In order to maximize customer opportunities through B2B integrations, Dell has identified the primary criteria for quick, successful integrations. The closer your organization matches the following criteria the higher the likelihood that you can engage in a quick, successful integration. These are not hard and fast rules, but rather criteria that we have identified that can help lead to success.
Purchasing Focus
How your organization purchases can have an impact on your ability to integrate with vendors. We have found that organizations with the following criteria are good candidates for integration:
- Customers who have a mandate to accelerate e-commerce this year
- Customers who have developed or are developing an e-commerce strategy
- Customers with larger numbers of orders
- Customers that have more standardized configurations (i.e. can be configured in the existing Premier store)
- Customers with centralized procurement, even if the approval is decentralized
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Technology Focus
Your ERP and back-end technology can have an impact on the solution you need. Dell's solutions are best designed for customers with some of these capabilities:
- Customers with "punch out" capabilities in their ERP or access to an authenticated intranet
- Customers with dedicated development teams
- ERP systems with existing webMethods® integration modules
- ERP systems that can use or translate XML
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Guidelines for Successful E-Commerce
If you are just getting started in determining your strategy or choosing software partners to work with, there are several clear things that you can do to help ensure that the solution you choose will be flexible for B2B e-commerce in the future. Below are the key considerations that Dell has identified to help ensure compatibility.
- Talk to your suppliers first; get their input on systems they are working with today. This will give you the best perspective on how you can tie into their systems.
- Talk to others in your industry to find out what they are implementing; what were the pros and cons of their system, their implementation.
- Insist on industry-standard interfaces; don't get caught with a system that only one person or one company can work with.
- Look for solutions that allow "Punch out" capability. Vendors with complex products like computers, routers or other configurable products will require this flexibility as a flat-file catalog won't effectively meet your needs. Also, buyer-hosted catalogs put maintenance tasks on your staff where supplier-hosted catalogs put maintenance tasks on the suppliers.
- Insist on systems that allow user configuration. Examine your purchasing needs and make sure that your solution will allow you to perform the most common tasks without requiring 3rd party interaction or modification.
- Examine the long-term operating costs of your solution. Solutions built on long-term transaction costs might actually make it more costly in the future as you convert all of your purchasing over to the Internet.
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For further information about how your company can do B2B, please speak to your account executive or sales representative.
