B2B Processing Essentials Tutorial

Leverage B2B standards

Essential #4

This may be one of the most important B2B essential... because using B2B standards will enable you to lower your long-term costs for B2B process automation.

Using a Common Language Lowers Integration Costs

Some companies start their first process integration effort without any regard to the standardization of the content they exchange... only to find that there is little opportunity to reuse any of these unique process documents with their next business partner.

B2B standards specify the common public process and B2B language

B2B standards enable each partner to compare (map) their own business information to a standard business document and format

By using B2B standards, it is quite easy to extend standards-based processes to more partners at a greatly reduced cost.  The process-automation and data-mapping work will already be in place for your own company and ready to be reused with the next business partner.

By using B2B standards, the negotiation effort shifts
to gaining agreement on how to apply the standard...
not creating a new and unique set of documents for each partner.

Three B2B Standards Categories

B2B Process Standards specify how a business-process workflow and collaboration is managed across two or more companies.

B2B Vocabulary Standards specify the information that is required for each business transaction.

B2B Technology Standards define how to code, secure and exchange information between companies.