A part of my current role that I really enjoy is working with our partners, including webMethods, Microsoft, Covast, Cleo Communications, EDISoft, and many others.  We use a lot of their technology in our on-demand services platform — the GXS Trading Grid — but we also resell their solutions to our customers for connecting to us. 

Interestingly, this comes up in my discussions with industry analysts, whom I work with as another part of my role.  I often have to explain the seemingly random array of software we offer to customers.  Luckily, the analysts we work with are deep in our area, and “get it” — but on the surface one could argue that all these offerings are competitive; unless you look into the “fit”.  The reason there are so many different B2B enablement solutions is that there are so many kinds of companies, industries and problems. Read the rest of this entry »

Nice article from BusinessWeek featuring Nicholas Carr and Microsoft’s Robert McDowell debating “Just How Important is IT Anyway”.

If you dont’ remember, Nicholas Carr was the author of the provocative “Does IT Matter” article (subsequently turned into a book), which basically said that information technology was becoming commoditized and was not a source of competitive advantage.  There were many immediate reactions, and the debate has continued online (and in print) ever since.

What I find interesting about the BusinessWeek article is that each contributer is more “nuanced”, with Carr stating that not all of IT — but most of it — is a commodity.  Likewise, McDowell is willing to admit that some pieces of the technology stack are no longer sources of competitive advantage, but many are. Read the rest of this entry »

Are you a skeptic on SaaS (the accepted acronym for Software as a Service), repent — I have incontrovertible evidence it is real, an integration adapter.  I was attending my second Microsoft Conference (the SOA & BizTalk Conference at the Microsoft Campus) when I attended a session entitled: Implementing Business Processes by Integrating Packaged Applications with Software As A Service (SaaS) Providers   (it was delivered by Javier Mariscal, & Jesus Rodriguez of TwoConnect).

What fascinated me was Read the rest of this entry »

As part of my role at GXS, I get to attend a few conferences through the year, particularly those of key partners like webMethods and Microsoft.  I’m currently at the BizTalk/SOA conference, which has been very interesting — especially yesterday…

One of my marketing colleagues is at the conference — he manages the Microsoft relationship for GXS — and he was trying to alter his travel plans.  Like me, he has some favorite airlines (who shall remain nameless…), some of which have long legacies, and some of which are very young.  He was “sharing” his frustration with one airline’s website, so I suggested he tell their lead architect, who was standing a short distance away in conversation with a member of the BizTalk marketing team. Read the rest of this entry »

As we near the official “launch” date for this blog (when GXS will begin promoting it via website and newsletters), there will be some changes to how the blog looks, and operates.  One of these changes is the name, which will now be “On Demand B2B”