Meaningful collaborative commerce coming to SMEs

SMEs wanting to be presented with manufacturing, business and industry -specific ‘solutions’ to identified problems, with appropriate underpinning by IT, rather than simply be sold software, will find willing partners in many of today’s former ERP vendors. In tougher times, these are finding that simply bandying about TLAs (three letter acronyms) and posturing over ‘collaborative commerce’ – although there doesn’t seem to be a better term – isn’t enough. Most are now realigning and providing industry specialists – as they said they were several years ago – but with in-depth knowledge and measured not simply on sales but on building long term ‘partnerships’ with manufacturing users. They’re also partnering among themselves – but not just with the old virtually meaningless (beyond sales and marketing activity and a little joint development) strategic alliances; instead focusing on bringing useful combinations to market that can deliver provable and rapid return on investment founded on lean processes. An example is Sanderson, which recently moved to shrug off its aging image by launching the Unity ‘collaborative commerce’ system, taking in ERP, elements of supply chain and CRM to replace PICS for SMEs across much of manufacturing. The firm has developed a relationship with Warwick Manufacturing Group, and marketing director Chris Buckham says: “We are trying to educate [users], expose them to better processes, rather than just implement projects for clients.” He’s taking about better business processes, better, modern methodologies – working with and transferring best practice. And he says the firm is optimistic as a result of its approach, particularly in the “post hype” era, with companies aware (at all levels) of the need to make more of their existing IT investment and of several, often conflicting requirements. Others that have declared similar directions in the last 12 months alone, particularly in the SME arena, are legion. Consider K3, McGuffie Brunton, infor:Swan, Information Engineering, Geac, Epicor – the list goes on. And while it’s hard to gauge the veracity of the claims, if they’re real they could make a big difference – to software vendor and user alike. With the pressure on already lean (in the general sense) companies’ staff to meet daily targets preventing the scale of thought and initiatives so vital to making significant improvements, external advice and guidance (albeit inevitably biased) is essential if we are to move forward fast enough to compete better. And once that’s achieved, loyalty will remain with the good partners. Now that’s another take on collaborative commerce!