The document discusses common misperceptions around e-commerce and how three companies have addressed them. Tammy Wagner from SHI International discusses initial fears around e-commerce disintermediating customers but finding it improved customer service. Joni Anderson from OfficeMax explains how appointing a Chief Digital Officer helped advance their e-commerce strategy. Ken Redler from cSubs debunks the myth that e-commerce requires large budgets, detailing how they integrated with Ariba with fewer resources than expected.
John D’AquilaSHI Applications Support Manager John D’Aquila leads a team of professionals who support SHI’s customer-facing and internal applications, e-commerce platforms and integration, and data quality. His group provides innovative technology solutions to help SHI’s customers drive down the cost of IT acquisition, lower processing costs and provide superior visibility into their IT spend. John joined SHI in 2001 as a Accounts Receivables Representative where he effectively managed aged receivables organizations in 10 states for 2 years before moving to the e-commerce realm. He graduated from Kean University with a Master’s in Management Information Systems and Bachelor’s in Management Science. For more information, visit www.shi.com.
What are the challenges and obstacles (both internal and external ) to overcome on your journey-learn about eCommerce, talk to my counterparts about their experience and customer satisfaction. Once I felt comfortable, I started to discuss with customers and make them aware of our capabilities.How did you overcome and change to meet the challenge(s)-see above.Who did you have to work with/partner with on the journey-John D., large enterprise SHI reps
Our Approach:Reduce the total cost of ownershipManage an effective integrated solutions programEnsure end-user satisfactionIncrease productivityOptimize your purchasing powerRespond to environmental prioritiesComment on World’s most ethical companies two years in a row.
Ariba Ready Certified Platinum SellerOver 10 years of experience with AribaMember Ariba Supplier Steering Committee ***Past recipient of Ariba Spend Management Excellence Award*** $120+ Million in transactions in 201275+ current customers using Ariba40+ using punchoutIntegration is a ‘breeze’
On the maturity scale….Traditional EDI for over 15 yearsAll of this is customer driven, as we are completely customer centricOver these years developed proven methodologyDiscovery, data prep, build, test, implementWe integrate with over 15 different third party ecom providersPersonal opinion about Ariba- you guys rockOver 200 integrations per yearAt a time when B2B businesses are hurting in general, digital revenue shows double digit grown year after yearWhat drove us is speed to revenue for us, and being the customer advocate to allow customers to quickly realize savings by automating transactions
Ecom at OMX early days- here’s our myth…Thenecessary evil. IT owned the infrastructure so I guess it made sense for us to live there.Companies like us used homegrown systems repurposed from other internal uses (e.g., EDI portals) and because we didn’t have a dedicated budgetWe needed to stand in line to share IT resourcesStruggled to make informed budget and investment decisionsWe sat in IT because no one understood what we did- but we’re business people! Simply stated: WE WERE A CATALOG COMPANY- a paper catalog company who didn’t really know understandhow to grow digitally. We had teams of people who would try to manually add new items to our database, each differentlyThey didn’t think that a person might one day be trying to search for this item by description. Example of 1 inch white binder.Ariba was our first punchout experience as a supplier. In fact we piloted it with them. They opened our eyes to see the benefit of clean data from an online search perspective, leading us to develop processes that provided a consistent customer experience both in digital catalogs and via punchout.
So now have really gotten our act togetherCrawled out from under the IT rockCustomers have come to expect a b2c experience with b2b controlsCEO 100% supportEnter the CDOEvangelist Some old school colleagues were dragged in kicking and screamingTalk about how we are launching multiyear B2B eCommerce strategies and have built a solid core in-house eCommerce team based on the foundation of the Ariba integrations team. We are now digital commerce with our own P/L…dotted line to b2b salesIT partners and business folks alike report to CDOGrown 300 percent in the last year.We truly are now all about the marriage between IT and Marketing.At the end of the day, digital commerce is a marriage of businesses collaborating with some techie stuff mixed in.We get it.
So I’ve told you about our journey…Something for you all to ponder…Consider ourselves a practitioner in most aspectsMeasuring success along the wayEcomm is here and now and definitely the future/ We are all consumers- why wouldn’t we and expect a B2C type experience when we get to work?
We’ve been measuring our digital success along the way…Developing processes is what lead us to the 30 day promise with Ariba customers and others which:Speed to revenue… 30 day promiseAccelerate the sales cycle- win new business due to proven methodologyReduces errors- hands off!Get paid faster- reduces dso due to complete visibility actual example…..detailsImproves my customer retention- our commitment to excellenceAnd on and on…. Details on this.We’re able to use our experience with providers like Ariba to win new business and to retain existing business.Don’t be dragged kicking and screaming. Embrace…..
Humorous note, how many of you are also in small businesses – you all well know that in addition to these responsibilities, there’s a big catch-all at the bottom. Everything complicated eventually lands in your lap as a problem to solve with finite resources.AS COMPANY HAS GROWN RESPONSIBILITIES HAVE GROWN/CHANGED – STRATEGICDECISION TO MOVE TOWARD INTEGRATION W PROC. SYSTEMS, ARIBAMade early strategic call to begin integrating with systems like Ariba, despite being a small company with finite resources and fear of “the myth”.Proved to be the right decision for the growth and positioning of the company
Creating efficiencies in an old-line businessSingle Catalog of Magazines and BooksSingleSource ProcurementConsolidated BillingApproval and Accountability
Last frame intro: Our newest service, Clarity, a web based system designed specifically to allow organizations to manage their licensed content. I’ll talk about not only how working with a platform like Ariba hasn’t required a massive IT budget, but has in fact been an enabling tool that’s let cSubs direct resources at new products and services that take advantage of some of what integration with an enterprise procurement system allows.
History, quick humorous run through, 30 secNarrative line: physical to virtual, magazines to licensed contentSPK NOTE: WE TAKE A MESSY AND COMPLICATED OLD-LINE BUSINESS AND ABSTRACT IT, PUTTING A FRIENDLY AND EFFICIENT INTERFACE ON TOP – THAT’S HOW WE ADD VALUE
Poll users – show of handsConcerned about complexity, time, resources, budgetCustomers requested or demanded Ariba integrationRFPs started including the requirement
Discussion: double hump on overall architectural project cost, dip between those first humps when work became more customer specific, then a slight uptick afterward, which was cleanup, learning from experience, improving decisions made before we had experience. Then we reaped the benefit – architectural costs tail off toward a flat maintenance level, and each additional customer integration is a bit easier and quicker than the previous. We learn from experience, and the consistency of the environment/interface/API/methodology makes it easier over time to take on even larger customers.
On-the fly customization of purchased “items” from Clarity and similar new services can be immediately placed into a cart, routed for approval, and have an electronic PO received.
SPK NOTE: LET’S LOOK AT SOMETHING CONCRETECLARITY SCREENSHOT REF END OF TIMELINE, WE CAN BUILD A NEW SERVICE AND EXTEND IT AS A SERVICE TO EXISTING CUST W/ARIBA INTEGRATION, SEAMLESS, SSO, CUSTOMER COMFORT LEVEL, EASIER SELL, LESS FRICTION ETC