Companies do business outside of their so-called ‘four walls’. Meaning, they rely on other businesses to accomplish their objective; hence, the importance of business-to-business (B2B) collaboration. Companies source raw materials, semi-finished goods or services from other companies to manufacture products or to deliver services. In turn, they sell those products and services to other businesses, consumers, or patients.
Along the path to a finished product or service, many other organizations are involved — transportation carriers, distributors, banks, agents, insurance providers, purchasing organizations and more. The list is long. Among these organizations, procure-to-pay, order-to-cash, corporate-to-bank and other business processes take place. It’s a complex trading partner ecosystem, one that is always in flux, depending on current market or geopolitical environments.
Supporting all of these business processes, of course, is information. Emails, orders, invoices, ship notices, customs documents, designs, inventory status, pricing, and more. This list is long as well. Information flows are necessary to support business flows, although often the business applications that run these business processes are not optimized for efficient information flow — especially when that information comes from many different types of systems, in different formats, sent by different protocols, and in different media (XML, EDI, paper, fax, email, etc). That is where business networks come in.
Business networks are cloud collaboration platforms that extend business processes and applications with the required information flows to digitize and automate key business processes. Business networks are the fiber that hold the economic tapestry together. A business network may be focused on a specific business process (e-invoicing), on a certain function (indirect procurement), on a specific industry (Automotive), or on a geographic region (EMEA).
Ideally, your business network spans all of the above, delivering flexibility and growth of your digitization efforts into the future, regardless of where they may go — buy-side, sell-side, direct and indirect procurement, multi-industry, and global. Build smarter connections with OpenText™ Business Network.
OpenText Business Network simplifies the inherent complexities in trading partner ecosystems, by providing a single connection that digitizes all information flows, whether they are suppliers, customers, banks or other valued partners — anywhere in the world.
As a result, customer requirements can be complied with, suppliers managed, and organizations can focus on delivering their core business objectives. OpenText Business Network provides a complete portfolio of solutions, including EDI as a service.
Business Network goes beyond information flows to deliver unparalleled opportunity for digital transformation across extended business communities. The OpenText™ Business Network Cloud offers hyper automation, pervasive integration, and deep visibility, enabling leaders in the digital economy to leverage information across their extended ecosystem, incorporating trading partners and business processes.
