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B2B integration is a key channel for eCommerce. One in four B2B transactions start from an eProcurement platform. A 2022 McKinsey article observes how “Once seen as secondary to in-person sales, the e-commerce channel has rocketed to the forefront since 2020.”
Successful B2B eCommerce relies on seamless end-to-end integration, also known as B2B connected commerce, between eCommerce and procurement systems. To a buyer or salesperson, the end-to-end transaction process needs to work as if it is all happening in a single system. TradeCentric delivers this seamless integration across the entire transaction flow.
Integration makes a significant impact on realizing the full potential of B2B eCommerce. Still, a key challenge is scalability and agility during system changes or upgrades.
The challenge of change for B2B eCommerce integrations
If IT platforms were never upgraded, B2B eCommerce integration would be more straightforward. However, businesses and IT must evolve to meet buyers’ digital demands, and change is inevitable. To add to this complex process, each buyer platform will have their own unique system requirements and buying behavior. Mapping out buyer ecosystems is critical to creating a successful integration program.
IT platform providers need to carry out an ongoing cycle of upgrades to add new capabilities, and keep current with customer and technology requirements. Businesses must scale in order to grow.
The challenge for B2B eCommerce and eProcurement integrations is that every change usually requires both platforms to establish a new set of one-to-one connections.
- IT platform upgrades: Many B2B eCommerce businesses are considering or implementing the upgrade from SAP Hybris to SAP Commerce Cloud. Each business may each have dozens of systems integrations to different customer eProcurement platforms. These need to be individually assessed, changed, tested and migrated, making the migration more time consuming and costly at a time when there is always fierce competition over limited capital budgets.
- Scaling the business: The same challenge applies to creating a new B2B relationship. Once a contract is signed, there is always pressure to get transaction flows moving quickly to create value. The time taken to understand how the respective eCommerce and eProcurement platforms work, then to build and test the links between them, can significantly delay this.
How TradeCentric simplifies change
TradeCentric’s Integration Platform as a Service (IPaaS) solution replaces the need to manage multiple one-to-one eCommerce to eProcurement integrations with a single, seamless integration platform.
Our B2B eCommerce ecosystem encompasses in-depth technical expertise, experience and resources, enabling integration of virtually any combination of leading eCommerce and eProcurement systems and languages – efficiently and at scale. By partnering with a third-party expert whose core competency is building, managing and maintaining integrations, organizations can rest assured their connections will remain secure and stable, even during eCommerce platform upgrades or updates.
What next?
TradeCentric connects to 75+ leading eCommerce systems with 150+ leading eProcurement solutions for PunchOut Catalogs, Purchase Order Automation, Invoice Automation, and more. Learn how we can streamline your B2B commerce integrations.
