B2B Data Integration and Transformation Blog

This is the time of year that I spend talking with a lot of Remedi clients about how they are wrapping up 2016 and what their initiatives are for 2017.   I have noticed that these conversations over the past couple of years have changed from being a purely technical conversation with people mainly from our clients' IT departments to a more strategic conversation involving people from various areas of our clients' organizations including IT and lines of business.   Today, more and more of our clients are interested in how their data integration environments can become game changers within their organization.

 
As we begin the 4th quarter, many companies are not only wrapping up projects for the year but planning their projects for next year.  Being a resident of Ohio, our forecast can be a bit unpredictable but your B2B Integration forecast doesn't need to be.  Industry experts expect 96% of organizations to be impacted by at least one of four technology trends.  How will these four trends affect your forecast?

Often times when helping companies modernize their B2B integration, I get a glimpse of their old systems and gain insight as to why they felt the need to modernize. One of the most common reasons is to get all their integration software onto one comprehensive package. Generally, companies add additional software tools one by one as needs arise in their EDI department for requirements which older existing tools will not accommodate. In the instance of IT backlogs, Line of Business folks will procure integration solutions as a work-around to the capacity limitations of their IT department. Acquisitions frequently result in overlapping systems as well. Over time, more becomes less as complexity and inefficiency rise with each additional integration tool- a typical case of too many cooks.

 
Time management is all about production and efficiency. We often make decisions on tasks to optimize both while meeting our goals. Our tasks can fall into the categories of important and urgent. Important tasks are ones such as developing a strategy or doing research. These are critical to a company’s success, but have no well-defined deadline. Urgent tasks, however, have a well-defined deadline and are usually used by others to judge production and value for your company. Examples of urgent tasks include reports, meetings, and emergencies.