Today, Stanford’s Global Supply Chain Management Forum released ground-breaking research on the benefits of B2B Outsourcing.

In marketing, when you conduct hard-core research that involves so many customers, you hope…but you never know how the results will turn out. Sometimes that is a risky scenario. I was never concerned that the results would not be positive, but the question was would the results really show the trend that we believe is happening. Will the results show the pain and difficult functions that we offload for customers everyday.

Early in 2007 GXS began the search for a partner with global capabilities, supply chain expertise, and a strong commitment to leading edge research. And, the independence of the research was very important.

We were looking to uncover the following:

• What are the elements of business value realized by companies that outsource B2B operations, where possible quantifying the level of benefits realized?
• What is the Return-on-Investment (ROI) associated with B2B outsourcing as it compares to other B2B initiatives?
• What are the best practices in B2B outsourcing that have contributed to achieving these results?

The results were stellar and conclusive. I could not be happier about the real business performance advantages customers are gaining from B2B Outsourcing. The managed services / on-demand / SaaS revolution will transform how companies purchase and use technology for the next 20 years. This research is strong validation.

We have posted the report in several formats, full research PDF, executive summary, and summary PPT. Check out the Stanford Research page on www.gxs.com for all the info.