
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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