The last five years has seen a surge in recognition by businesses of the importance of building supply chain resilience. Global events have highlighted the dangers of being unable to react to disruptions, and organisations are increasingly aware of the value of flexibility and adaptability, particularly when it comes to critical B2B processes. Yet despite this, according to a recent KPMG survey, 47% of supply chain executives believe they are still “vulnerable to disruption”.
While there is obviously no way to predict the future, there are pragmatic steps that businesses can take to boost supply chain resilience. Perhaps the simplest and fastest of these to achieve is improving B2B automation. Not only does automating key processes minimise the potential for human error, it can also improve speed and free up staff members to focus on more valuable tasks. In the event of unforeseen circumstances, businesses thus benefit from increased flexibility, as the majority of business-critical tasks aren’t dependent on human intervention.
What our research shows
As part of a wider research project concerning B2B integration trends, we recently conducted our own cross-industry survey in which we asked people their views on the importance of B2B automation.
Of the over 100 supply chain executives we surveyed, 88% believe that optimising automated B2B processes can improve supply chain resilience. Further, over half of those surveyed predicted that efficient automation would improve supply chain resilience “substantially”.
Similarly, 62% of respondents saw automated B2B communication as “very important” to the success of their business moving forward, with none seeing it as unimportant or irrelevant.
The Future of B2B Integration Survey, 2024
What can you do?
Improve and expand automation of business-critical processes! Not only will expanding and optimising automated processes streamline processes and minimise the possibility of human errors, it will also free up internal teams to be able to focus on more value-adding activities.
In particular, introducing electronic data interchange (EDI) and e-invoicing can make a huge difference to the efficiency of day-to-day messaging and drastically improve supply chain resilience.
“As more of the supply chain becomes automated, roles can be redefined to focus on higher-value customer services, and new roles will emerge for humans that drive strategy and innovation.”
Questions to ask yourself
- Are existing B2B integration processes inhibiting your company’s ability to react quickly to market changes?
- Do you currently have business-critical processes that could be automated?
- Are any key supply chain operations reliant on one or two individuals?
- Have you considered investing in a Web EDI solution to extend automation across your entire partner landscape?
- Would internal team members be able to add more value elsewhere if EDI tasks were outsourced?
Want more information on EDI trends?
This article is based on a chapter from our white paper “The Future of B2B Integration – Market Trends Report”, in which we share survey results as well as predictions concerning the evolution of B2B integration. To download your free copy now, simply visit the white paper page and enter your details!
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