I definitely think it’s a great sign when the world’s largest eCommerce trade show, Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition (IRCE 2013), dedicates a full session to the “emerging trend” of B2B eCommerce.  For the last couple of years, every time I ventured around the Magento marquis event in Las Vegas, ImagineCommerce, I couldn’t help but feel like an outcast.  It was B2C all day, everyday.  Now that IRCE has a focus on B2B, maybe I can convince my friends at Magento to evolve their agenda as well.

So let’s take a deeper dive into the IRCE B2B agenda.  Read the rest of this entry »

Psssst.

Over here.

I’ve got something for you.

You know you want it.

You’ve been lusting after it for years but were too afraid to do anything about it.  Now’s your chance.  If Pfizer, one of the largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, can do it…you can do it.

Yes, you too can sell direct to consumers over the internet.  So what’s holding you back?

Read the rest of this entry »

You’d think that by the year 2013 the word “Fax” (first related fax patent granted in 1843) would be found on the same page as “typewriter, phone booth, record player and phlogiston “.  But, amazingly so, faxes are still around and are the preferred way to communicate for many of our client’s customers. (I’m trying not to be judgmental here). In fact, one of our friends in the SAP ecosystem, Esker, has built an entire business around helping clients process faxes.  In particular, they enable SAP clients to receive inbound faxed orders and after some very sophisticated optical character scanning and data mapping, can post them directly into SAP.  It’s a great service and provides real value to Customer Service departments in a way that’s totally transparent to their customers.

But I’ve always felt that Esker’s Sales Order Processing Solution only solved half the Order Management problem for our clients.

Read the rest of this entry »

Last week, SAP announced that they are moving all of their products to their in memory database called HANA.  When asked what the significance of this was to business, SAP’s Chairman, Hasso Platner, responded with:

“…Speed, that’s what it means. Over time, this will mean big cost savings for enterprises, because HANA is 10 to 1,000 times faster than regular databases.”.

Well that’s a HUGE WOW for us at b2b2dot0!  We not only applaud Mr. Platner’s dogged determination to make HANA the world’s fastest growing software product, but we can’t wait for everyone who is on SAP’s Business Suite to jump on the bandwagon.

Here is why. Read the rest of this entry »