Behind the business with e-commerce specialists, GXS

GXS are B2B ecommerce software specialists. International marketing manager, Denise Oakley, takes Bdaily behind the business.

What key challenges has your company recently faced?

There are many challenges for a company like GXS when helping businesses of all sizes to connect electronically with other companies in multiple markets across the world. Aside from the variations in the global economic climate which affect us all, businesses vary by size, sector, location, legal and corporate processes as well as financial and operating systems. Enabling them to work together effectively so that their processes and data can speak the same language is not straightforward. One of the main challenges in trying to integrate these companies is the sheer scale of inefficient, manual processes that still exist.

Integrating operations and processes with other businesses (customers and/or suppliers) enables companies to differentiate themselves from their competitors by becoming “easier to do business with”. It also dramatically improves efficiency levels for both partners. Most companies agree that a standard approach to integrating with other businesses is best, but one of the key challenges for GXS is that each company wants to use its own definition of what is ‘standard’. Also, too often companies focus on removing internal inefficiencies, but don’t consider the importance of their B2B environment outside of their own 4 walls and how to share critical information with partners, in a real-time automated way.

An increasingly common challenge that I see companies face, is their need to operate across multiple channels. More channels means increased complexity for any business, and unless companies fully integrate their processes with their partners the unfortunate reality is that they will get lost somewhere in the complexity of it all, and will not be successful.

Finally, something that’s often overlooked is that the connection between a business and its partners (B2B) is just as important as its connection with consumers (B2C) and yet much of the focus has been on B2C up to now. In my view, B2B is crucial to ensuring operational efficiency, effectiveness and quality, and key to having happy customers.

What is your biggest achievement over the past 12 months?

We have achieved a lot in the last year and in the current economic climate, the fact that we grew our Managed Services business by around 20 per cent in 2012 was exceptional.

This year, we are delighted to see that once again 22 of the top 25 companies in the Gartner Top 25 Supply Chain 2013 are GXS customers. We’re also honoured to have our work in the UK publishing industry recognised by receiving the Book Industry Communication (BIC) Supply Chain Excellence Award accreditation, for the second year running.

For me, the biggest achievement is to read stories of our customers and how they are building successful businesses – this year alone, Original Additions, NXP, Solus, JCB and Roth Audio have shared some truly inspirational stories.

What is your biggest focus for the coming year?

The primary focus for us here at GXS has always been to help companies to better integrate with other businesses around the world. We also want to help our customers grow and help them to become as attractive as possible to their customers and/or their suppliers, regardless of the size of their business today.

We see this focus as incredibly important, better B2B integration and automation with partners can play a critical role in solving some of society’s greatest problems, including manufacturing competitiveness. It’s also a key requirement to enabling growth in emerging markets and in harmonising economic relationships across the European Union.

If you had to choose one top piece of advice for someone just starting out in business, or is currently operating within your industry sector, what would it be?

It’s important for a business just starting out to think outside its own four walls right from the beginning. As well as focusing on internal efficiencies, a new company needs to think about its supply chain – by which we mean its customers, suppliers and partners – so that automation and communication are part of its processes from the start. It’s important not to think of B2B integration as the plumbing that connects a network of partners together electronically, but rather as something that provides companies with a strategic advantage.

Ideally, don’t be driven into B2B integration just because a big customer requires it. Businesses starting out should take the opportunity to adopt systems that work for them, as well as for a large customer and think from the start about ease of acquiring more customers with a flexible, adaptable B2B e-commerce capability. That way the business can ensure that their business model will also enable them to engage with new customers in the future.

Can you share with us your view of the current landscape of business, in your region or generally, and where your organisation sits within it?

The economic climate is still uncertain in Europe, not to mention other developed countries. But many innovative European companies are expanding into markets like Asia, Brazil and North America and those markets in turn are looking to integrate with businesses across Europe. GXS is privileged to be involved with different companies around the world, helping them to trade with each other electronically.

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