Even the Cobbler's kids can have shoes
We’ve all heard the anecdote about the Cobbler’s children having no shoes. What is less obvious is that organizations that have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars empowering their employees with technology are still using offensively old technology to integrate their applications and interact with other organizations. Why in this day and age are people still using swivel chair, alt-tab and fax to integrate their supply chain? Ask most organizations with this affliction and they will tell you – they think the cure is worse than the disease. Not to mention, what would all of those MBAs do?
This disease is fatal but easily curable. The evolution of technology and business is pushing towards real time collaboration. Resting on your fax machine might have gotten you where you are, but it won’t take you any further. If you aren’t careful, there is an even bigger issue at play. If you aren’t integrated with your ecosystem, all of the money that has been invested in empowering people stops at the edge of the firewall. What’s the value of a CRM solution if the fax machine is your integration point with your largest customer? What’s the value of an ERP system if customer records aren’t integrated with your call center application limiting your understanding of what your customers have purchased?
We’re at Convergence this week talking to customers and partners from around the world about how they can evolve past the fax machine and swivel chair integration without investing a fortune. There are tons of customers that have made the transition, though a few clearly stand out. AES2 is a great example of a company that has seen the benefits first hand. When deploying technology for running their business, they made sure that their back office applications and their CRM system were well integrated and tied in with their portal solution which made it far easier to manage and monitor their project cycle and added real-time visibility.
For strategic or practical reasons buying, deploying and managing infrastructure software may not be the right approach for some. We forged a relationship with GXS to ensure that customers that wanted a minimal impact, services based offering for B2B could get up and running easily. Canadian General Tower and MW Brands are great examples of customers that have deployed a Dynamics application and are leveraging GXS to integrate with their supply chain.
To check out how organizations of all shapes and sizes have solved their integration challenges, check this out. Enter the Dynamics application that interests you and BTS to see a list of case studies. Neither your fax machine nor your MBAs will take it personally. While you can always wait until tomorrow, there’s never been a better time to take your company to the next level.