Two new reports have recently been released by IDC Manufacturing Insights, one dealing with collaborative commerce networks and the other with the customer experience. IDC Manufacturing Insights assists manufacturing businesses and IT leaders, as well as the suppliers who serve them in making more effective technology decisions by providing accurate, timely and insightful fact based research and consulting services.
The first report, “Business Strategy: The Progression Toward Collaborative Commerce Networks in Manufacturing,” evaluates the progression of commerce networks for manufacturers from traditional, point-to-point communications to collaborative commerce networks that support many-to-many interactions among manufacturers and their trading partners. This new report establishes the context for commerce networks in manufacturing companies' procurement and sourcing efforts and offers essential guidance for moving through the phases of commerce network participation. According to IDC’s press release:
Commerce networks have progressed from largely EDI-based, point-to-point data transmission, to richly interactive hubs for a manufacturer and its suppliers and partners to share structured and unstructured data. Today, commerce networks support near-real-time communication and drive efficiency gains throughout manufacturing supply chains. The industry is on the precipice of a significant transformation, a transformation that leverages all the 3rd Platform technologies (cloud, social, mobile, and big data) and moves manufacturers toward true "collaboration" with their business networks. The core questions manufacturers must address are what expanded role they want commerce networks to play in their sourcing processes and how can they participate successfully in these commerce networks.
The second new report, “Perspective: Customer Experience – What Does IT Mean for Manufacturers,” offers a closer look at a topic of increased interest to manufacturers today, across manufacturing value chains. Customer experience (CX) is increasingly being viewed by manufacturers as a necessary element of business-to-business (B2B) transactions, one that is enabled by the 3rd Platform, specifically social, mobile, cloud and big data analytics. CX for B2B can be framed by the customer journey and involves supporting customers as they explore, evaluate, purchase and receive service for manufactured products.
According to Heather Ashton, research manager, IDC Manufacturing Insights, “Competitive pressures and the desire for more meaningful relationships with customers are driving manufacturers to reconsider what customer experience means within a B2B context. A major catalyst is the expectation of business users for the same level of rich interaction and capabilities in their business transactions that characterize their personal transactions.”
For more information on these new reports, please visit www.idc-mi.com. You can also visit the IDC Manufacturing Insights Community at http://idc-community.com/manufacturing.
