EIPP (e-invoicing) and StartUp World

HansaWorld UK, a mid-range innovative accountancy software vendor has won the AccountancyAge Award for Mid-range Software Package of the Year for the second time. Above is the official press release courtesy of edocr, my favourite knowledge exchange. According to the press release: 

“HansaWorld has recorded between 5% and 15% growth each year since 1995, and the software ? which is available on Windows, Mac and Linux platforms ? is known for its exceptional functionality and breadth.”

What impresses me the most is not just above, but how Hansaworld has embraced new technologies to increase their own marketing activities and subsequent revenues. For example, I do not believe I approached Hansaworld regarding edocr. Yet they found us and now is a regular publisher. Click here for evidence. And click here for interactivity. And based on their publications, look at the level of innovation (bearing in mind, most accountancy software vendors still live in the dark ages!):

• SmartApps for mobile phones
• Hansaworld Business Phone for Skype

And to top all that, they got this blog post free of charge. Who else wants a similar treatment?

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According to Justin Fogarty of Ariba:

“Ariba Consistently Outperforms ERP Providers in E-Procurement. When it comes to e-procurement, bigger is not necessarily better. According to the results of a new research brief from independent research firm Aberdeen Group, the flexible and focused offerings of Ariba, Inc. the leading spend management solutions provider, deliver greater value than the e-procurement offerings of large ERP providers. In the report, Aberdeen identified Ariba as the leading solution focused on supply management and noted that companies using Ariba?s solutions outperformed customers of SAP and Oracle in key areas required for e-procurement success. “

The report can be downloaded here. In the survey carried out by Aberdeen, the only area where SAP and Oracle scored ahead of Ariba was integration to other systems. I actually thought given the Ariba’s EIPP offering, they would be in a better position to integrate systems than SAP and Oracle put together. Perhaps further scrutiny is required to understand the definition of integration from Aberdeen’s point of view.

Top 10 success attributes for e-procurement, according to Aberdeen:

• Top challenges
• Supplier enabled
• Spend under management
• Requisition to PO cycle time
• Integration to other systems
• Actual and planned users
• Transaction volume
• Requisition to PO cycle cost
• Provider satisfaction
• Software functionality

Report is nearly one year old. Wonder whether Aberdeen Group intends to review the results and compare new results against this report!

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It seems that Oracle has given an ultimatum to BEA to accept its offer of $6.7 billion for all stock by Sunday evening. BEA seems to be holding on until another bidder emerges with a higher offer. Potential bidders, SAP, IBM and HP have all declined to comment, suggesting that no other bidder is emerging. Oracle threatened to abandon the bid after its offer of $17 per share was rejected by BEA’s Board on Tuesday for the second time in less than two weeks. So who is bluffing whom? Is Oracle really desperate to own BEA given that it already has a middleware stack after a 3 year shopping spree of $25 billion? I do not see the synergy unless Oracle is simply buying into the customer base of BEA. Does it make sense to you?

References:

• Introduction to Oracle Fusion Middleware

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Andrew K. Reese and Sarah Murray recently published a comprehensive article on Supply Demand Chain Executive honoring the Supply Chain leaders of 2007. If you are interested in the Supply Chain, I recommend you to read the full article here.

As you very well know, Supply Chain continues to have a significant presence within the Board Room environment. CEOs, CFOs and CPOs around the world now have better tools and Knowledge Workers to help them steer towards Supply Chain Excellence, delivering both bottom and top line results, as well as helping those companies who understand the subject well to achieve a competitive advantage from Supply Chain Excellence.

2007 Pro of the Year - Milton Young, Subsea Global Sourcing Director, FMC Technologies

Practitioner Pros to Know

1. Jean Baderschneider - Vice President, Procurement, ExxonMobil Global Services Company
2. Tim Beauchamp - Senior Vice President, Distribution Operations, Corporate Express
3. Karl Braitberg - Senior Director of Global Demand Management and Planning, Cisco Systems
4. Scott Brown - Manager Supply Chain Analysis & Design, Plexus
5. Steven J. Cassady - Director ? Global Procurement, Kohler Co.
6. Richard Garza - CIO, The Navy Exchange Service Command (NEXCOM)
7. Myron Gramelspacher - Vice President, Global Logistics & Indirects, Greif Inc.
8. Steven Lee - General Manager, Global Indirect Purchasing, The Timken Company
9. Chris Martin - Senior Director, Purchasing, Universal Orlando
10. Dana Mathes - Global Supply Chain Director of Logistics Operations, The Dow Chemical Company
11. Eugene McCabe - Executive Vice President for Worldwide Operations, Sun Microsystems
12. Mary McDaniel - Vice President, Materiel & Corporate Sourcing, FedEx Corporation
13. Robert Moon - Senior Vice President, CIO, LeapFrog Enterprises
14. John Paterson - Chief Procurement Officer, IBM
15. Mitch Plaat - Chief Procurement Officer, Con-way Inc.
16. Peter Russano - Vice President of Operations, Inviro Medical
17. Larry Rydzewski - Chief Operating Officer, Berlin Packaging, LLC
18. Heather L. Sheehan - Corporate Director of Strategic Sourcing and Logistics, Danaher Corporation
19. Harold Upton - Vice President, Strategic Business Processes, Sunsweet Growers Inc.
20. Roger Weingarth - Senior Vice President, Product and Manufacturing Operations, Calix

Provider Pros to Know

1. Demand Management/Forecasting & Planning
   • Robert F. Byrne, president and CEO of real-time forecasting solutions specialist Terra Technology
   • Michael Gilliland, product marketing manager ? forecasting at business intelligence solution provider SAS Institute
   • John Sicard, executive vice president, development and service operations at Kinaxis
   • Charles N. Smart, president and CEO of demand and inventory management solution provider Smart Software
2. Sourcing & Procurement/Spend Management
   • Jay Baitler, executive vice president of office supply giant Staples
   • William Blair, CEO of sourcing and supply chain solution provider Co-exprise.
   • Kevin Costello, chief commercial officer at spend management solutions provider Ariba
   • Philippe Courregelongue, director of consulting services for EMEA at supply and contract management specialist Emptoris
   • William (Bill) DeMartino, director, spend analysis at supply and contract management specialist Emptoris (www.emptoris.com)
   • Charles Dominick, SPSM, president of procurement training provider Next Level Purchasing (www.nextlevelpurchasing.com)
   • Michele Flynn, CEO of business advisory services provider Expense Management Solutions (www.expensemanagement.com)
   • Burton M. Goldfield, CEO of on-demand spend management solutions provider Ketera Technologies (www.ketera.com)
   • Dr. Robert Handfield, Bank of America Distinguished Professor of Supply Chain Management at North Carolina State University, founded and directs the Supply Chain Resource Consortium at NCSU (scrc.ncsu.edu)
   • Albert Jacobs III, vice president of procurement solutions stalwart Puridiom (www.puridiom.com)
   • Tim McEneny, president and CEO of PurchasingNet (www.purchasingnet.com)
   • Milap Shah, senior director with supply chain technology and consulting firm Global eProcure (www.globaleprocure.com)
   • Jai Shekhawat, CEO and co-founder of contingent workforce management and services procurement software company Fieldglass (www.fieldglass.com)
   • Steve Simko, vice president of operations at procurement services provider ICG Commerce (www.icgcommerce.com)
   • Bilal Soylu, chief technology officer at Verian Technologies (www.verian.com)
   • Ronald D. Southard, president and CEO of Intesource (www.intesource.com)
   • Jim Wetekamp, vice president of consulting and solution strategy at supply management solution provider Verticalnet (www.verticalnet.com)
3. Fulfillment/Logistics
   • George Abernathy, executive vice president and chief marketing officer at lead logistics provider Transplace (www.transplace.com
   • Subhash Chowdary, CEO of Aankhen Inc. (www.aankhen.com)
   • Gary Girotti, vice president with the Transportation Practice at supply chain consultancy Chainalytics (www.chainalytics.com)
   • Rene’ Jones, founder of Total Logistics Solutions (www.logisticsociety.com)
   • Gerald McNerney, senior director, transportation, distribution and logistics solutions at Motorola ? through its acquisition of Symbol Technologies (www.symbol.com)
   • Mark Millar wears two hats as honorary chairman of the China Supply Chain Council (www.supplychain.cn ) and also as director of strategic business development at UPS Supply Chain Solutions (www.ups-scs.com)
   • Dr. Nissim Ozer, chief technology officer at RF Code (www.rfcode.com)
   • Jim Parker, chief technology officer at warehouse management and fulfillment systems provider Supplier Systems Corporation (www.suppliersystems.com), cited as one of the founders of the electronic data interchange (EDI) industry in North America, promotes the vision of a rational, seamless and visible supply chain, from supplier through to end customer, with the supply chain strategically poised to manage the smooth flow of the goods ? and information about the goods ? that ensure the success of the broader enterprise.
   • Ann S. Price, president and CEO of supply chain execution software provider Motek (www.motek.com)
   • Jim Smith, president of Avnet Logistics (logistics.avnet.com)
   • Rick Tucker, vice president of product development with LeanLogistics (www.leanlogistics.com)
   • Mark Wick, co-founder and senior vice president of engineering at Blue Agave Software (www.blueagavesoft.com)
4. Consulting/Analysis/Education
   • Andrew Bartolini, Vance Checketts and Vishal Patel constitute the Global Supply Management Team at industry analyst firm Aberdeen Group
   • Pat Bower, Supply Chain Planning Practice manager with supply chain management consulting services firm Plan4Demand
   • Shoshanah Cohen, Rick Hoole, Hiroyuki Irie and Joseph Roussel, of the Supply Chain Innovation Practice at PRTM Management Consultants
   • Sergio Retamal, president and CEO of supply chain consulting and services provider Global-4PL
   • Tracy B. Stephens, CEO of the Global Supply Chain Management Practice at services firm Resources Global Professionals
5. Enterprise Systems/ERP
   • Joey Benadretti, president of SYSPRO USA (www.syspro.com).
   • Edward (Ned) Blinick, vice-president of sales and marketing at Blinco Systems (www.blinco.com.
   • Donald A. Hicks, president and CEO of supply chain optimization and simulation specialist LLamasoft (www.llamasoft.com).
   • Narayan Laksham, founder and president of lean manufacturing software provider Ultriva (www.ultriva.com).
   • Bob Moyer, president of enterprise product information management (PIM) solution provider FullTilt Solutions (www.fulltilt.com
   • Jeff Nigriny, chief security officer at aerospace and defense industry collaborative business network Exostar (www.exostar.com) and president of data security not-for-profit CertiPath (www.certipath.com)
   • Dr. David F. Ross, senior learning consultant with enterprise application provider Lawson Software (www.lawson.com)
   • Sunil K. Singh, president and CEO of Informance International (www.informance.com)
   • Jeffrey Smith, vice president of marketing at Instill Corporation (www.instill.com)
   • John Zepecki, senior vice president of supplier relationship management at enterprise solution provider SAP (www.sap.com)
6. The Bloggers
   • Jason Busch, founder and managing director of Azul Partners, a marketing consultancy that advises software and services companies, focuses his popular and astute Spend Matters blog (www.spendmatters.com) on all matters related to spend management.
   • David Bush, vice president of business development at on-demand e-sourcing specialist Iasta, offers his daily insights on e-sourcing and procurement best practices at eSourcing Forum (www.esourcingforum.com).
   • John F. Martin, senior vice president of strategy and technology at enterprise services procurement IQNavigator, has spread the word about software-as-a-service (SaaS) technologies on his Building SaaS blog (buildingsaas.typepad.com).
   • Tim Minahan, the widely recognized expert (and former Aberdeen analyst) on spend management and currently senior vice president of marketing at on-demand supply management solutions provider Procuri, now champions the strategic role of the Purchasing function at Supply Excellence (www.supplyexcellence.com).
   • Annrai O’Toole, CEO of technology company Cape Clear Software (www.capeclear.com), has authored a blog called “Clear Thinking” that is regarded as an industry resource that cuts through the clutter running rampant in the service-oriented architecture (SOA) space. More at www.capeclear.com/annrai/.
   • John Radko, chief technology strategist with B2B connectivity and integration specialist GXS, promotes the advancement of B2B integration and supply chain automation on his On-Demand B2B blog (blogs.gxs.com).
   • Dave Stephens, CEO of open source e-procurement solution developer Coupa (and former head of Oracle’s Procurement Applications division), promotes “the power of effective procurement” at Procurement Central (procurement.wordpress.com).
7. Former Practitioners
   • Dave Gleditsch, chief technology officer for Pelion Systems (www.pelionsystems.com)
   • Mary Beth Green, director of account management with advanced sourcing technology provider CombineNet (www.combinenet.com)
   • Richard McCluney, vice president of account operations at E2open (www.e2open.com
   • Robert A. Rudzki, president and CEO of supply management consultancy Greybeard Advisors (www.greybeardadvisors.com)
   • Jim Schoessling, VP of supply chain services with on-demand supply chain management solutions provider Click Commerce (www.clickcommerce.com)
   • Jeffrey Wincel, principal partner with lean supply chain management specialist LSC Consulting Group (www.lscconsultinggroup.com) got firsthand experience managing supply operations for Donnelly Corporation and TRW-Vehicle Safety Systems, among other companies, before moving on to the consulting side. His book Lean Supply Chain Management: A Handbook for Strategic Procurement is considered a groundbreaking work in bringing together lean manufacturing methodologies and supply chain management.
8. Supply Chain Greens
   • Dr. Jack Mason, president and co-founder of EnergyWindow (www.energywindow.com)
   • Dan Sanker, president and CEO of logistics outsourcing services provider CaseStack (www.casestack.com)
   • Mark Wysong, CEO of Dolphin Software (www.dolphinmsds.com)
9. Indirect Spend Gurus
   • Mike Boult, president and CEO of StarCite (www.starcite.com)
   • David Clevenger, vice president with group purchasing organization Corporate United (www.corporateunited.com)
   • Joe D’Andria, senior vice president of operations with NewlineNoosh (www.newlinenoosh.com)
   • Priyan Fernando, executive vice president and chief operating officer at American Express Business Travel (corp.americanexpress.com/gcs/travel/us/default.htm), has helped evangelize the need for Procurement organizations to achieve greater control over, and savings from, all aspects of their travel and entertainment (T&E) spend, including the so-called “long tail” of employee business services. Last year Fernando spearheaded the launch of the American Express Intelligent Online Marketplace (AXIOM), an online corporate travel booking platform.
   • Patrick Grady, founder, chairman and CEO of employee business services procurement platform provider Rearden Commerce (www.reardencommerce.com)
   • Gary Hare, president and CEO of supplier enablement specialist Vinimaya (www.vinimaya.com
   • John Matthews, executive director of indirect procurement services provider DSSI LLC (www.directsourcing.com)
   • Jason Treida, vice president of operations, founder and senior partner with e-sourcing software and services provider Iasta (www.iasta.com)
   • Janet A. Whitcomb, executive vice president at services procurement specialist ProcureStaff (www.procurestaff.com)
10. Public Sector Supply Management Evangelists
    • Tom Jones, senior vice president and general manager of supply chain solutions at Ryder System (www.ryder.com)
    • James Kelly, CEO and managing principal with sourcing and procurement services firm JVKellyGroup (www.jvkg.com)
    • Gary Lambert, vice president of consulting with IT services provider CGI Group (www.cgi.com)
    • Raj Sharma, president of supply management consultancy Censeo Consulting Group (www.censeoconsulting.com)
    • Ben Walker, vice president for strategy and client solutions at ProcureStaff (www.procurestaff.com)
11. Service Supply Chain Gurus
    • Greg Baxter, president and CEO of service parts planning and logistics provider Baxter Planning Systems (www.bybaxter.com)
    • Zack Bergreen, CEO and chairman of Astea International (www.astea.com)
    • Dr. Morris Cohen, founder and chairman of the board at service supply chain specialist MCA Solutions (www.mcasolutions.com)
    • Keith Forshew, General Manager of the Supply Chain Solutions Group at on-demand supply chain management solutions provider Click Commerce (www.clickcommerce.com)
    • William Huyler, president of Servigistics Pricing Services at service parts management solutions provider Servigistics (www.servigistics.com)
    • John Reece, president and CEO of ClearOrbit (www.clearorbit.com)
12. Extended Enterprise Gurus
    • Mike Anguiano, president data solutions for vendor management solution provider CVM Solutions (www.cvmsolutions.com
    • Jim Frome, executive vice president and chief strategy officer for EDI outsourcing specialists SPS Commerce (www.spscommerce.com)
    • Mary Gallagher, VP of global professional services with supplier management and procurement automation company SciQuest (www.sciquest.com)
    • Raj Khoshoo, vice president of strategic initiatives at product lifecycle management solutions provider UGS (www.ugs.com)
    • Michael Lyle, president and CEO of InfinityQS (www.infinityqs.com)
    • Rajan (Raj) Penkar, vice president for global solutions and implementation management at UPS Supply Chain Solutions (www.ups-scs.com
    • John R. Sharman, Jr. , president and CEO of Perfect Commerce (www.perfect.com)
    • John Zepecki, senior vice president of supplier relationship management at enterprise solution provider SAP (www.sap.com)
13. Financial Supply Chain Evangelists
    • Joe Juliano, CEO of PrimeRevenue (www.primerevenue.com), has been a thought-leader in the emerging field of supply chain finance, and he has worked to promote the role of Supply Chain in contributing to the enterprise’s bottom line by helping to remove inefficiencies in financial flows that drive the physical and goods supply chain.
    • John Brockwell, global supply chain practice lead for JPMorgan Chase Vastera (www.vastera.com), believes that companies must work to increase efficiency not only across the physical supply chain but across the financial supply chain as well, integrating the two and ensuring that critical information about the value chain is visible across the enterprise to ensure better decision-making.
    • Tom Glassanos, president and CEO of Xign Corporation (www.xign.com), a provider of electronic invoice and payment solutions for accounts payable and accounts receivable, has worked to educate supply chain executives on how enterprises can turn accounts payable into a profit center for the enterprise, emphasizing that, with the right tools, payables can pay significant dividends and increase working capital.
    • Graham R.F. Napier, president and CEO of global trade management solution provider TradeBeam (www.tradebeam.com), evangelizes the importance of the supply chain in executive management during his regular speaking engagements before industry audiences, and he has pushed executives to focus on the value in concurrent management of the physical and financial supply chains, pointing to the opportunities to integrate these chains to take maximum advantage of global trade.

Wow! Importance of bloggers has also been recognised. Andrew and Sarah has certainly done a marvellous job of putting this list together. What a treasure!

Technorati Tags: Honoring Supply Chain Leaders 2007, supply chain management, procurement, spend management, financial supply chain

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You might question the relevance of this post to EIPP and Start Ups. This without a doubt falls into the category of “anything else of interest”. In fact, this is more of a note to myself than to you, as I use this blog as a reminder of people I met as well as information I want to find easily.

The image below was taken at SAP SAPPHIRE 07 Vienna, and shows the product set of SAP’s Engineering, Construction and Operations (EC&O) Product Map.

On July 1st 2007, Stefan Krauss joined SAP’s Industry Solutions Management for Discrete Industries, as Head of IBU ADMEC (I have no idea what this stands for? Do you? If so, please enlighten me and the readers - no guesses please!) replacing Juergen Weiner who moves to the SME Business Development team (note: For SAP, SME is defined as businesses with revenues below �700m). He will be responsible for the strategic management of product portfolio for A&D, EC&O and IM&C industries from market definition through to production and release. My interest in here is with respect to EC&O as you can gather from the picture above. Stefan will report directly to Kerstin Geiger. Here is some information about Stefan:

Stefan holds a Diploma of Mechanical Engineering and joined SAP in 1990. With more than 17 years experience in various lines of business, Stefan brings a wealth of management, solution and industry experience to the team. As a Project Manager, Stefan was a member of the Automotive development organization in US and Germany. He has also worked several years as a logistic consultant, consulting director and was a founder of CRM consulting in the German subsidiary. In his previous role Stefan led the EMEA Central Solution Sales team as Vice President. He gained international experience through his regional solution sales role and an assignment to SAP’s US Automotive group. Stefan’s long-lasting field background will strengthen the market and customer focus of the IBU. His hobbies are various kinds of sports and most importantly the family.

Bit about Juergen Weiner (very relevant given how SAP defines SME sector) according to Kerstin:

J�rgen was the founder of ADMEC and he brought the three industries together. He drove the synergy between the three industries positioning them on a successful growth path and creating ADMEC visibility across the ISM sectors. He lead the transition from ECO being perceived as a building industry to focus more intensely on manufacturing and also was the founder of the IMC brand. We trust that he will increase the Mid Market market share in his new role and always stay a good friend of Discrete Industries. J�rgen is passionate about motorbike riding and with his new position, maybe it will be even more challenging to spend time riding his motorbike.

Lot of abbreviations here. Anyone out there willing to have a go at explaining what they are?

Technorati Tags: SAP, Stefan Krauss, Kerstin Geiger, Juerhen Weiner, SAP EC&O, SAP Sapphire 07 Vienna

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The prominence of this blog with respect to vendors’ own corporate Web sites for few companies operating in the e-invoicing space can be found in the following table. I also included BASDA

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This is a comment I was going to post on Mike Prosceno’s blog, but decided instead to post it here……

Let’s be honest Mike, 95% (my gut feel) of global businesses do not get web 2.0. Some have never even heard of it. Others think it’s all to do with consumers and not businesses. So, I use you and SAP as a case study when I try to explain to companies why they ought to join the bandwagon. I normally find a way to connect their business with web 2.0 angle. So thank you and SAP for your hard work for creating a great story.

On the other hand, I have been wondering why SAP is involved with social media, a subject I know very little of. My gut feel is that it’s a new trend that SAP does not fully understand. Instead of discarding, SAP has embraced it to learn what it does not know. So here comes Mike and Stacey. As you said, “we?re trying to skate to where the puck will be!”.  

Given that I know nothing about social media, I also use Word Press (started with Blogger then Word Press hosted before this), recently created a profile on Facebook, have been using LinkedIn for number of years and just joined BPX after your suggestion. I cannot find any content on EIPP though. There is few bits of information on SAP Biller Direct.

Whilst you are a Social Media Evangelist, I have recently started to identify myself as an EIPP Evangelist. I actually dislike the word “Evangelist”, but could not think of any other name to highlight my passion, hence starting to use it. We, Brits (I am actually Sri Lankan even though I have lived in the UK for 19 yrs less 3.5 yrs) do not like American acronyms (EIPP being one) or words like “Evangelist” - but as we cannot come up with our own and Americans are so good at it, we nevertheless fully absorb them with bit of winging.

You have raised number of discussion points in your post. Have you ever met Sam Sethi - the man behind Blognation? I highly recommend you meeting him when you are next in the UK. He has so much understanding in this area. During my recent conversation with Sam, he did mention what is after Facebook. Unfortunately, the glass of wine I had has completely erased it from my tiny brain. You might be interested to know David Terrar has joined Blognation as the Editor for UK Enterprise Software. Well done David - especially for your forward thinking and engagement within the software community.

This is the first time I came to know about The SAP Social-Media Global Research Project. What a great idea to do it on-line!

I was discussing the same aspects (web 2.0 and its relevance to businesses) yesterday with two CEOs of medium size UK software vendors. I love to mention their names here, but I do not want other EIPP vendors (Rhys/Ifor - no chance mate! - I picked you guys for a reason) to find out my daily engagements on behalf of Causeway Technologies. Problem with blogging is that sometime what is confidential and what is not become blurry. Over time, I believe you could find a balance, especially if you do not get fired or start to loose assignments. I think, as Evangelists of some sort or other, we have lot more work to do to convince UK businesses of the relevance of web 2.0. With this in mind, I have teamed up with Tony Fisher and Simon Grice of mashup* to hold a web 2.0 event in Manchester in early October 2007. As usual, I expect Sun Microsystems (already committed - thanks Stewart) and perhaps KPMG to support me. My next target is to connect with NWDA. Iain (Bennett), are you listening?

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The next European ExPP Summit will be held on 10th and 11th September in London. According to Bruno Koch who runs the event, solution and service providers attending either as partners and/or exhibitors include:

1. Accountis Europe Ltd - multi-hub solutions with inter-connectivity. DHL is expected help Accountis become a key European supplier.
2. Ariba, Inc - Supplier network hub with 160,000 suppliers providing accounts payable connectivity for large buyers. Good foot hold in Europe in addition to strong US base.
3. ADP - does not seem to be a hub solution.
4. Atos Worldline - Acquisition of Banksys and Bank Card Company (BCC) has given Atos European payment services capability - not a hub solution
5. B2BE - Australian company with growing UK base. Does not seem to be a hub solution - requires client side software installation - perhaps on license basis
6. Basware - Purchase to pay solutions - purchase centric model
7. BizAps - SAP consultancy on purchase to pay solutions
8. Bottomline Technologies - comprehensive solutions provider with strong competency in payments with excellent connectivity to large retail banks including HSBC. EIPP is hotting up - Sprinter from Bottomline Technologies
9. CEGEDIM - A comprehensive solution with origin in the pharmaceutical sector, now handling over 14 million transactions per month.
10. CT TyMetrix - legal e-billing
11. DataCert Europe - legal spend management
12. Data Interconnect - customer-centric model
13. Digital Vision - Kofax based accounts payable automation - A North West company
14. Elemica
15. Ergon Informatik
16. JP Morgan - Now incorporating Xign
17. Influe
18. LogicaCMG - System Integrator combining solutions from providers such as OB10
19. Microgen UK Ltd - B2B and B2E e-billing service - not a hub based solution. Introducing Microgen - eBilling or eInvoicing?
20. OB10 - simple e-invoicing hub going for global dominance
21. ProcServe
22. R&L AG
23. TietoEnator Deutschland GmbH
24. Xyzmo Software GmbH

From UK players, Burns e-Commerce and Causeway Technologies are clearly missing from the confirmed participants.  Minor players, Tradocs and TBiConnect are also missing. There is plenty of time though for others to register for the event, e.g. 170 Systems, AnyDoc, Version One, Esker, etc.

References

• Bruno Koch - the man behind EXPP events

Tags: Accountis, Ariba, ADP, Atos Worldline, B2BE, Basware, BizAps, Bottomline Technologies, CEGEDIM, CT TyMetrix, DataCert Europe, Data Interconnect, Digital Vision, Elemica, Ergon Informatik, JP Morgan, Influe, LogicaCMG, Microgen, OB10, ProcServe, R&L AG, TietoEnator, Xyzmo Software, Causeway Technologies, Burns e-Commerce, Tradocs, TbiConnect, EIPP, e-invoicing, hubs, EDI, payments, XML

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Size is everything until there is a competitor with real disruptive technology, a clear value proposition for any size of business and connectivity up and down the value chain (ebdex wanted to be just that!). Until that occurs, we have three leaders in the making, these being:

1. Ariba
2. Harbar Payments with American Express
3. Xign with JP Morgan

Who will emerge as the undisputed leader within the next three years?

Tags: ebdex, EIPP, Ariba, Xign, JP Morgan, Harbor Payments, American Express

Popularity: 9% [?]

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On 15th May 07, I and other bloggers present had the privileage to drill Amit Chatterjee, SVP for Commercialisation and Governance, Risk and Compliance (GRC). GRC seems to be an emerging theme within SAP whilst it has been part of the expertise provided by some of the Big 4 (and other) accountancy firms for sometime.

L to R: Amit and Axel

According to Amit, part of GRC includes Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), which I came to know whilst undertaking my Executive MBA at Manchester Business School from 2002 to 2004. In 2003, I attended a Business in the Community conference in Manchester, which focussed on CSR. To me, CSR makes good business sense, if used correctly, it can add significant value instead of joining the band wagon, simply because it is a trendy subject. A story I remember very well is how United Utilities (told by then CEO, John Roberts) used CSR to achieve a competitive advantage by filling a skills gap they had at the time. They started training prisoners to became fitters and electricians with the promise of guaranteed employment after they completed their sentences. This ensured a steady stream of skilled labour force that United Utilities could not find from the labour market due to skills shortage and competition. In addition, it removed a burden from the society - stopping newly released prisoners from re-committing offences. A win-win for all those concerned. Another favourite CSR activity is releasing work force for volunteer activities, perhaps 1/2day each quarter. So the question is how can SAP add value? Is it by simply capturing CSR initiatives and then using that data for planning and marketing perspectives? It would be great to get some feedback in this area.

According to Amit, there are more than 1.1 trillian regulations, that makes compliance a nightmare for companies to adhere to. Most companies do not get to hear nor have resources to follow each applicable regulation. Most regulations are adhered due to publicity campaigns. Simply publishing a new regulation and expecting companies to comply does not work. GRC tools should help manage this process. In this situation, how does SAP justify ROI given the intangible nature of the problem addressed?

According to Amit, SAP GRC will be delivered via PWC, Deloitte and Protiviti. SAP GRC will also address carbon offsetting. This bring my mind to a conversation I had at OpenCoffee Manchester 2nd event, setting up a business to track carbon offsetting and related expertise.

Tags: SAP, SAP SAPPHIRE 07 VIENNA, Amit Chatterjee,  Governance, Risk, Compliance, GRC

Popularity: 23% [?]

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SAP’s answer to streamlining invoice processing within an enterprise is SAP Biller Direct application, which seems to be designed for mySAP ERP. It enables an organisation to submit invoices, receive invoices, make payments, manage accounts and settle and reconcile transactions through the web. Not sure whether there is a similar application for SAP R/3. If you know, please let me know.

I split the EIPP market into supplier-centric, buyer-centric, enterprise-centric and exchanges. Whilst exchanges deliver the maximum benefit and best Return on Investment (ROI) opportunities, solutions such as SAP Biller Direct also brings significant benefits to the organisation deploying the application. But it adds another level of complication to the organisations’ trading partners, if they do not have the ability to take SAP format directly into their application.

However, SAP Biller Direct can achieve maximum value when connected with organisation’s trading partners through an exchange, so therefore two solutions complementing each other, as was the case for SFS Services AG implementation (through PayNet).

Tags: SAP, EIPP, e-invoicing, SAP Biller Direct, SFS Services AG,  PayNet

Tags: SAP, SAP Biller Direct, SAP SCFM, EIPP, e-invoicing, e-billing

Popularity: 13% [?]

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Rumour has it that SAP is taking steps to ditch use of Oracle database for IBM’s DB2. The annual cost for use of Oracle database is around $800m, according to Paul Bhuhi, ERP Solutions Director of Computer Sciences Corporation, one of the largest system integrators in the world. Will this inflate the dirty tricks campaign run by Oracle?

Talking to couple of bloggers (DennisH and JamesG), there has been rumours in the past of an alliance with MySQL. If SAP is a listening company and driven by customer requirements, as they claim it, then alienating customers by imposing on a particular database does not sound like the right strategy. Delivery of MySQL on a global basis is also questionable.

Quick googling suggests that this issue was also discussed about a year ago at SAP SAPPHIRE. Statistics suggest that 60% of SAP customers run SAP applications on Oracle databases. Oracle is one of the companies that is exhibiting at SAP SAPPHIRE 07 in Vienna whilst running dirty tricks campaign at the same time.

Tags: Oracle, SAP, SAP SAPPHIRE 07 VIENNA, DB2, IBM, CSC, Computer Sciences Corporation, James Governor, Dennis Howlett,  MySQL

Popularity: 34% [?]

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Here is a list of blog posts from the bloggers sponsored by SAP, attending SAP European annual event in Vienna:

1. David Terrar - Business Two Zero
   • SAP’s mid market strategy with SaaS
   • SAPPHIRE 07 asides
   • SAP’s mid market strategy, A1S and a demo of sorts
   • Kagermann’s keynote - numbers and confidence at the speed of change
   • Austrian hospitality, the B-8 and cultural diversity
   • Heading for Vienna and SAPPHIRE 07
2. Axel Angeli - The Mentors of the Service Oriented Architecture
3. Craig Cmehil - Community Evangelist at SAP AG - Podcasting + live video
   • Looks can be deceiving…
   • Finally arrived…
4. Maggie Fox - Social Media Group
   • Social Media Today Podcast - Sapphire ‘07 Vienna
   • Someone’s been drinking the Kool-AID…
   • Why on earth did SAP invite me to Sapphire?
5. James Governor - MonkChips
   • Henning Kagermann, SAP CEO, meets the bloggers
6. Dennis Howlett - AccMan
   • Kudos to Bruno
   • Oracle’s tastelessness
7. Thomas Otter - Vendorprisey
   • Live blogging Kagermann’s Vienna Sapphire
8. Prashanth Rai - CIO Weblog
   • Innovation Cycle - SAP SME Initiative - Geoffrey Moore Keynote
   • SAP’s SME Portifolio
   • Bloggers meet Henning Kagermann at Vienna
   • Henning Kaggerman Keynote - 1 (SAPPHIRE VIENNA)
   • Bloggers meet up at Sapphire Vienna?
9. Sigurd Rinde - Forthcoming
   • SAP Sapphire short notes #5
   • SAP Sapphire short notes #4
   • SAP Sapphire short notes #3
   • SAP Sapphire short notes #2
   • SAP Sapphire short notes #1
10. Charlie Wood - Moonwatcher
    • More Quotes
    • SAP’s Market Strategy SVP "Religious About SaaS"
    • Quotes from SAPPHIRE
    • Craig Cmehil Gets His T-Shirt Bill
    • On Confidence
    • Dinner with the B-8
    • Made it to Vienna
11. Dale Vile - Freeform Dynamics Blog
12. Manoj Ranaweera - Manoj Ranaweera EIPP Blog - oh that’s me!
    • First Day @ SAP SAPPHIRE 07 VIENNAFirst Day @ SAP SAPPHIRE 07 VIENNA

I will be updating the list as I uncover more stories. Keep tuned!

Tags: SAP, SAP SAPPHIRE 07, Axel Angeli, Craig Cmehil, Maggie Fox, James Governor, Dennis Howlett, Thomas Otter, Prashanth Rai, Sigurd Rinde, David Terrar, Charlie Wood, Dale Vile

Popularity: 21% [?]

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By the time I set foot in the Conference Hall, the show has more or less finished and the last session of the day for bloggers was in full swing with Dennis Moore of SAP Labs. My journey started at 7 am, taxi to airport, Manchester to Charles De Gaule, and from there to Vienna. Then I had the same idea as David Terrar of trying out the public transport. Took CAT (express train from Airport to City Centre) to Wien Mitte, then Underground to Le Meridian, dumped the bag, back in the Underground, this time to Wien Nord, finally tram to Masse, where the Conference Centre was located. All was fine, except the temperature was perhaps twice of Manchester. It took me completely by surprise - bucket load of sweat!

Here are two photos of the last session.

L to R: Charlie, Maggie, DennisM, Craig, Sig and David

DennisM spoke about Twitter, SAP’s Enterprise Search, SOA mashups, widgets, etc etc. But most interesting insight I took away was the cultural difference between Oracle and SAP as he saw it. According to Dennis, Oracle is about:

• Command and control
• Founder still in control
• Centralised control
• Top down control
• Confrontational
• Attack competition

According to DennisM, Sap is about:

• Customer focus - will only deliver if customers demand it
• Board decision is start of the discussion, and not the end of the discussion as in the case of Oracle

L to R: Charlie, Axel, Prashanth, etc listening to Dennis Moore.

I got the feeling that DennisM was not that comfortable talking to bloggers and was in bit of a rush to get away. I did managed to query how SAP views customer pain around document exchange. It was not really Dennis’s forte. I am hoping for a better answer tomorrow.

Tags: SAP SAPPHIRE 07 VIENNA

Popularity: 24% [?]

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For some unknown reason, SAP is sponsoring me to attend their European gig, SAP SAPPHIRE 07 in Vienna from 14th to 16th of May 2007. I am no A-list blogger. In fact, since changing the URL, I have struggled to get into the top 200,000 of the world wide blogs tracked by Technorati.

So why did SAP invite me?

1. Is this because Oracle was a partner of ebdex and SAP was not?
2. Or is it because I registered on SAP enquiring about a possible partnership opportunity?
3. Or is it because I am perhaps the only blogger ranting about e-invoicing, EIPP and document exchanges? There are few well known blogs on sourcing but not on my subject area, as far as I can figure out.

I am chuffed to join a pool of well known bloggers attending this event. Here is the list:

1. Axel Angeli - The Mentors of the Service Oriented Architecture
2. Craig Cmehil - Community Evangelist at SAP AG - Podcasting + live video
3. Maggie Fox - Social Media Group
4. James Governor - MonkChips
5. Dennis Howlett - AccMan
6. Thomas Otter - Vendorprisey
7. Prashanth Rai - CIO Weblog
8. Sigurd Rinde - Forthcoming
9. David Terrar - Business Two Zero
10. Charlie Wood - Moonwatcher
11. Dale Vile - Freeform Dynamics Blog
12. Manoj Ranaweera - Manoj Ranaweera EIPP Blog - oh that’s me!

Now, I must admit, I know Dennis Howlett and David Terrar very well and have met Sig once. Most of the others are new to me. These days, I do not get much time to visit other’s blogs let alone do blogging. I spent most of the time in Bourne End where Causeway Technologies is based at, and the Travel Inn I stays in has no access to the Internet. Nice excuse, hah!

I nicked following links from Craig’s blog. They should help you to track the event.

• SAP SAPPHIRE ‘07 on del.icio.us
• SAP SAPPHIRE ‘07 on Technorati