iPhone?

B2B and EDI infrastructures are extremely complex and many of the more important applications were never really designed with portable computing in mind, after all a few years ago, who would want to complete an invoice or purchase order whilst out of the office?  A more likely application would be for a logistics or supply chain manager to quickly check on the performance of his trading partners or to check on the number of orders that have been successfully processed in say the last month.  What if you could check on the location of any shipment worldwide by simply using a customised version of Google Earth that could run on the iPhone?, that would have to be the holy grail of logistics visibility solutions.

GXS have a number of B2B applications that could be developed at some point in the future to run within a ‘mobile trading’ environment and we already have a world leading application integration solution to allow back office integration to leading enterprise solutions such as SAP.  So what would an iPhone based B2B trading platform look like?, well here is a mock-up that I produced, not much detail!, but then again it would have to be simple and easy to use to stay in the same mould as other Apple based applications. 

In summary, the BlackBerry and Windows Mobile platforms have transformed the way in which office applications are used on the move. The hardware is now able to run the applications efficiently, the operating systems and applications allow integration to back office solutions, therefore I wonder how long it will be before a B2B trading platform can be fully mobilised?

So this is an interesting concept, if it were possible to conduct B2B trading in a virtual world, would companies use it?.  Well according to this story over on silicon.com  it may not be that far away. The virtual world Second Life , is a computer generated virtual world with nearly 6 million ‘residents’ and nearly $1.5Million ‘real world’ monies are exchanged on a daily basis.  Individual users sign up, choose an avatar or 3D likeness of themselves and then they can begin roaming around the virtual world.  Up until recently the virtual worlds were restricted to ‘visitor’ type attractions, such as the Kennedy Space Centre, but now large companies are starting to see Second Life as a superb marketing tool to showcase their products to a large and a fairly captive audience.  So here are some examples of what these companies are doing:

BMW have established a virtual car showroom to allow visitors to see their latest concept cars and see how they plan to develop their cars in the future.  I wonder if you will eventually be able to configure and order your car through Second Life in the future.  People said that online trading, eg buying a car through a website would never takeoff, but it has.  This way of displaying your products enhances the buying experience.

Picture credit: Second Life/Linden Lab

Cisco Systems have built their own house to showcase their networking technology and how it can be used to control all aspects of the house.

Picture credit: Second Life/Linden Lab 

IBM have built a whole campus which is used to explain what they do as a company, the type of products they sell and how companies are implementing their solutions.  In marketing we often use case studies to showcase how our customers use our B2B solutions, imagine how these case studies could be brought to life in a world like this.

Picture credit: Second Life/Linden Lab

So with companies entering Second Life, individuals buying goods, casinos offering online gambling, what you also need is a law firm to keep things under control!.  Just as law firms can offer companies advice on using the internet to conduct business etc, so a similar requirement is now needed in Second Life as well.  This is one of the reasons why the law firm Field Fisher Waterhouse have recently setup an ‘office’ in Second Life. 

Picture credit: Second Life/Linden Lab

Second Life is growing very quickly, housing a large virtual  population and big brand global companies fighting to get a presence, if the residents are able to buy goods from virtual shops, how long will it be before companies could  buy goods from each other?  If this happens, how do companies then manage this buying and selling process in a virtual world?  Will we see 3D virtual invoices being sent from one company to another, will we see bar code labeling somehow being applied to goods in the virtual world and then being able to track the movement of goods within second life?  The internet has totally transformed the way in which companies conduct B2B trading between themselves, are we now seeing a new type of trading environment emerging?

One thought I have had, picking up on the virtual bar code labeling idea above, what about if you could use this environment as a ‘visibility’ platform for tracking the movement of your goods from your suppliers or to your customers.  Today, visibility into the supply chain is one of the most important areas that companies want to improve.  RFID , bar code labeling etc have all been introduced to help improve the visibility of globally shipped goods.  What about if you could setup a virtual environment that simulated your supply chain and you could see in 3D where goods were within their shipping process.  For example setting up virtual distribution centres, cargo ports, airports etc, this could provide the holy grail of visibility solutions for companies wishing to improve visibility of shipped goods.

Another example is Google Earth, companies are already finding ways of exploiting this from a commercial perspective, for example VW are looking at using Google Earth as their next 3D mapping environment for their next generation satellite navigation system. Could Google earth be used in a similar way to Second Life for improving visibility into a supply chain?

So an interesting insight into the possible direction for future B2B trading environments, as mentioned earlier, the internet has transformed the way in which companies conduct business between each other, could these new 3D virtual environments provide the next generation B2B platform?, only time will tell.  My colleague Justin Duewel-Zahniser, who also posts on the GXS blog site, is very experienced in the use of Second Life and I am sure it won’t be too long before he posts his thoughts on the potential business opportunities for Second Life…