Strategy 5: Hold Their Hands.
For business partners to completely and whole-heartedly adopt your e-business initiatives, you must assiduously monitor their interactions to see whether they are taking place via phone, fax, e-mail or the Web. If their e-commerce activity seems inconsistent or end users seem uncertain, you need to provide support.
Sigma-Aldrich uses business intelligence software from Cognos to track customers' buying behaviour across channels. If Sigma-Aldrich's implementation manager sees that a customer used the Web to place an order once but then used the phone next time, he'll contact the customer, ask if he is having problems and offer to show him the system again. The Web customer service organisation uses software from Hipbone, to take control of the customer's browser and guide him through the process. Until the customer is fully up and running on Sigma-Aldrich's Web site or Pipeline exchange, the company continually follows up to offer assistance. "We've learned that [adoption] requires this continual loop of reinforcement," says Johnson. But support costs money. Panasonic Industrial's Jeanos carefully determines which partners are worth this effort based on business volumes. Though he hasn't completely sussed out the maths, he believes long-term benefits of e-business outweigh the short-term costs of providing support. "I'm not doing this at a loss. The people who are working on it are supporting other projects. This is above and beyond [their normal responsibilities]," he says.
Jeanos's IT staff helps partners with decisions on potential solutions, testing, coding and formatting data. They also tell them what technical issues they need to consider before they establish the first connection. For example, assessing what mechanisms they will use to transfer data, how they will confirm that the data moves from point A to point B, and what they'll do if the data doesn't make the connection. Panasonic's people provide support remotely, which helps keep costs down.
Reap the Rewards
Most companies are just beginning to get traction with their business partners on their B2B endeavours. But they're starting to see cost reductions and a handful, like Sigma-Aldrich, are witnessing growth in incremental revenue and significant cost savings - to the tune of $US400,000 per month in order-processing costs.
At BorgWarner, the savings are significant enough that "you can see it on the annual report in earnings per share", says Kalina. "It's significant enough that our stockholders can see improvements."
Many B2B recruiters may not be able to show astounding financial results right now, with the US economy in the doldrums, but discussing e-business initiatives and enablement with business partners will prepare them for the turnaround, says Jeanos. "Right now times are bad. But when our customers are ready to begin [e-business] projects, we'll have made it easier for them to do business with us."
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