B2B Data Integration and Transformation Blog

In 2011, 35 million pounds of candy corn were produced for Halloween, equating to 9 billion pieces – or 27 pieces for every person in the U.S., that’s a lot of candy corn!  Consumers spent $2.2 billion on Halloween candy in 2011, and may spend four times that much in 2012.  The National Retail Federation estimates that total Halloween retail spending will reach almost $8 billion in 2012.[1]

Read More

In Part 1 and 2 of "2010 Holds Opportunity in Supplier Enablement" I wrote about the opportunity to increase efficiency and reduce cost in supplier enablement given the low utilization rate of electronic requisition-to-order throughout the North American supply chain. The Aberdeen research source for those pieces not only dealt with the order cycle but paper vs. electronic payment processes. Read More

In Part 1 of the article concerning opportunities in supplier enablement, I thought it interesting just how few orders are processed electronically around the globe with North America at 34%, Europe, Middle East, Africa (EMEA) at 36%, and Asia/Pacific at 41%. This same research cited cost savings of EDI order processing, to that of paper processing, of $13.62 in North America, $8.85 in EMEA, and $9.12 in Asia/Pacific. The research also provided percentage and cost numbers for payment processing and noted the convergence of the procurement and payments functions, but I'll leave that for another time. Read More

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.

Read More