After making large investments for limited penetration, leading supply chain competitors unite to bring standards and best practices to China, Japan and the rest of Asia.

A press release was sent off earlier today, Tuesday November 10th, by Inovis on the Asian partnership.  The new organization is AsiaB2B.org .  It is a collaborative effort between the following founding companies:  Cisco, CrimsonLogic, Fairchild Semiconductor, Freescale Semiconductor, GXS, Inovis, Intel, Microsoft, SAP, Seeburger, and Siltronic.  The organization was put together by EDIFICE Standards Organization out of Europe.

There is an open invitation for companies to join currently without membership dues.  The one condition is that you have something to offer and belong at the table.  The website has the mission of the organization clearly stated. 

The Objective of this community is to facilitate the need of a standards independent B2B user community that allows companies to create an active knowledge sharing network for B2B and Business experts in the Asia-Pacific region.

AsiaB2B aims to establish active working groups in various business process areas, offer opportunities for learning about and influencing of B2B and business process standards.

Inovis had addtional information on their blog which included an interview with their point person on the project, Chris Beukenkamp.

Q: What is AsiaB2B and what are its objectives?

A: AsiaB2B is a B2B user community that allows distributors, suppliers, partners, vendors, competitors and SMEs to all gather together to discuss standards, technology and trends in the industry specific to Asia.  You can read more here. For me, it is an opportunity to listen to multiple companies both interested in and leading B2B, alike in the same room at the same time.

Q: What are the benefits of AsiaB2B and how can companies maximize these benefits?

A: Whether you know about B2B or you don’t even know how to spell EDI, AsiaB2B is a place to get information on what the community is doing well and where they are struggling.  It allows you to pose process, modeling, and connectivity questions to the community as a whole and hear what others are facing.  It allows you to ask questions of those who have done it before and share your own successes with the group.  Furthermore, with the vendor participation, you can see what is coming down the road from a technology standpoint.

B2B only works when there is another “B” to connect to.  You can’t go it alone and you should not have to reinvent the wheel. AsiaB2B strives to be that community that allows companies to develop their standards and ensure they get adopted across companies.  More importantly, AsiaB2B tackles problems specific to Asia such as Japanese standards and double-byte character issues.

The companies that participate and become a member gain the most benefit.  They can lead and belong to task groups that decide on standards.  They can determine and drive the next topic and event theme.  They can ask their questions and answer others.  AsiaB2B looks for the decision makers and the hands-on experts of B2B.  Who is dealing with the PO and Invoice every day?  Who is managing the on-boarding?  Who is building the maps and who is analyzing which key partners should be trading electronically?  These are the people that make AsiaB2B tick.

Q: How is Inovis involved in this and what are our future plans in supporting this initiative to enccourage collaboration amongst B2B users?

A: Inovis is proud to be a founding member of AsiaB2B as well as a member of AsiaB2B’s sister organization, EDIFICE in Europe.  As Inovis continues to grow in Asia, we will watch and participate with AsiaB2B closely to make sure we are bringing to market the right products and solutions that users are requesting.  The standards that are decided upon by the community will be what Inovis adheres to in our continued implementation, support, and on-boarding efforts in Asia.  As part of the Steering Committee, part of my goal will be to continue to drive attendance and participation from my customers throughout the 53 countries Inovis covers in Asia!

Q: How do you see AsiaB2B affecting Asia-Pacific business going forward?

A: AsiaB2B will paint the roadmap for B2B in the future.  AsiaB2B is not about one standard or one technology.  We discuss EDI and RosettaNet; OAGi and  XML; JEITA and Zengin.  You could be interested in in-house or out sourced,  SaaS or DIY.  This organization shows a conglomerated view of how companies are doing business today.  On our blog we recently explained how we split our offerings into three buckets for MFT.  The only difference at AsiaB2B is you get to see several companies buckets side by side and learn what is inside.

Q: Who can join AsiaB2B?

A: Anyone interested in B2B topics related to Asia can join.  AsiaB2B is not limited to one vertical or country.  At our  Inaugural Meeting in Taipei we had companies from automotive, hi-tech, retail, solution providers,  and electronics.  We also had participation from China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan, and Vietnam.  I look forward to meeting you and connecting at our next meeting.

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