The Aberdeen Group's recent research titled, "Integrated Demand-Supply Networks: Five Steps to Gaining Visibility and Control" identifies that over 80% of companies
regard trading partner community building as a strategic initiative.
Only 23% of respondents indicated that they can electronically
collaborate with their long tails suppliers. 51% of respondents
indicated that they can electronically collaborate with their core
suppliers.
Some of the major challenges limiting the formation of trading community are: costly technology solutions to manage B2B integration (40% of respondents emphasized this reason), lack of awareness of the value proposition of B2B integration by top management (39% of the respondents stated this reason), and over-reliance on offline technologies, such as phone, fax and e-mail, for communicating and collaborating with supply chain partners (33% of the respondents reported this reason).
The survey emphasizes the important role plays by Trading Community Management (TCM). TCM refers to a closed loop process that involves recruiting, enabling, on-boarding, and performance management of trading partners. It involves demand networks, comprising of retailers, customers, VARs, resellers, distributors, and the supply networks (i.e. systems suppliers, contract manufacturers, original design manufacturers).
Survey results show that the top performing firms shared several common
characteristics. Top performing companies are five times more likely than
all other companies to
indicate that trading community management has a mission critical
impact on their organization. Top performing companies are also
1.3 times more likely than all others to perform regular surveys of
their supplier base to identify the extent of their involvement in B2B
integration and collaboration.