Transcript of a BriefingsDirect on how a mid-market company saw immediate results from participation in Ariba Discovery, eliminating the need for mailing half a million catalogs a year.
Deal Site List Building : Use Daily Deal Sites to Build a HUGE ListAlicia Lyttle
In this presentation Alicia Lyttle & Lorette Lyttle show you how you can use the Daily Deal Sites like Groupon & Living Social to build a Massive database. They also show us how we can run digital deals on Daily Deal Sites ( the new wave for Digital Sales!)
Deal Site List Building : Use Daily Deal Sites to Build a HUGE ListAlicia Lyttle
In this presentation Alicia Lyttle & Lorette Lyttle show you how you can use the Daily Deal Sites like Groupon & Living Social to build a Massive database. They also show us how we can run digital deals on Daily Deal Sites ( the new wave for Digital Sales!)
The Open Group Conference to Emphasize Healthcare as Key Sector for Ecosystem...Dana Gardner
Transcript of a BriefingsDirect podcast on how the healthcare industry is poised to take advantage of enterprise architecture to bring benefits to patients, doctors, and allied health professionals.
Thought Leader Interview: HP's Global CISO Brett Wahlin on the Future of Secu...Dana Gardner
Transcript of a BriefingsDirect podcast on how increased and more sophisticated attacks are forcing enterprises to innovate and expand security practices to not only detect, but predict, system intrusions.
As Indiana Health Care Provider Goes Fully Virtualized, it Gains Head Start o...Dana Gardner
Transcript of a BriefingsDirect podcast on how Associated Surgeons and Physicians, LLC went from a 100 percent physical to 100 percent virtual infrastructure.
Cybersecurity is a Necessity, Not an Option, in the Face of Global Security T...Dana Gardner
Transcript of a BriefingDirect podcast on the growing need for cybersecurity as an important organizational goal for businesses and government agencies.
Service Virtualization Brings Speed Benefit and Lower Costs to TTNET Applicat...Dana Gardner
Transcript of a BriefingsDirect podcast on how Türk Telekom subsidiary TTNET has leveraged Service Virtualization to significantly improve productivity.
Lancashire libraries have teamed up with UK Online Centres and Google to support small businesses, charities and
start-ups in Lancashire make the most of being online. Google Digital Garage consists of a series of free tutorials on everything from your website to online marketing and beyond. You can create a personal profile of your needs and choose the topics you want to learn. We are happy to offer introductory training and support.
Platform 3.0 Ripe to Give Standard Access to Advanced Intelligence and Automa...Dana Gardner
Transcript of a BriefingsDirect podcast on how The Open Group is working to stay ahead of challenges organization face with an increase in data volume and sources.
Growing BYOD Trend Brings New Security Challenges for IT in Allowing Greater ...Dana Gardner
Transcript of a BriefingsDirect podcast on how Dell Software is helping to bring standardized and flexible approaches to making BYOD a positive new force to enterprise productivity.
SAP Ariba Chief Strategy Officer on The Digitization of Business and the Futu...Dana Gardner
Transcript of a sponsored discussion on how advancements in business applications and the modern infrastructure that supports them portends new and higher degrees of business innovation.
Futureproofing digital business models in Retail - Jacob Dutton, 383 - Byte B...383
Jacob Dutton, Partner & Commercial Director at digital experience studio 383, talks about the ways that traditional retail models are being disrupted. He also explore some practical ways that today's retailers can help to future proof their revenue streams for tomorrow
Jacob spoke at 383's monthly Byte Breakfast event. Each event features a guest speaker from inside one of the world’s most interesting companies and a related talk on product development and customer experience from a team lead at 383.
Closing the Digital Transformation GapDana Gardner
Transcript of a discussion on how intelligence gleaned from business applications, data, and networks provides the best new hope for closing the digital transformation gap at many companies.
SAP Ariba’s President Barry Padgett On Building the Intelligent EnterpriseDana Gardner
Transcript of a discussion on how business functions such as procurement and supply chain management help businesses extract broad insights and accelerate strategic intelligence benefits.
Data-Driven Insight, Edge Computing, and Revamped User Experience Give Retai...Dana Gardner
Transcript of a discussion on how data-driven intelligence, edge computing, and rethinking of the user experience come together to give retailers a clear path to digital transformation.
Procurement in 2025: The Future Looks Bright Dana Gardner
Transcript of a discussion on how rapidly evolving technologies impact the future of procurement and the professionals who will drive it to a new plane of greater influence and impact.
Benchmark of Ecommerce solution - full [english]Philippe Humeau
The Benchmark of Ecommerce solution is an in depth review of 12 popular e-commerce solutions and frameworks. In the Java family, Hybris, Intershop, Websphere and ATG are reviewed. For the PHP one: Magento, Prestashop, Drupal Commerce, Oxid eShop, Virtuemart, RBS Change, Opencart & Zen cart.
For all the solutions, their global philosophy, strategy and technical strengths / weaknesses are browsed and analyzed. Each solution is also ranked on 24 technical KPIs.
This 180+ pages study is now brought to you, free of charge, by NBS System.
(The global summary table can be found here: http://www.nbs-system.com/wp-content/uploads/Global%20rating%20table.html)
To date, the V1 of the study gathered 15000+ readers and V2 counts already 22000+ readers. It is said by our readers to be the most complete and comprehensive resource about ecommerce solutions to date. We will update this work to V3 during 2014, including 4 to 5 more solutions.
Note also that this study is available in Spanish and French.
We are publishing the study in our Lab section: http://www.nbs-system.co.uk/blog/benchmark-of-e-commerce-solutions.html
Building a Modern Marketing Organization in a Multi-Channel WorldDana Gardner
Transcript of a sponsored discussion on how social medical and business networks have taken the lead in shaping perceptions about brands, products, and companies.
The Open Group Conference to Emphasize Healthcare as Key Sector for Ecosystem...Dana Gardner
Transcript of a BriefingsDirect podcast on how the healthcare industry is poised to take advantage of enterprise architecture to bring benefits to patients, doctors, and allied health professionals.
Thought Leader Interview: HP's Global CISO Brett Wahlin on the Future of Secu...Dana Gardner
Transcript of a BriefingsDirect podcast on how increased and more sophisticated attacks are forcing enterprises to innovate and expand security practices to not only detect, but predict, system intrusions.
As Indiana Health Care Provider Goes Fully Virtualized, it Gains Head Start o...Dana Gardner
Transcript of a BriefingsDirect podcast on how Associated Surgeons and Physicians, LLC went from a 100 percent physical to 100 percent virtual infrastructure.
Cybersecurity is a Necessity, Not an Option, in the Face of Global Security T...Dana Gardner
Transcript of a BriefingDirect podcast on the growing need for cybersecurity as an important organizational goal for businesses and government agencies.
Service Virtualization Brings Speed Benefit and Lower Costs to TTNET Applicat...Dana Gardner
Transcript of a BriefingsDirect podcast on how Türk Telekom subsidiary TTNET has leveraged Service Virtualization to significantly improve productivity.
Lancashire libraries have teamed up with UK Online Centres and Google to support small businesses, charities and
start-ups in Lancashire make the most of being online. Google Digital Garage consists of a series of free tutorials on everything from your website to online marketing and beyond. You can create a personal profile of your needs and choose the topics you want to learn. We are happy to offer introductory training and support.
Platform 3.0 Ripe to Give Standard Access to Advanced Intelligence and Automa...Dana Gardner
Transcript of a BriefingsDirect podcast on how The Open Group is working to stay ahead of challenges organization face with an increase in data volume and sources.
Growing BYOD Trend Brings New Security Challenges for IT in Allowing Greater ...Dana Gardner
Transcript of a BriefingsDirect podcast on how Dell Software is helping to bring standardized and flexible approaches to making BYOD a positive new force to enterprise productivity.
SAP Ariba Chief Strategy Officer on The Digitization of Business and the Futu...Dana Gardner
Transcript of a sponsored discussion on how advancements in business applications and the modern infrastructure that supports them portends new and higher degrees of business innovation.
Futureproofing digital business models in Retail - Jacob Dutton, 383 - Byte B...383
Jacob Dutton, Partner & Commercial Director at digital experience studio 383, talks about the ways that traditional retail models are being disrupted. He also explore some practical ways that today's retailers can help to future proof their revenue streams for tomorrow
Jacob spoke at 383's monthly Byte Breakfast event. Each event features a guest speaker from inside one of the world’s most interesting companies and a related talk on product development and customer experience from a team lead at 383.
Closing the Digital Transformation GapDana Gardner
Transcript of a discussion on how intelligence gleaned from business applications, data, and networks provides the best new hope for closing the digital transformation gap at many companies.
SAP Ariba’s President Barry Padgett On Building the Intelligent EnterpriseDana Gardner
Transcript of a discussion on how business functions such as procurement and supply chain management help businesses extract broad insights and accelerate strategic intelligence benefits.
Data-Driven Insight, Edge Computing, and Revamped User Experience Give Retai...Dana Gardner
Transcript of a discussion on how data-driven intelligence, edge computing, and rethinking of the user experience come together to give retailers a clear path to digital transformation.
Procurement in 2025: The Future Looks Bright Dana Gardner
Transcript of a discussion on how rapidly evolving technologies impact the future of procurement and the professionals who will drive it to a new plane of greater influence and impact.
Benchmark of Ecommerce solution - full [english]Philippe Humeau
The Benchmark of Ecommerce solution is an in depth review of 12 popular e-commerce solutions and frameworks. In the Java family, Hybris, Intershop, Websphere and ATG are reviewed. For the PHP one: Magento, Prestashop, Drupal Commerce, Oxid eShop, Virtuemart, RBS Change, Opencart & Zen cart.
For all the solutions, their global philosophy, strategy and technical strengths / weaknesses are browsed and analyzed. Each solution is also ranked on 24 technical KPIs.
This 180+ pages study is now brought to you, free of charge, by NBS System.
(The global summary table can be found here: http://www.nbs-system.com/wp-content/uploads/Global%20rating%20table.html)
To date, the V1 of the study gathered 15000+ readers and V2 counts already 22000+ readers. It is said by our readers to be the most complete and comprehensive resource about ecommerce solutions to date. We will update this work to V3 during 2014, including 4 to 5 more solutions.
Note also that this study is available in Spanish and French.
We are publishing the study in our Lab section: http://www.nbs-system.co.uk/blog/benchmark-of-e-commerce-solutions.html
Building a Modern Marketing Organization in a Multi-Channel WorldDana Gardner
Transcript of a sponsored discussion on how social medical and business networks have taken the lead in shaping perceptions about brands, products, and companies.
Transcript: Redefining the book supply chain: A glimpse into the future - Tec...BookNet Canada
Supply chains are built and updated by design, with goals set by the stakeholders on the ground. Those goals reflect the era and the tools available when the supply chains were created. As needs and capabilities evolve, old designs can start to limit functionality and limit new idea generation. Join Book Industry Study Group Executive Director Brian O’Leary as he suggests visionary ideas about the book industry as it could be.
In this talk, O’Leary reflects on the goal of promoting growth in the industry, offering ideas to accelerate revenue streams for business development, identify efficiencies, and improve insights. Referencing trends and insights evident today, O’Leary shares his vision of an emerging book industry supply chain and offers advice for professionals working today to future-proof their skills. This webinar will include a longer Q&A session, please bring your questions for Brian O’Leary.
Link to recording and slides: https://bnctechforum.ca/sessions/redefining-the-book-supply-chain-a-glimpse-into-the-future/
Presented by BookNet Canada on November 30, 2023 with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage.
Digital Leadership: An interview with Angela AhrendtsCapgemini
From in-store iPads and streaming media to its strong back-end infrastructure, Burberry has become a forerunner in adopting digital technologies to connect its channels, creating a new, rich brand experience for consumers. The digital transformation of this 156-year-old British icon began six years ago when fashion-industry veteran Angela Ahrendts, became Chief Executive Officer. Although she did not have an IT background, Angela has tenaciously led a digital transformation that has established the company as probably the most digital luxury brand in the world.
Transcript: New from BookNet Canada for 2023: BNC SalesData and LibraryData -...BookNet Canada
Monique Mongeon updates us on what 2022 brought for SalesData and LibraryData. Learn about subject trends we’ve seen, new features and upgrades, and what’s in store for 2023.
Link to presentation: https://youtu.be/CmpbLDubSSM
Presented by BookNet Canada on April 11, 2023 with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage.
The Future Of B2B Marketing / By @TheCoolestCoolRoss Simmonds
From RossSimmonds.com - Check it out for great information on B2B Marketing!
Over the last few years, the entire sales and marketing process for B2B and enterprise organizations has shifted. These companies are no longer armed with information that is hidden from the public and sales teams are no longer in the driver seat. Leads and prospects now hold the power as information is more readily available and the increase in competition has resulted in a plentiful supply of choice. Beyond that, technology has completed disrupted the once linear buying process and behaviour of B2B customers and has forced marketers to become more strategic and efficient in their approach. Here are a few trends that I believe are going to redefine marketing in the B2B space over the next few years.
Gaining Digital Business Strategic View Across More Data Gives AmeriPride Cul...Dana Gardner
Transcript of a discussion on how improved data allows for more types of work in an improved organization to become even more intelligent, and to find new efficiencies and benefits.
Epistemic Interaction - tuning interfaces to provide information for AI supportAlan Dix
Paper presented at SYNERGY workshop at AVI 2024, Genoa, Italy. 3rd June 2024
https://alandix.com/academic/papers/synergy2024-epistemic/
As machine learning integrates deeper into human-computer interactions, the concept of epistemic interaction emerges, aiming to refine these interactions to enhance system adaptability. This approach encourages minor, intentional adjustments in user behaviour to enrich the data available for system learning. This paper introduces epistemic interaction within the context of human-system communication, illustrating how deliberate interaction design can improve system understanding and adaptation. Through concrete examples, we demonstrate the potential of epistemic interaction to significantly advance human-computer interaction by leveraging intuitive human communication strategies to inform system design and functionality, offering a novel pathway for enriching user-system engagements.
Elevating Tactical DDD Patterns Through Object CalisthenicsDorra BARTAGUIZ
After immersing yourself in the blue book and its red counterpart, attending DDD-focused conferences, and applying tactical patterns, you're left with a crucial question: How do I ensure my design is effective? Tactical patterns within Domain-Driven Design (DDD) serve as guiding principles for creating clear and manageable domain models. However, achieving success with these patterns requires additional guidance. Interestingly, we've observed that a set of constraints initially designed for training purposes remarkably aligns with effective pattern implementation, offering a more ‘mechanical’ approach. Let's explore together how Object Calisthenics can elevate the design of your tactical DDD patterns, offering concrete help for those venturing into DDD for the first time!
UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series, part 3DianaGray10
Welcome to UiPath Test Automation using UiPath Test Suite series part 3. In this session, we will cover desktop automation along with UI automation.
Topics covered:
UI automation Introduction,
UI automation Sample
Desktop automation flow
Pradeep Chinnala, Senior Consultant Automation Developer @WonderBotz and UiPath MVP
Deepak Rai, Automation Practice Lead, Boundaryless Group and UiPath MVP
A tale of scale & speed: How the US Navy is enabling software delivery from l...sonjaschweigert1
Rapid and secure feature delivery is a goal across every application team and every branch of the DoD. The Navy’s DevSecOps platform, Party Barge, has achieved:
- Reduction in onboarding time from 5 weeks to 1 day
- Improved developer experience and productivity through actionable findings and reduction of false positives
- Maintenance of superior security standards and inherent policy enforcement with Authorization to Operate (ATO)
Development teams can ship efficiently and ensure applications are cyber ready for Navy Authorizing Officials (AOs). In this webinar, Sigma Defense and Anchore will give attendees a look behind the scenes and demo secure pipeline automation and security artifacts that speed up application ATO and time to production.
We will cover:
- How to remove silos in DevSecOps
- How to build efficient development pipeline roles and component templates
- How to deliver security artifacts that matter for ATO’s (SBOMs, vulnerability reports, and policy evidence)
- How to streamline operations with automated policy checks on container images
SAP Sapphire 2024 - ASUG301 building better apps with SAP Fiori.pdfPeter Spielvogel
Building better applications for business users with SAP Fiori.
• What is SAP Fiori and why it matters to you
• How a better user experience drives measurable business benefits
• How to get started with SAP Fiori today
• How SAP Fiori elements accelerates application development
• How SAP Build Code includes SAP Fiori tools and other generative artificial intelligence capabilities
• How SAP Fiori paves the way for using AI in SAP apps
LF Energy Webinar: Electrical Grid Modelling and Simulation Through PowSyBl -...DanBrown980551
Do you want to learn how to model and simulate an electrical network from scratch in under an hour?
Then welcome to this PowSyBl workshop, hosted by Rte, the French Transmission System Operator (TSO)!
During the webinar, you will discover the PowSyBl ecosystem as well as handle and study an electrical network through an interactive Python notebook.
PowSyBl is an open source project hosted by LF Energy, which offers a comprehensive set of features for electrical grid modelling and simulation. Among other advanced features, PowSyBl provides:
- A fully editable and extendable library for grid component modelling;
- Visualization tools to display your network;
- Grid simulation tools, such as power flows, security analyses (with or without remedial actions) and sensitivity analyses;
The framework is mostly written in Java, with a Python binding so that Python developers can access PowSyBl functionalities as well.
What you will learn during the webinar:
- For beginners: discover PowSyBl's functionalities through a quick general presentation and the notebook, without needing any expert coding skills;
- For advanced developers: master the skills to efficiently apply PowSyBl functionalities to your real-world scenarios.
State of ICS and IoT Cyber Threat Landscape Report 2024 previewPrayukth K V
The IoT and OT threat landscape report has been prepared by the Threat Research Team at Sectrio using data from Sectrio, cyber threat intelligence farming facilities spread across over 85 cities around the world. In addition, Sectrio also runs AI-based advanced threat and payload engagement facilities that serve as sinks to attract and engage sophisticated threat actors, and newer malware including new variants and latent threats that are at an earlier stage of development.
The latest edition of the OT/ICS and IoT security Threat Landscape Report 2024 also covers:
State of global ICS asset and network exposure
Sectoral targets and attacks as well as the cost of ransom
Global APT activity, AI usage, actor and tactic profiles, and implications
Rise in volumes of AI-powered cyberattacks
Major cyber events in 2024
Malware and malicious payload trends
Cyberattack types and targets
Vulnerability exploit attempts on CVEs
Attacks on counties – USA
Expansion of bot farms – how, where, and why
In-depth analysis of the cyber threat landscape across North America, South America, Europe, APAC, and the Middle East
Why are attacks on smart factories rising?
Cyber risk predictions
Axis of attacks – Europe
Systemic attacks in the Middle East
Download the full report from here:
https://sectrio.com/resources/ot-threat-landscape-reports/sectrio-releases-ot-ics-and-iot-security-threat-landscape-report-2024/
Builder.ai Founder Sachin Dev Duggal's Strategic Approach to Create an Innova...Ramesh Iyer
In today's fast-changing business world, Companies that adapt and embrace new ideas often need help to keep up with the competition. However, fostering a culture of innovation takes much work. It takes vision, leadership and willingness to take risks in the right proportion. Sachin Dev Duggal, co-founder of Builder.ai, has perfected the art of this balance, creating a company culture where creativity and growth are nurtured at each stage.
Securing your Kubernetes cluster_ a step-by-step guide to success !KatiaHIMEUR1
Today, after several years of existence, an extremely active community and an ultra-dynamic ecosystem, Kubernetes has established itself as the de facto standard in container orchestration. Thanks to a wide range of managed services, it has never been so easy to set up a ready-to-use Kubernetes cluster.
However, this ease of use means that the subject of security in Kubernetes is often left for later, or even neglected. This exposes companies to significant risks.
In this talk, I'll show you step-by-step how to secure your Kubernetes cluster for greater peace of mind and reliability.
The Art of the Pitch: WordPress Relationships and SalesLaura Byrne
Clients don’t know what they don’t know. What web solutions are right for them? How does WordPress come into the picture? How do you make sure you understand scope and timeline? What do you do if sometime changes?
All these questions and more will be explored as we talk about matching clients’ needs with what your agency offers without pulling teeth or pulling your hair out. Practical tips, and strategies for successful relationship building that leads to closing the deal.
Observability Concepts EVERY Developer Should Know -- DeveloperWeek Europe.pdfPaige Cruz
Monitoring and observability aren’t traditionally found in software curriculums and many of us cobble this knowledge together from whatever vendor or ecosystem we were first introduced to and whatever is a part of your current company’s observability stack.
While the dev and ops silo continues to crumble….many organizations still relegate monitoring & observability as the purview of ops, infra and SRE teams. This is a mistake - achieving a highly observable system requires collaboration up and down the stack.
I, a former op, would like to extend an invitation to all application developers to join the observability party will share these foundational concepts to build on:
Generative AI Deep Dive: Advancing from Proof of Concept to ProductionAggregage
Join Maher Hanafi, VP of Engineering at Betterworks, in this new session where he'll share a practical framework to transform Gen AI prototypes into impactful products! He'll delve into the complexities of data collection and management, model selection and optimization, and ensuring security, scalability, and responsible use.
FIDO Alliance Osaka Seminar: The WebAuthn API and Discoverable Credentials.pdf
Combining Big Data and Cloud Capabilities for ECommerce Matches Buyers and Sellers Like Never Before
1. Combining Big Data and Cloud Capabilities for ECommerce
Matches Buyers and Sellers Like Never Before
Transcript of a BriefingsDirect on how a mid-market company saw immediate results from
participation in Ariba Discovery, eliminating the need for mailing half a million catalogs a year.
Listen to the podcast. Find it on iTunes. Sponsor: Ariba, an SAP company
Dana Gardner: Hi, this is Dana Gardner, Principal Analyst at Interarbor Solutions, and you're
listening to BriefingsDirect. Today, we present a sponsored podcast discussion on
ways that businesses are using cloud and e-commerce to improve how they do
sales, marketing, and online transactions.
We'll examine how one company, Ohio-based LLT Barcode & Label, has found
powerful new ways to develop sales and leads using Ariba Discovery.
[Disclosure: Ariba is a sponsor of BriefingsDirect podcasts.]
To learn more about how social tools and business networks are reshaping eCommerce and how
companies like LLT Barcode & Label is using the cloud to better connect with new customers,
please join me in welcoming our guests today.
We're here with Rachel Spasser, the Senior Vice President of Marketing at Ariba, an SAP
Company, and Kris Hart, the Account Manager at LLT Barcode & Label in Stow, Ohio.
Welcome, Rachel and Kris.
Kris Hart: Hi. How are you doing today, Dana?
Rachel Spasser: Thanks, Dana. Glad to be here.
Gardner: Rachel, I'll start with you. This whole concept of finding customers, developing leads
using cloud, using the networked economy and how people are linked
up now more-and-more. It's also, I think, a function of the data
that people are now able to access.
Tell me a little bit about how things have changed, say now, versus five years ago, in terms of
just connectedness, and how this is now being brought to bear on an age-old problem, which is
finding sellers for buyers and buyers for sellers?
Spasser: We're talking about major changes that have gone on in the past few years. If you think
about the mantra around marketing, it's always been to make yourself, your product, and your
company relevant to potential buyers.
Ten or 15 years ago, as the Internet was really coming into its own, it provided significantly more
data that helped us understand demographically, and a little bit behaviorally, who our customers
were and what they were doing.
2. When we talk about the networked economy, business networks, and connected commerce we're
really taking that to a whole other level, where as marketers, we're able to hyper-
target, our potential customers not just on their demographics, but also be able to
predict when they're going to be ready to buy.
They overtly raise their hand and say, "Hey, I'm interested in buying by a
connected RFI or RFQ process." But we can also analyze the myriad data that's
available today and put both unstructured data and structured data together in a
way that helps us predict when they are going to be ready to buy. That's when we can
actually present them with compelling offers. So it really does change the whole nature of the
game.
What's appealing?
Gardner: Kris Hart, do you really care whether it's the cloud or the networked economy, or
whether it's structured or unstructured data? What appeals to you in all this in terms of the
change that's going on?
Hart: In general, you don't really care one way or another how you get it. the cloud and e-
commerce makes everything a lot easier, not just for the seller, but also the buyer. It really helps
with the relationship, and being on the cloud is much simpler, faster, and easier.
Gardner: Tell us a little bit about LLT Barcode & Label, so that we have a better understanding
of your business, the vertical, the challenges that you face in terms of growing your business, and
finding new customers?
Hart: We started about 16 years ago. It was a small company and we're still a small company,
where it's hard to get out in front of buyers. When we started, we would send out
about a half million catalogs a year. Those catalogs have inside them labels,
thermal transfer ribbons, and laser labels, and items like mobile computers and
printers to be able to print those items.
We started out as a small company, basically a distributor for a company that
needs to ship a label via FedEx, UPS, or however. They need a label on that box
to be able to ship their product. So as far as vertical markets go, if you name a
company, they have to ship something, and they'd be able to use that.
So we play in every single market out there. We gross roughly about $12 million a year and we
have about 15 people who work for us.
Gardner: So, you're a mid-market firm, with potentially a very wide addressable market with
anyone that's doing shipping and delivery activities. How did you do lead generation and sales
and marketing before you started the cloud methods that seemingly have been so successful?
3. Hart: The way we started is that we would have a lot of catalogs printed with our most popular
items and then we would buy lists from Hoover’s, or somebody like that, and we would send out
half a million catalogs a year.
We were hoping that everyone who got one of those catalogs would call us and want to buy
something. But that's not the case, and over the past 15 years, that return on investment (ROI)
has gone down significantly.
We started out as a catalog company, and now the catalog companies are, in a sense, dying or
aren't as successful by and large. So we had to find new ways to grow our business.
Gardner: Correct me if I am wrong, but that was mostly you pushing your message into some
other organization, with not a lot of pull necessarily. It seems to me that you would want a little
of both, the pull and the push. How did the cloud change that equation?
Internet has helped
Hart: The Internet has really helped. A lot of people at home are using sites like Amazon.com
and eBay and they're getting used to just looking on the Internet when they need to buy
something.
When they go into work, because it's so easy at home, they want to be able to do the same thing.
It's a win-win for both sides. We don't have to print lots of catalogs every year, and they can just
find us on our website or search engine via Google, Bing, whatever.
Gardner: Why wasn't it just creating website and being part of the massive index that Google
and other search engines use? Why was it better moving towards a structured cloud environment,
an e-commerce cloud, a networked economy approach like Ariba Discovery? Why was that
different?
Hart: The biggest thing with Ariba Discovery is that it's very much like match.com. We wanted
to be in front of buyers when they were ready to place an order. We wanted to be that company
that that person on the other end is going to come search for, see us, and give us an opportunity
for their business.
If I walk in in the morning, I already have leads there. I already have an opportunity with a buyer
who knows what they're looking for. They're out there on Ariba Discovery, asking me, "Can you
help me?" That's a lot easier than like the catalog theory, hoping that someone runs across your
website.
You know automatically what that buyer is looking for and where that buyer is, and hopefully
within a couple of sentences, a couple of conversations with them, you can figure out when they
need to buy.
4. Gardner: Back to you, Rachel. When you hear Kris describing how they’ve come to these new
approaches, what are you thinking? What is it that occurs to you?
It seems to me that he is talking about an ability for a mid-market company to scale down to the
individual. It's pretty impressive, the granularity with which commerce could happen. Not only
that, but at the scale of a global marketplace, it's kind of fascinating that it’s both downscale and
upscale at the same time.
Spasser: It is, and I think if you listen to what Kris said, the Internet has enabled business to be
done faster and for him to find new customers faster and more efficiently.
But where the business networks really differentiate themselves from the Internet as a whole is
that there is a common platform, where both buyers and sellers are going to connect and find
very specific commodities or services that meet their specifications. Creating a platform that
enables them to get to that level of granularity enables them not just to conduct commerce faster,
but conduct commerce smarter.
More and more data
As we look at the value of the business networks, over the course of time, these networks are,
in essence, aggregating more and more data and insights that ultimately help companies like
LLT Bar Code in that mid-market that want to do business globally. At the same time, it helps
global buyers that want to buy, for various reasons, from companies that are either local
suppliers, from companies that might have green initiatives, women-owned business, or diverse-
owned business.
So there are a lot of different criteria that go into determining who you want to buy from or sell
to. The beauty of the business network is that it gives you the ability to both get insight and get a
lot of information on the buyer or the seller, and to connect based on very, very specific criteria.
Gardner: Kris, one of the things that’s interesting in comparing a web-based open-Internet
approach to something more standardized is speaking the same language, data, metadata,
taxonomy. It might be one thing for you to put up information on your website, but somebody
who's searching, or even the search engine algorithms, might not understand the importance of
certain terms and lingo.
Is there something about going into environments dedicated to buying and selling, where you can
actually line up the right information, description, indexing and terms, or even just the way of
doing business, the process behind doing business? Tell me how a common understood business-
oriented environment has helped with your results as well?
5. Hart: Well, with Ariba Discovery it’s great. They have postings for all sorts of commodities and
items that a buyer may be looking for. A buyer can check them off on his screen and then send
out an RFQ.
The nice thing about having that similar platform is that I set up a profile. I select specific
commodities of the types of business and the items that we operate in. With that, a lead is
automatically given to me. The buyers are looking for specific things, and it may be in his own
terms or maybe a little bit different than how he may search it on the Internet and possibly miss
us.
I can take my list of commodities and then it will be automatically generated. It’s going to come
pretty close. He is going to be right there for me to be able to respond to whether or not we can
help them, yes or no.
Gardner: So those hit-or-miss semantic issues that are certainly part of the Web are fixed and
amended. Your semantic matchmaking, as you put it earlier, is automated and therefore that
probably makes this a lot more powerful. Tell me how powerful. What are some examples of
what’s happened when you have gone to Ariba Discovery for lead generation and new market
penetration?
Hart: We started looking at Ariba Discovery in late 2011. We were trying to find some other way
to gain new customers and to grow the business. We decided on Ariba Discovery in January of
2012. There were a couple of RFPs out there, and I thought, "Why not give it a shot?"
So we respond to a couple, and the first RFQ that I had responded to was for some blank labels
and a couple of colored labels. A couple of weeks later I get an email from the client that had
posted the RFQ, and they want us to bid on their entire distribution, labels, ribbons, and shipping
items.
Too good to be true
And after going through their process of RFQs, add-in items, pricing, and everything else, we
won about a $400,000 deal via Ariba Discovery. That was for a two-year contract, and that was
the first one. It was almost too good to be true.
The great thing about it was that we started in the middle of January, when I responded to the
RFQ and we had the contract and everything signed and they were buying from us in April. Very
quick process.
Gardner: What was your cost in acquiring this customer?
Hart: With Ariba Discovery, you can use Ariba Discovery for free or you can use the Mid-Level
or the Advantage. And we decided to go with the Advantage.
6. That had some other benefits with the profile and things of that nature and it was only $3,000.
We decided to take some of our marketing budget and put it into that and at least give it a shot.
We were more than happy. We got our ROI right-away, and it's a much better and simpler process
than sending out a half a million catalogs a year.
Gardner: Absolutely. Rachel, again reacting to what Kris has said, are we missing anything in
this equation? I'm interested in this semantic match-up that takes place, the data, and how this
can be automated. Kris is obviously talking about strong ROI. Is there more to the story here that
we’re missing in terms of how buyers and sellers are matching up in new ways?
Spasser: We love to hear stories like Kris’ about immediate ROI. And we hear them over-and-
over again from suppliers on the network.
One benefit, as we talked about, is the ability to define very specific criteria as a seller as to what
you sell, so that when you do get posts that are directed to you, you know that they're relevant to
you. You’re not wasting your time. You’re not sifting through a lot of unqualified opportunities
as the seller. And the benefit to the buyer is the same.
As the buyer posts, their posts are being sent to people who are all qualified, who all have the
ability to meet the specifications that they have created. Therefore, it's saving a lot of time on
their part as well. When you look at the two-sided model, it really is a win-win both for the buyer
and the seller within the network.
One of the hidden pieces of gold within the network is the data that's created over time from all
of this transactional information, as well as data that is created individually from buyers and
seller. They're providing information on ratings and reviews of how quickly they got paid, if
they're a seller, by a particular buyer. Or it's the reverse, how accurate and on time deliveries are
if you’re a buyer looking at a seller.
So, the unstructured information, combined with a lot of structured data, is creating an
opportunity to make much better matches and have buyers and sellers that are much more
informed about one another as they enter into business relationship.
We all know the more that we understand and have well-defined expectations of our business
partners, the more effective those relationships are over the course of time.
Some structure
Gardner: Kris, you've obviously been exploiting and enjoying benefits from the discovery
aspects of the Ariba network in the cloud. But, beyond the actual finding of that customer, that
customer might have many years of business to be had and there needs to be perhaps some
automation or structure around that relationship.
7. Have you been able to find that the services around process for procurement, automating the
invoicing and PO process, the data, even the transactions. Is there sort of a progression here that,
once you've established a connection with a customer, there are other ways to exploit these
services and make that a more efficient customer relationship?
Hart: Yeah, it's funny that you bring that up. Right now, that particular customer has gone to
Ariba for some other items that they are going to start using for procurement and different items
like that. What we're hoping is that once that process takes over, then we can be in the supplier
network and possibly even set up e-catalogs for them and make their process a whole lot more
efficient and easier.
That way, if they have any transition in buyers, someone is on vacation, or anything like that,
there are no questions about the items that they purchased from us. There are no questions on the
pricing, on who to send the purchase orders to, or anything like that. It's all handled by Ariba.
Hopefully, we'll be able to set up a catalog, and they'll be able to smoothly purchase from us. It
already helps us being on the supplier network and then them hopefully getting ramped up and
making everything a whole lot more smooth.
Gardner: Rachel, it seems as if Discovery is an important part of this, but it's really kind of the
point on the arrow. There's a lot of wood behind that in terms of more streamlining and more
efficiency. How are the new services being brought to bear on helping mid-market companies
like LLT extend their benefits beyond the lead generation into the whole e-commerce lifecycle?
Spasser: It's great to hear Kris talk about the benefits as it relates to efficiency from a process
perspective on the network. One of the other benefits of setting up a catalog to do business with
that one buyer on the network is that now you have the catalog set up on the network.
As you get additional buyers, you're using the same catalog and the same infrastructure. You can
now start connecting with multiple buyers via the network, which enables you to create even
greater efficiencies as a mid-market seller who may have limited resources within the company
to issue and reconcile invoices.
The efficiency of setting up one relationship is the starting point. There is much more efficiency
as you start to establish more-and-more relationships as a seller over the network. But there are
other services that we offer over the network that also create value, and one example is our
Dynamic Discounting Program.
For example, as a seller on the network if you would like to get paid faster from one of your
buyers, you can offer different payment terms. Let's say your contract is a net-60 payment term,
and you’d like to get paid faster because you’d like to make some capital investments in your
company. You could offer to provide a discount for a net-10 payment.
8. Discount terms
We have many mid-market suppliers who have offered those discount terms to their buyers, so
that they can self-fund growth for their own companies. That's yet another benefit of doing
business on the network.
The third major benefit is the visibility and predictability that you have in relationship with the
customer. At any point in time, as a seller on the network, you can go in and see the status of
where your order stands, where your payment stands, or whether your invoice has been approved
for payment.
It gives you a lot more visibility, and therefore predictability, as a mid-size business, into things
like cash flow. You can anticipate when you're going to get paid, instead of having to pick up the
phone 16 times and say, "When is the check is going to come? Have you approved the invoice?"
So there's efficiency, visibility, and predictability, and then there is the opportunity to impact cash
flow by using some of the more sophisticated tools like Dynamic Discounting to speed up
payment.
Gardner: Rachel, Tell me a little bit about some of the future roadmap that Ariba is embarking
on around a wider, deeper, richer basket of goods and services.
Spasser: One of the things that we are doing, really focused on the lead generation side, is
expanding the services that we offer around Ariba Discovery that can help companies like LLT
Barcode & Label find new customers worldwide.
Related to that is the ability to create multiple profiles that are very highly targeted. So for the
various products that LLT Barcode & Label offers, they could create a profile unique to different
industries. Or if there are different industry requirements around labels and barcodes, they can
create very specific, targeted profiles that really make them extremely relevant to buyers within
various industries.
Another service that we are offering is what we are calling "Sellers You Might Like," and that's
the ability to based on what someone is searching on proactively suggest sellers that meet their
criteria.
So even if a buyer does a search and doesn't necessarily click on a particular supplier, if that
supplier meets those criteria from an algorithm perspective, that suppler will be proactively
suggested, especially if that supplier has received high ratings and reviews from other buyers on
the network.
So there are couple of new services that are being offered from the Discovery side that will really
accelerate the ability for mid-market companies like LLT Barcode & Label to grow their
business and expand the value that they get from using the Ariba network.
9. How to get started
Gardner: I'm afraid we're just about out of time, but Kris, I wonder if you might have any
20-20 hindsight, based on your experiences so far, that you could offer to other people who are
looking to get started on this cloud-based, commerce and lead generation activity.
How do you get started? What would you recommend for others as they embark on this?
Hart: Definitely give it a shot. Set up a free profile and start getting some leads generated,
something that comes your way. Definitely make sure you're in the right commodities. Don't start
clicking boxes for commodities that you can't offer. That way, your leads are more precise and
more ready to go Then see what happens for free.
If you want extra help and a little bit better outreach with the marketing profile, go up the next
step or even all the way to the top like we did. We saw the benefits and doing that with the
marketing help that we have from Ariba and how to use the Discovery tool. As I said, that paid
off for us, but definitely give it a shot. If nothing else, just set up a free profile and see where that
takes you.
Gardner: All right. Well I'm afraid we'll have to leave it there. You've been listening to a
sponsored BriefingsDirect podcast discussion on ways that businesses are using cloud and e-
commerce to improve how they do sales, marketing, and ultimately online transactions.
We've seen how one company Ohio-based LLT Barcode & Label, has found a highly effective
way to develop new sales and leads using Ariba Discovery. So let's thank our guests. We've been
here with Kris Hart, Account Manager at LLT Barcode & Label. Thank you so much, Kris.
Hart: Thanks a lot. I appreciate it, Dana.
Gardner: And also Rachel Spasser, the Senior Vice President of Marketing at Ariba, an SAP
Company. Thank you, Rachel.
Spasser: Thanks, Dana. I appreciate the opportunity.
Gardner: This is Dana Gardner, Principal Analyst at Interarbor Solutions. Thanks a lot to our
audience for listening, and don't forget to come back next time.
Listen to the podcast. Find it on iTunes. Sponsor: Ariba, an SAP company
Transcript of a BriefingsDirect on how a mid-market company saw immediate results from
participation in Ariba Discovery, eliminating the need for mailing half a million catalogs a year.
Copyright Interarbor Solutions, LLC, 2005-2013. All rights reserved.
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