Speaker Sees Collaboration Roadblock For B2B Exchanges

Jan. 13, 2005
By Deborah Austin Business-to-business (B2B) commerce can represent a double-edged sword for suppliers, said leaders at an Aug. 22 conference, "B2B: What It Means to Automotive Suppliers." While B2B commerce's benefits are touted, its challenges to ...
ByDeborah Austin Business-to-business (B2B) commerce can represent a double-edged sword for suppliers, said leaders at an Aug. 22 conference, "B2B: What It Means to Automotive Suppliers." While B2B commerce's benefits are touted, its challenges to suppliers have not received as much attention, said Hiren Shah, president of Southfield, Mich.-based B2B-Matrix, a developer and provider of secure collaborative commerce infrastructure. B2B-Matrix hosted the conference with the Engineering Society of Detroit. The challenge lies in collaboration, said Shah. For example, GM uses Unigraphics, Ford Motor Co. uses SDRC, and DaimlerChrysler uses Catia for Engineering Design. Similar issues arise with respect to the differences in production planning and supply-chain collaboration. "Companies participating in an exchange still choose to retain or deploy their own applications for collaboration. Further, there are nearly as many exchanges as there are car companies. This situation takes the incompatibility among the different CAD systems and multiplies it many times over."

Popular Sponsored Recommendations

The Benefits of Continuous Thermal Monitoring

Oct. 17, 2023
Read this eBook to learn more about collecting and using data intelligently to improve performance.

The New Employee Experience Strategy for the Everywhere Workplace

June 14, 2023
HR and Comms leaders are challenged with managing a distributed workforce. Read this ebook for best practices for rebuilding the employee experience and staying connected and ...

Shifting Your Business from Products to Service-Based Business Models: Generating Predictable Revenues

Oct. 27, 2023
Executive summary on a recent IndustryWeek-hosted webinar sponsored by SAP

How Manufacturers Can Optimize Operations with Weather Intelligence

Nov. 2, 2023
The bad news? Severe weather has emerged as one of the biggest threats to continuity and safety in manufacturing. The good news? The intelligence solutions that build weather ...

Voice your opinion!

To join the conversation, and become an exclusive member of IndustryWeek, create an account today!