2010 Holds Opportunity in Supplier Enablement - Part 1

As we close 2009, I've been catching up on some reading and stumbled across some Aberdeen Group research. The piece on supplier enablement across the world, was shocking. North America (34%) lags both Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA) (36%) and Asia/Pacific (41%) in electronically processed purchase orders. Paper requisitioning versus EDI requisitioning is as follows across the regions...EMEA $42.90/paper order and $34.05/EDI order, North America $37.45/paper order and $23.83/EDI order, Asia/Pacific $23.90/paper order and $14.78/EDI order.

There are a bunch of conclusions one can draw from the body of the research but two things were obvious to me from the above. With 34% of North American supplier orders being processed electronically, we still have the opportunity to squeeze a lot of costs from the supply chain with EDI and integration. Also, the multi country/culture/currency complexities of the EMEA region definitely increases the cost of procurement, and I would say doing business in general.